Call for Abstracts
With ongoing political attention to queer lives around the globe, it is paramount that we continue holding space to discuss the progressive work that is being done among the queer community. In this conference, we hope to celebrate the work being done in the interdisciplinary realm of queer studies, from academia to activism to the arts. We welcome abstracts from all disciplines with any relation to the lives of LGBTQ+ people.
Proposals are welcome from authors inside and outside academia, including teachers, activists, creatives, and community members, as well as undergraduate students and early career researchers. We aim to create a conference that promotes a mix of lived experiences and academic analysis.
Suggested Themes
(if you have anything related to queer studies, but outside of these themes, please send them anyway!)
Interdisciplinarity in queer studies
In creating novel epistemological potentials, queerness is situated to disrupt both traditional practices within academic disciplines and the boundaries between them. By interfering with hegemonic ideas of legitimacy, queerness can act to disturb cisheteronormative conceptions of history, geography, politics, science, and much more. How can creating queer narratives across epistemological borders reinvigorate and release historical archives? What relationships do intersectionally marginalised queer people have with geographies of ethnicity, gender, class, ability and more? By exploring these and other intersections, critical research can gain new insight, and a more vivid and intricate illustration of queerness can be created.
Queerness in the Global South
Queerness in different regions of the world are expressed and experienced in diverse ways. Too often the dominant queer narrative has been focused on the Global North, centred on the experiences in the anglophone world. This is a chance to explore queer experiences in the Global South, marginalised stories from across the world that are either outside of or challenges the traditional narratives in the US/Europe. We can be queer in very different ways. This is a chance to celebrate this diversity and the different social dilemmas LGBTQ+ individuals face in their geographical, historical and cultural context.
Contemporary queer media
From Hollywood cinema to community theatre, from queering the museum to emerging queer musicians, this theme aims to explore the intersection between queer studies and creative methodologies. Considering the diverse and evolving array of modern media showcasing queer stories or platforming queer creators, we invite you to explore this artistic domain, venturing beyond traditional academic boundaries to ponder the illuminating relationship between creative practice and queer experience, including creativity as a means of queer knowledge production or dissemination.
Encourage submissions relating to, but not limited to, these three themes:
- Interdisciplinarity in queer studies
- Queerness in the Global South
- Contemporary queer media
Projected Timeline:
- 8th March 2024: 200-300 word abstracts due via email to cqsconference@gmail.com
- 26th March 2024: Abstract feedback and speaker selection
- 7th April 2024: Ticket sales commence
- 11th May 2024: Conference day
Contact Cambridge Queer Studies Conference 2024 at cqsconference@gmail.com if you would like to discuss your ideas or have any queries.
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