Queering Past and Present
An Interdisciplinary Symposium organized by
Inquiries: Queer Theory at Rice
Saturday, February 26, 2000
Kyle Morrow Room, Fondren Library (3rd floor)
Rice University
Description of the Symposium
Featured Speakers
Symposium Schedule
Acknowledgments
What is Inquiries?
Description of the Symposium
The symposium connects and compares applications of queer theory in medieval and early-modern studies and in scholarship focusing on contemporary contexts. It creates an opportunity for a dialogue between scholars from different fields who share an interest in issues of sexuality, gender, and history. Such a dialogue could contribute to a fuller understanding of temporal changes in categorizing and conceptualizing sexual experience in Western literature and culture. This diachronic approach offers a rather undeveloped and much-needed perspective on recent debates in queer theory involving identity politics, the constructions of the concept of "homosexuality," and theoretical and political values and limitations of currently preeminent ways of conceptualizing same-sex desire.
Featured Speakers
Josiah Blackmore, Professor of Portuguese at the University of Toronto, is the author of articles on Galician-Portuguese topics and authors of the Middle Ages as well as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is also co-editor of Queer Iberia: Sexualities, Cultures, and Crossings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance (1999).
Tim Dean, Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the author of Beyond Sexuality (forthcoming fall 2000), Gary Snyder and the American Unconscious: Inhabiting the Ground (1991), and co-editor of Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis (forthcoming fall 2000).
Karma Lochrie, Professor of English at Indiana University, is the author of Covert Operations: The Medieval Uses of Secrecy (1999), Margery Kempe and Translations of the Flesh (1991), and co-editor of Constructing Medieval Sexuality (1997).
Kath Weston, Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University, is the author of Long, Slow Burn: Sexuality and Social Science (1998), Render Me, Gender Me: Lesbians Talk Sex, Class, Color, Nation, Studmuffins ...(1996), and Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship (1991).
Symposium Schedule
Saturday, February 26, 2000
BUFFET BRUNCH, 11:30 a.m.
WELCOME, 12:00 NOON
Judith Brown, Dean of Humanities
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, 12:05 PM
Colleen Lamos, Professor of English
PANEL 1: "Queering Past," 12:15 - 2:00 PM
Moderator: Rafael M. Merida-Jimenez, Professor of Hispanic Studies
Josiah Blackmore, Professor of Portuguese, University of Toronto, "The Cross-Texters"
Karma Lochrie, Professor of English, Loyola University, "Queer Pastimes"
PANEL 2: "Queering Present," 2:15 - 4:00 PM
Moderator: Colleen Lamos, Professor of English
Queering Past and
Present
An Interdisciplinary Symposium
organized by
Inquiries:
Queer Theory at Rice
Saturday, February 26, 2000
Kyle Morrow Room, Fondren Library (3rd floor)
Rice University
Description of the Symposium
Featured Speakers
Symposium Schedule
Acknowledgments
What is Inquiries?
Description of the Symposium
The symposium connects and compares applications
of queer theory in medieval and early-modern studies and in
scholarship focusing on contemporary contexts. It creates an
opportunity for a dialogue between scholars from different fields who
share an interest in issues of sexuality, gender, and history. Such a
dialogue could contribute to a fuller understanding of temporal
changes in categorizing and conceptualizing sexual experience in
Western literature and culture. This diachronic approach offers a
rather undeveloped and much-needed perspective on recent debates in
queer theory involving identity politics, the constructions of the
concept of "homosexuality," and theoretical and political values and
limitations of currently preeminent ways of conceptualizing same-sex
desire.
Featured Speakers
Josiah Blackmore,
Professor of Portuguese at the University of Toronto, is the author
of articles on Galician-Portuguese topics and authors of the Middle
Ages as well as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He is also
co-editor of Queer Iberia: Sexualities,
Cultures, and Crossings from the Middle Ages to the
Renaissance (1999).
Tim Dean, Professor
of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the
author of Beyond Sexuality (forthcoming fall 2000), Gary
Snyder and the American Unconscious: Inhabiting the Ground
(1991), and co-editor of Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis
(forthcoming fall 2000).
Karma Lochrie,
Professor of English at Indiana University, is the author of
Covert Operations: The Medieval Uses of
Secrecy (1999), Margery Kempe and Translations of the Flesh
(1991), and co-editor of Constructing Medieval Sexuality
(1997).
Kath Weston,
Professor of Anthropology at Arizona State University, is the author
of Long, Slow Burn: Sexuality and Social
Science (1998), Render Me, Gender Me: Lesbians Talk Sex, Class, Color,
Nation, Studmuffins ...(1996), and
Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays,
Kinship (1991).
Symposium Schedule
Saturday, February 26,
2000
BUFFET BRUNCH, 11:30 a.m.
WELCOME, 12:00 NOON
Judith Brown, Dean of Humanities
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, 12:05 PM
Colleen Lamos, Professor of English
PANEL 1: "Queering Past," 12:15 - 2:00 PM
Moderator: Rafael M. Merida-Jimenez, Professor of Hispanic Studies
Josiah Blackmore, Professor of Portuguese, University of Toronto, "The Cross-Texters"
Karma Lochrie, Professor of English, Loyola University, "Queer Pastimes"
PANEL 2: "Queering Present," 2:15 - 4:00 PM
Moderator: Colleen Lamos, Professor of English
Tim Dean, Professor of English, University of Illinois, "Daddy's Boys"
Kath Weston, Professor of Anthropology, Arizona State University, "Unsexed: A Zero Concept for Gender Theory"
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION, "Queer Theory: Past, Present, Future," 4:15 - 6:00 PM
Moderators: Deborah Needleman-Armintor & Dejan Kuzmanovic, graduate students, English
Featuring: Josiah Blackmore, Tim Dean, Karma Lochrie, Kath Weston
Rice roundtable participants:
Jim Faubion,
Professor of Anthropology, Lynne
Huffer, Professor of French Studies,
chuck jackson,
graduate student, English, Colleen
Lamos, Professor of English,
Merritt McAlister, undergraduate student, Rafael
M. Merida-Jimenez, Professor of Hispanic
Studies, Paul Morrison, Visiting Professor of English, Brian Riedel, graduate student,
Anthropology.
The roundtable discussion will address benefits
and problems that come from engaging in queer theory in and across
different disciplinary, historical, and cultural contexts.Topics of
discussion may also include the historical scope of queer theory, the
legacy of Foucault, and the past, present, and future of queer theory
itself. Participants will make connections between approaches and
insight demonstrated in the individual panels and discuss the
implications of their own work on the topic at hand.
Acknowledgments
Inquiries thanks the following Rice sponsors:
School of Humanities, Center for the Study of
Cultures, Medieval Studies Program, Department of Hispanic and
Classical Studies, Department of Anthropology, Feminist Reading
Group, Program for the Study of Women and Gender, Department of
English, Department of History, Department of French
Studies
Thanks to PRIDE, GLBT, everyone on the Inquiries
mailing list, and to all undergraduates, graduate students, and
faculty supportive of queer theory at Rice.
Inquiries: Queer Theory at Rice
Inquiries is an interdisciplinary study group
sponsored by the Rice University Center for the Study of Cultures.
Concentrating on a different theme each year, Inquiries meets
regularly as a reading group to discuss important topics, books, and
articles in queer theory. Inquiries sponsors and co-sponsors talks by
prominent non-Rice speakers, and holds work-in-progress talks by Rice
faculty and graduate students. All Inquiries meetings, talks, and
events are open to the entire Rice community.
To join the Inquiries mailing list, please email Deborah Needleman Armintor (debn@rice.edu) or Dejan Kuzmanovic (dkuzman@rice.edu).
The Inquiries Steering Committee, 1999 - 2000
Professor Colleen Lamos, Department of English, Inquiries Co-director, Spring 2000, lamos@rice.edu
Professor Rafael Jimenez-Merida, Department of Hispanic and Classical Studies, Inquiries Co-director, Fall 1999, merida@rice.edu,
Deborah Needleman Armintor, graduate student, Department of Englishdebn@rice.edu
Dejan Kuzmanovic, graduate student, Department of English,dkuzman@rice.edu,
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