cfp.english.upenn.edu

The Queer Studies Coalition at Stanford University announces

Queer Horizons
Undergraduate Queer Studies Conference

Queer studies has remained an innovative field of study since its emergence from lesbian and gay studies, continuously re-conceptualizing its focus. What, then, lies in the future for queer studies? Queer Horizons, the first undergraduate queer studies conference, will gather students interested in the field of queer studies to imagine possible queer futures and understand their connections with the past. What have we learned from queer history, and how can we, as the next generation of scholars and activists, use that knowledge to contribute to future knowledge and praxis? Given the surge in recent scholarship concerned with queer futurity, how do we think about the future of queer politics and activism as well as the future of queer scholarship—what roles do we play in that process of envisioning the future? What lies on the horizon for LGBTQ communities, activists, and scholars?

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:
• Queer/trans utopias and dystopias
• Queer history, our understanding thereof, and its implications
• Queer Afro-futurism
• The future of LGBTQ social movements
• The globalization of queer identities
• Possibilities for new directions of Queer Studies in academia
• Shifting gender identities/gender relations
• Potential collaborations and conflicts among gender, sexuality, and science
• New directions for queer politics
• Transnationalizing queer studies, queer identities
• Changing queer family structures

For individual submissions, please submit a paper abstract (250 words maximum). For full panel submissions, please submit individual paper abstracts (250 words maximum) and one paragraph-length panel description. Artistic submissions of all media and forms are welcome; for creative works, please submit a short description along with a paragraph situating the context of the piece as it applies to the conference theme. For all submissions, please include a note indicating if audiovisual equipment is required. While this is an undergraduate-focused conference, submissions from graduate students will also be considered.

Send submissions to: queer.horizons@gmail.com

Abstract Deadline: January 15, 2011, by midnight.
Conference will be held on Saturday, April 30, 2011 at Stanford University