cfp.english.upenn.edu

CALL FOR PAPERS for the 8th Annual Cultural Studies Association Conference at Berkeley, California

CONFERENCE DATES: March 18th-20th 2010

PANEL TOPIC: Representations of Domesticity and LGBTQ Life

PANEL DESCRIPTION: In light of recent advances and setbacks in the struggle for marriage equality, numerous debates have surfaced concerning how lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people experience their daily lives in domestic contexts. The terminology of marriage equality may be ostensibly new to some, but the idea of queers living together under one roof is by no means a novel domestic arrangement. For instance, James Baldwin's celebrated text, Giovanni's Room, brought to the fore new questions about how cultural production represents queer people as living together. Likewise, the concept of domesticity itself demands considerable scrutiny in light of innovative research, such as Amy Kaplan's The Anarchy of Empire in the Making of U.S. Culture and Rosemary Marangoly George's The Politics of Home. To make sense of these phenomena, this panel session will examine how representations of domesticity and queer life are depicted in cultural production, such as film, literature and media. In particular, this panel aims to consider how notions of culture, geography, nation and race play pivotal roles in the making of queer domesticity. If you are interested in being a part of this panel, please send a 500 word abstract to Ed Chamberlain at - edachamb@indiana.edu by Thursday, September 3rd. Please send abstracts in the form of Word document attachments.

Thank you,

Ed Chamberlain
Department of Comparative Literature
American Studies Program
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405