A Two-Day International Conference on

Beyond Binaries: Interrogating the Multiplicity of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Society

21st and 22nd January, 2026

Organized by

Centre for Gender Studies

And

Department of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies

Swami Vivekananda University

Concept Note:

We are living in a moment when the old anchoring structures of identity seem increasingly porous. Whereas sex and sexuality had been framed as stable, oppositional categories, they now show themselves to be dynamic and shifting terrains shaped by history, desire, technology, and power. The increasing visibility of queer, trans, intersex, and non-binary lives unsettles long-held assumptions, forcing institutions, communities, and scholarship to confront questions that are as political as they are personal. Judith Butler’s insight that gender is “a stylized repetition of acts” continues to resonate, reminding us that identities are not givens but ongoing negotiations.

"Beyond Binaries: Interrogating the Multiplicity of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Society" extends this expanding intellectual and social vista. The international conference imagines gender not as a closed system but as an unfolding field of practice characterized by plurality, tension, creativity, and struggle. Where binaries continue to govern many laws, cultural mores, and political discourses, lived experiences consistently overflow these frames. New solidarities materialize across movements; digital spaces amplify both liberation and harm; ecological crises disproportionately afflict gendered bodies; and cultural production reimagines possibilities of selfhood.

The conference invites critical, intersectional, interdisciplinary engagements on how people navigate, resist, and reshape these shifting terrains. It hopes to bring into conversation scholars, activists, artists, writers, and practitioners whose work investigates the intersections of gender and sexuality with caste, race, class, indigeneity, disability, technology, labour, and environment. By tracing both long histories and present urgencies, the event sets out to open conversations that imagine futures where multiplicity is acknowledged without flattening difference.

The aim is to nurture a space within which thought can be rigorous without being exclusionary; global and local contexts inform one another, and participants can rethink not only what gender means but how its meanings continue to evolve.

Suggestive subthemes include, but are not limited to, the following

• Gender performativity, embodiment, and lived experience
• Queer, trans, and non-binary trajectories and politics
• Intersectionality: caste, race, class, indigeneity, disability
• Contemporary masculinities and their reconfigurations
• Law, citizenship, governance, and the politics of recognition
• Gender in digital cultures, algorithms, gaming, and online communities
• Ecologies, environment, climate justice, and gendered precarity
• Literature, cinema, and visual cultures of gender and sexuality
• Archives, memory, oral histories, and queer temporalities

We are inviting abstracts of not more than 250 words to be sent via mail along with a short bionote.

To send your abstract and for other queries, please feel free to mail at: cgs.svu@svu.ac.in

Abstract submission deadline: 28th December, 2025

Intimation regarding abstract selection: 4th January, 2026

Full paper submission deadline: 18th January, 2026

Details regarding the registration process will be shared with the selected presenters.

The Conference shall be held in hybrid mode (both offline and online).

Offline Presenters shall be provided with Conference Kit, Breakfast and Lunch for the two days of the conference. No TA/DA/Accomodation shall be provided for the participants.

Registration fees for Online Participants (PG Students, Independent Researchers, Research Scholars, Faculty Members): INR 500

Registration fees for Offline Participants (PG Students, Independent Researchers, Research Scholars, Faculty Members): INR 2000

Venue: Telinipara, Barasat - Barrackpore Rd, Bara Kanthalia, West Bengal - 700121.