Queer Theory Workshop

The Queer Theory Workshop at Columbia Law School together with the Institute for Research on Women and Gender ran a workshop/lecture series in the spring of 2011 reflecting on the current state of Queer Theory. Queer Theory emerged as a way of thinking about the social and cultural condition that cut diagonally across Feminist, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Studies, which quickly proliferated into a series of theoretically and disciplinarily inflected approaches. This lecture series asks what conceptual, topical, and rhetorical forms have emerged over the last decade--and why these? What is the history of present *queer* approaches to social, political and cultural life, and what might be their legacies? We are particularly interested in reflections on Queer Theory's contemporary focus on affect, friendship, intimacy, and kinship and the rhetorical forms these seem to demand or solicit, particularly in light of the prominence of marriage debates in the West, the emergence of Islamaphobia in the North, and portraits of sexual colonialism in the South.

For videos from the workshop, please visit our iTunesU page.

For a round-up of the workshop, "Queer Morphologies: A Workshop Pushing the Boundaries of Queer Theory" please visit Feminist News, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender’s biannual newsletter below.

SPRING 2011 SCHEDULE
 
January 25 - Kevin Ohi, English, Boston College - "‘My Spirit’s Posthumeity’ and the Sleeper’s Outflung Hand: Queer Transmission in Absalom, Absalom"
Commentator: Katherine Biers, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
   
February 8 - Heather Love, English, University of Pennsylvania - "Underdogs: On the Minor in Queer Theory"
Heather Love's paper is available here.
Commentator: Marcellus Blount, English and Comparative Literature Columbia University
   
February 22 - Libby Adler, Law, Northeastern University - "Just The Facts: The Perils of Expert Testimony in Gay Rights Litigation"
Libby Adler's paper is available here.
Commentator: Ilan Meyer, Public Health, Columbia University
 
March 8 - Joseph Fischel, Political Science, University of Chicago - "Transcendent Homosexuals and Dangerous Sex Offenders: Sexual Harm and Freedom in the Judicial Imaginary"
Joseph Fischel's paper is available here.
Commentator: Rebecca Jordan-Young, Women's Studies, Barnard
   
March 29 - David Halperin, English, University of Michigan - "Why Are the Drag Queens Laughing"
Commentator: Elizabeth Emens, Law, Columbia University
   
April 12 - Kathryn Stockton, English, University of Utah - "Queer Theory, Queer Children, and Kid Orientalism: The Sexual Child in a Racialized World"
Kathryn Stockton's paper is available here.
Commentator: Julie Crawford, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University