QUEER SCREENS CONFERENCE 2017

September 2nd and 3rd 2017

The Institute of the Humanities and the Gendered Subjects Research Group at Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Keynote speaker: Prof. Jack Halberstam (Columbia University)

We seek to tackle diverse aspects of queer representation, and question the extent to which the new influx of queer on-screen visibility works at once both to liberate and obfuscate certain queer identities and cultures. How, for example, should we perceive representations of the legalization of gay marriage in numerous countries, while taking into account that these changes in law also mark the entrance of queer individuals into reproductive and familial time? In England and Wales, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalized private homosexual acts between male individuals aged 21 or over. As such, this anniversary comes at what is arguably a troubling time; one where right-wing nationalism spreads across the US and Europe and ‘homonationalism’ (Puar, 2007) allows for the appropriation of queer and feminist discourses so as to legitimize xenophobia and contemporary colonialism.

Further information available here: https://queerscreens2017.wixsite.com/conference