American UniversityAnthropology Department Lavender Language and Linguistics Conference title and montage

Sessions under Development

Sessions under development for Lav Lgs XVII:


Note: info about the "Data Session for New Lav Langs Researchers" with
Lucy Jones and Stephen L. Mann is now located at:
Special Events: 2010 ConferenceWorkshops

  

 

Call for Papers: Homophobic Discourses & Texts

This will be the fifth year in which papers examining the construction of homophobic messages in discourses and texts have been included on the Lav Lgs conference  program. Papers in previous years have examined homophobic themes in such discursive and textual formats as: ASL practices, international and North American politics, personal narratives of “queer bashing,” conservative Christian websites, and documents from the “ex-gay” ministries. This year, we invite papers that will extend the range of previous discussions, into such domains as:

  • global queers/global homophobias
  • race & homophobic discourse
  • homophobic religious discourses (conservative Christian and other religious discourses)
  • homophobic messages in economic discourses
  • homophobic discourses in media
  • homophobia in feminist/gender theory
  • structure/theory of homophobic discourse/text
  • anti-homophobic discourses

Contact:
David Peterson (U Nebraska at Omaha)
davidpeterso1@mail.unomaha.edu)

Fred Fejes (Florida Atlantic University)
fejes@fau.edu

  

 

Call for Papers: Sexual Identities and
Boundary Management in Discourse and Language

Although performative theories of identity have encouraged academics to dispense with essentialist notions of sexuality, research "on the ground" continues to suggest the prevalence and importance of shared self-definition amongst groups or communities of practice. Discourse—category terms, metaphor, evaluation, interaction and so on—is the primary means by which we can set out who "we" are, who "they" are, and appraise the properties of those groups and members of them.

This session invites papers dealing with the linguistic/discursive production of "us" and "them," such as the construction and/or management of boundaries, the positioning of (in)authentic identities, the creation of context-specific, legitimate roles, and so on. We welcome research from a variety of disciplines and locations (based on face-to-face or virtual interaction, media, public or other discourses) which engages with these processes in relation to sexual identities.

Contact:
Lucy Jones (Edge Hill University, UK)
lucy.jones@edgehill.ac.uk

Georgina Turner (Loughborough University, UK )
g.turner2@lboro.ac.uk

  

 

Global Cinema, Queer Displacement

This panel invites papers that explore the “globalization” of same-sex desires, erotics, and identities in contemporary queer cinema. Some of the questions we hope to consider include: How do these films challenge not just sexual normativity across cultures, but defy other social and political phenomena such as neo-imperialism, nationalisms, neo-liberal economics, colonialism, and globalization? What is the relationship between home and abroad for the queer filmmaker? How does a film’s reception change from local audience to international audience? How is the global queer Diaspora represented in film? How is race and ethnicity reflected in global queer cinema? How are local histories reflected and/or changed in this international cinema? How do US filmmakers respond to queer globalization and diasporas and how do their international counterparts rework those responses? What local/global stereotypes are perpetuated in queer cinema? How do queer porn films trade on these same economies of desire and imagination?

Contact: Michael J. Horswell (Florida Atlantic U) mhorswell@fau.edu

 

 

 

Homophobic Discourses in Education

Following the publication of the Stonewall report (2007) on homophobia in UK schools, there has been a growing recognition both in the UK and internationally that homophobia is prevalent in all aspects of schooling, and that equality and diversity issues around sexuality have not been addressed as directly as those around other types of discrimination such as racism. This is a cause of great concern in terms of the mental health of children and young people who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, or who are questioning their sexuality. The aim of this panel is to investigate the specific nature of such discourses and how they circulate around various aspects of schooling. We welcome papers which focus on any aspect of schooling (e.g. bullying, curriculum and teaching, school policies, pupils’ attainment, resources for pupils). Specific questions which may be considered through the panel include:

  • What kinds of homophobic discourses exist in school environments?
  • How are homophobic discourses enacted and circulated in school environments?
  • What contexts affect the circulation and reinforcement of homophobic discourses (e.g. type of school)?
  • What, if anything, is being done to challenge homophobic discourses in schools?

However, we welcome papers which might address other questions and issues around homophobia and schooling.

Closing date for submission of abstracts: 1 October 2009

Contact: Helen Sauntson (U Birmingham) h.v.sauntson@bham.ac.uk

 

 

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Identity & Voice: Locating the Lavender in Composition & Rhetorical Studies

This session seeks presentations that examine any aspect of the writing, re-writing, teaching writing, storytelling, and even performance processes through a lens that considers the significance of queer identities and voices. For example, in her essay "Who Am I?: Finding Identity & Voice in Composition", author Beverly Faryna explores her struggle as a student writer in search of her authentic voice: Considering the session topic, what is an authentic expression of queer voice? In what ways do queer voices emerge from, are substantiated by, or are perhaps absent from composition and rhetoric as disciplines or from the writing itself? How is queer sexuality read? What has been the significance of composition when considering the evolution of queer identity and vice versa? In short, this session asks "What's queer about composition and rhetoric?"

Contact: Marlen Elliot Harrison (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) m.e.harrison@iup.edu

 

 

 

Language & Intimate Sexual Spaces in
French & North-African Culture(s)

Post-colonial homosexualities have not figured prominently in recent scholarship on globalization, language, and sexual citizenship in France or in Francophone North Africa. Furthermore, over the last decade, the popular press in France and other French-speaking countries has included testimonies of gay men and lesbians of Maghrebi (North-African) origin however, these media images have tended to perpetuate a stereotype of individuals who are doubly marginalized in their families of origin and in an '"magined" Westernized gay community at large.

Papers in this session will examine the discourses related to 'intimate' citizenship among Maghrebi-French and North-African French speakers in both online and real-life spaces. Papers are encouraged on language-related issues from scholars in a variety of disciplines and authors are encouraged to present ethnographic fieldwork that engages a discussion of private sexual issues in public and/or virtual spaces. We would especially be keen to include papers that explore issues of sexual selfhood, and sexual desire as they emerge in a "third space" (Bhabha) such as In in forums, blogs, and websites. The panel aims to debunk media stereotypes related to the sexualities of Maghrebi-French men and women who live their lives at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, and often who seek the expression of a sexual selfhood with the help of the latest communication technologies.

Contact: Denis M. Provencher (U Maryland Baltimore County)
provench@umbc.edu

 

 

 

 

Language, Style, & Practice in Lesbian
Communities & Cultures

This session invites papers dealing with research and theory concerning the representation or construction of lesbian identity, style and practice from a broadly sociocultural linguistic perspective. Areas of interest could include: the representation of identity categories (such as butch/femme/boi) in discourse, including recorded interaction, fiction, or media; sociolinguistic constructions of identity amongst lesbian speakers; the reproduction or rejection of stereotypes regarding lesbian women through discourse; trends of linguistic production/recognition of lesbian style in speech; issues of transgender lesbian identity. Research located in a variety of cultures and geographic locations would be welcomed.

Contact: Lucy Jones (Edge Hill University) lucy.jones@edgehill.ac.uk

 

 

 

Lavender Language in the Neoliberal Moment

Papers in this session continue last year’s exploratory discussion of this theme, by tracing ways in which the cultural practice of late modernity is reshaping the functions and significance of “language” in lgbtq people’s lives. Paper might consider, e.g. the emergence of neoliberal-based gay varieties or registers, new technologies that reposition linguistic queerness in public/private domains, or the effects that the new, transnational discourses of “liberation” are having on local language of sexual sameness, if such language exist prior to such circulation.

Contact:
Michelle Marzullo (American U)
marzullo@american.edu

Bill Leap (American U)
wlm@american.edu

 

 

 

Learning to Speak Queer:
Rethinking Lavender Language Socialization

This panel examines issues of LGBTQ language acquisition and socialization. How, where, and when does socialization take place? And socialization into what? In what ways do constraints frame and constrain the socialization process for LGBTQ subjects? How and when are such constraints overcome? How do socialization experiences differ for the L, the G, the B, the T, and the Q? Do our straight allies also go through an LGBTQ-like language socialization? How do other social variables (e.g., race, ethnicity, class, age) shape the language socialization process?

Contact: Stephen L. Mann (U South Carolina) mannsl@mailbox.sc.edu

 

 

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Queer Embodiments

This panel invites participants to explore and discuss queer and subversive embodiments and performances in local, national and transnational settings as well as the imagination of the deviant in its historical contexts. Some of the areas we hope to address are the representation and self-representation of transgendered bodies, the usurpation of traditionally heteronormative sites of embodiments (such as diet-websites, cookbooks, health and beauty guides) for the construction of homosexual bodies and the imagination of artificial bodies such as robots and cyborgs.

Contact:
Despina Kakoudaki (American U) kakoudak@american.edu
Katharina Vester (American U) vester@american.edu

  

 

 

How "Normal" Bodies Are Made "Pathological" & How "Abnormal" Practices Are Made Natural: Diagnosing Gender Transgressing Bodies & Eroticizing Incestual Practices

This session seeks to unpack complicated linguistic dimensions of pathologization and normalization, attending to how politics, capital and social inequalities coalesce to provide the discursive climate wherein the ‘wrong’ can be made ‘right.’  Papers in thuis session will include: how an emerging category of ‘transgender children’ articulates with dual legitimating/pathologizing trans discourses, how different geographic locations of trans normalization (the medical clinic, the support group) can constitute both spaces of violence and political action, and how, in the context of gay sexual cinema, the deployment of ‘transsexual’/ ‘transgender’ contrast with processes of normalization that are erotically sanctionable by phrases like "twink" and "hot." Utilizing various milieu of linguistic practice (e.g., language deployed in the evaluation and counseling of trans youth, trans narratives of space and place and textual evaluations of erotic practice in film), we bring to the forefront the primarily stakeholders in these processes, and how this investment serves to destabilize or stabilize hegemonic discourses. Other papers, utilizing other forms of discusrive practices, are welcome.

Contact: Elijah Edelman (American U) elijah.edelman@american.edu

  

 

 

Visualizing Homo-Normativity: Exposing the Regulatory Language of Homo-Erotic Cinema

Papers are invited for a session that examines the construction of sexual messages in homo-erotic cinema. Some papers may want to address the presence of misogynist themes in these films, and discuss their varied treatments of racial, ethnic and class distinctions. But, as a broader goal, papers in this session should consider the forms of (homo)sexual citizenship that are validated through these film’s displays of erotic practice and partnering. That is, while it is important to demonstrate how homo-erotic cinema demeans “the other,” it is also important to show how homoerotic cinema helps “gay stay white” and about “the kind of white it stays” (in Alan Berubé’s phrasing.)  The visual and verbal language employed in homoerotic cinema is a key resource to that end.

Especially valuable for this session will be papers that consider homo-erotic cinema produced by women and for women, by and homo-erotic cinema produced by and for constituencies of color. Papers that examine the articulation transgender subjects and sexualities within the regulatory terrain of homo-erotic cinema are also welcomed in this session.

Contact: William Leap (American U) wlm@american.edu

 

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