Intersections: An Inaugural Black Queer Sexuality Studies Graduate Student Conference

Keynote Address: Professor Kara Keeling, University of Southern California
Location: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Date: October 20, 2012

Princeton University’s first annual Black Queer Sexuality Studies Conference will be held on October 20, 2012. The conference will create a public forum for dialogue on innovative research across the many disciplines and fields that interrogate sites of blackness and queerness and the intersections between the two. We invite graduate students from within and outside of Princeton University to present original work in a multi-panel, one-day conference. Professor Kara Keeling (USC) will serve as our keynote speaker.

The inaugural theme, “Intersections,” aims to illumine the interdisciplinary work characteristic of black queer sexuality studies. In the seminal anthology, Black Queer Studies, E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson introduce the field and the volume with a host of claims about how to embrace the intersectionality at its core: “[work in the field should] endorse the double cross of affirming the inclusivity mobilized under the sign of ‘queer’ while claiming the racial, historical and cultural specificity attached to the marker black.” Johnson and Henderson sought to open up space for academic inquiry that married the methodologies and activist impulses of black studies and queer studies in order to finally animate the study of a number of traditional disciplines. Honoring the crucial work of pioneering scholars of black queer studies, our conference seeks to foster dialogue between emerging scholars whose work engages both black and queer studies.

Co-sponsored by The Center for African American Studies, The Program in American Studies, The Graduate School of Princeton University, The Department of History, The Davis Center for Historical Studies, The University Center for Human Values, and the Lewis Center for the Arts.
PLEASE BE SURE TO REGISTER AT : HTTP://BQSGRADUATECONFERENCE.EVENTBRITE.COM