The DC Queer Studies Symposium

A Two-Day Conference at the University of Maryland

April 17-18, 2009, College Park, MD

Free and open to the public

DC Queer Studies is a group of faculty from schools in the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area formed in 2006 to discuss new works in the field and to exchange, support, and cultivate new ways of engaging with LGBT/Queer/Sexuality Studies across the disciplines and across institutions. Last year’s symposium was the first public scholarly event organized by the group. Building on that inaugural success, the 2009 symposium offers a full two-day program that showcases the work of faculty and graduate students who are helping to make the national-capital area a leader in interdisciplinary sexuality studies.

Please join us for what promises to be a lively spring festival of scholarly exchange in an interdiscipline that continues to challenge and transform the humanities, the social and behavioral sciences, and the world in which we live.

Friday, April 17 offers presentations by graduate students from area schools, a reading by Washington-area poets Regie Cabico, Reginald Harris, Richard McCann, and a keynote address by Judith Halberstam, professor of English and gender studies at the University of Southern California and author, most recently, of In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives (2005). Saturday, April 18 features a full day of papers by faculty from area universities as well as discussion and socializing. The symposium is free and will include a reception on Friday as well as continental breakfast, lunch, and an off-campus dinner/reception on Saturday.

We invite you to join us for any or all of the two day's events. Due to limitations on space on Saturday, however, we ask that you register in advance for that day only. Since we hope to create a seminar-type atmosphere for Saturday’s sessions, we also hope that you will be able to stay with us for the entire day, though we understand that may not be possible in every case. If you would like to attend on Saturday, please fill out a preregistration form (click here to access the form) and return it by e-mail to
lgbts-dcqueers@umd.edu or by fax to 301.314.2529. We will contact you if Saturday fills up and we are unable to honor your registration request. If you have preregistered for Saturday and will not be able to attend, please let us know so that we can offer your space to someone else.

EVENT COORDINATION
Marilee Lindemann, University of Maryland, with the assistance of Damion Clark and Maren Cummings, graduate assistants to the LGBT Studies Program, University of Maryland. Special thanks to Julie Enszer, Women’s Studies, University of Maryland, for organizing Queer Writers Read.

SYMPOSIUM PLANNING COMMITTEE
Mandy Berry, American University; Christina Hanhardt, University of Maryland; Dana Luciano, Georgetown University; Robert McRuer, George Washington University; Samantha Pinto, Georgetown University

SPONSORS

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
The Comparative Literature Program, the Departments of American Studies, English, and Women’s Studies, the Nathan and Jeanette Miller Center for Historical Studies in the Department of History, the LGBT Studies Program, and the Office of Undergraduate Studies

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
College of Arts and Sciences

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Department of English, Graduate School

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Departments of American Studies and English, University Writing Program

Preregistration form for Saturday, April 18 is available here.