SAGER SYMPOSIUM 2008

The Boundaries of Queer
March 28-29
Swarthmore College
Official Site

This year’s theme is The Boundaries of Queer. Currently the predominant LGBTQ movement in the United States presents their issues in terms of a gay/straight dichotomy. We respond: “What happened to queer?” As academic communities and radical social movements increasingly embrace the word “queer” over gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, we must interrogate the contours of such an identity – the boundaries of queer. Is queer defined by whom we desire or how we desire? To what extent does the word queer derive meaning from the context in which it is articulated? What are the advantages/disadvantages of identifying as queer or gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender? Does queer encompass issues outside of sexuality and gender, such as race, class, religion? On the 20th Anniversary of the Sager Symposium at Swarthmore we ask what informs a community or individual’s choice in terms of self-identification. As we critically examine the language that defines our communities, we address the insights that arise through the process of identification and how the terms we use to express identities contribute to social change.

Schedule:

Friday, March 284:30pm – Kate Bornstein workshop: “The Gender-Free Orgasm”7:00pm – Heather K. Love (Admissions Commons, Parrish Hall), “Giant Steps? ‘Queer’ and its Discontents”

9:00pm – Kate Bornstein performance: “Kate Bornstein: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us”

Saturday, March 29

11:00am – Breakfast (Kohlberg Coffee Bar, Kohlberg Hall)

12:00pm – Kenyon Farrow (Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall), “Dancing with Death: Black Queer Identities and Popular Music in the age of HIV/AIDS.”

1:30pm – Gayatri Gopinath (Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall), “Queer Diasporas”

BREAK

3:00pm – Lazaro Lima & Nicole Lopez (Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall), “Trans Nation: Queer States of Pleasure and the Boundaries of Democracy”

4:30pm – excerpts from “Strange Rain” performance by Marian Yalini Thambynayagam & Varuni Tiruchelvam

5:30pm – Sager Symposium Banquet (Tarble in Clothier – Upper Tarble)
The dinner is free and open to symposium participants and the Swarthmore community at large. Please RSVP to sager@swarthmore.edu

10pm – 2 am, Genderfuck Party: “Sex Through the Ages” (Olde Club, Women’s Resource Center, and Delta Upsilon Lodge)