Queer Minicon Keynote Address

Queer Minicon

Join us for this year’s Queer MiniCon centering themes of futurity and resilience in times of crisis.

This year’s Queer MiniCon will be a one-day virtual conference showcasing outstanding UNC undergraduate and graduate research in queer studies during the afternoon of April 8th. It will consist of two panels and a keynote address.

Our Keynote speaker is Dr. Eddy Alvarez: “Sequined Routes and Movements: Queer and Trans Latinx Pasts and Futures”

Merging scholarly research, creative nonfiction, performance and reflection, this presentation is an offering to queer and trans Latinx lives and memories. Drawing on personal and collective memories and histories, physical and ephemeral archives, and analysis of popular culture and aesthetic, this talk maps and honors multiple and intertwining routes, journeys, and movimientos taken by families, activists, artists, scholars, healers, and more, as they “find sequins in the rubble” while imagining different pasts and futures.

BIO: Dr. Alvarez Jr. is a first-generation college student and a former elementary school teacher. An interdisciplinary scholar, he obtained an B.A. and M.A. in Spanish from California State University, Northridge, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Chicana and Chicano Studies from University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests include Chicanx and Latinx aesthetics, performance, and popular culture, Queer oral histories, Los Angeles queer Latinx histories, Queer of color theories, Jotería Studies, Jotería pedagogies, Queer Space, Feminist geographies, Sound Studies, and Critical Fat Studies. His academic and creative work has been published in Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Revista Bilingüe/Bilingual Review, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Journal of Lesbian Studies, Journal of Popular Music Studies, and Sounding Out! The Sound Studies Blog. He is one of the co-editors of Transmovimientos: Latinx Queer Migrations, Bodies, and Spaces published in 2021.  Currently, he is working on a book manuscript titled Finding Sequins in the Rubble: Memory, Space and Aesthetics in Queer Latinx Los Angeles, an oral history and archival project which maps physical and ephemeral sites of memory and quotidian moments of pleasure and resistance for queer and trans Chicanx and Latinx communities in LA. He is also working on a book of essays and poems about growing up queer in a Cuban and Mexican family in the San Fernando Valley. Prior to joining CSU Fullerton, he held a joint appointment in the Departments of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and University Studies at Portland State University. Before his time in Portland, he taught in the department of Africana and Latino Studies at State University of New York, Oneonta. A founding member of the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism, and Scholarship, he has served on the board of the organization as Co-chair elect, Co-chair, and Ex-officio Co-chair, and co-coordinated the 2019 biennial national conference at Portland State University. He is a 2021 New Leadership Academy Faculty Fellow, a 2020 Faculty Fellow for the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, and Honor 41, an LGBTQ Latinx organization, named him one of The 41 List 2019-2020 Honorees, highlighting him as a Latinx LGBTQ role model.

Queer Minicon 2022 Presenters

Queer Minicon, 2022

April 8 @ 1:30 pm – 7:00 pm

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Join us for this year’s Queer MiniCon centering themes of futurity and resilience in times of crisis.

This year’s Queer MiniCon will be a one-day virtual conference showcasing outstanding UNC undergraduate and graduate research in queer studies during the afternoon of April 8th. It will consist of two panels and a keynote address.

PANELS & PRESENTERS

Visual Culture and Political Resistance: 1:30-3:00 pm 

Li-Anne Wright: “Intimacy, Internet, and Imagination: Community Through a Pandemic Zine”

Li-Anne is a senior majoring in American studies and English literature at UNC Chapel Hill. They are currently interested in histories of queer Asian American activism and the convergence of queer and Asian American identity as understood through underground methods of cultural production.

Ashton Thorne: “This is for the Outcasts: Queercore’s Trans History & Potential for Trans Liberation”

Ashton Thorne (he/they) is a queer undergraduate student in psychology and philosophy. They are especially interested in queer and trans studies as they relate to subculture, radical politics, and disability justice

Meleena Gil: “Queering the Undocuqueer: Sheila Ortiz Taylor’s Coachella” 

Meleena (they/she) is a PhD student and teaching fellow in the department of English and Comparative Literature also earning a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies. Meleena’s research focuses on contemporary LatinX literature and cultural production, queer theory, and the environmental humanities. They are interested in botanical epistemologies, alternative kinships, and futurity.

Victoria Neff: “Lesbian Photography and Ephemera: Documenting Queer Lives as Evidence of Resistance”

Victoria Neff is a dual-degree student pursuing their Bachelor’s and Master’s in public policy; with minors in social and economic justice as well as American studies. Their research interests focus on the convergence of education and family policy with LGBTQ youth resilience.

Henry Thomas: “Dos Espiritus: Conversations about Queer Latine Issues”

“Freshman from Albemarle, NC. My previous research experience pertains to the politicization of popular music, and the influence of club culture and disco on pop culture.”

Spirituality, Community Formation, and Queer Temporalities: 3:30-5:00 pm

Kevin Gomez-Gonzalez: “’The Show Cannot Go On’: Understanding the Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Queer Identity Formation”

Kevin Gomez-Gonzalez is a third-year undergraduate student at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media pursuing a degree in reporting with a minor in Latina/o Studies. Their research interests include queer Chicana feminism and queer theories of temporality and futurity.

Campbell Lindquist: “Assimilationist Verses Radical Transgender Politics: Exploring the Productive Potential of Tension in Discourses of Transgender History, Material Life, and Ethics”

Campbell Lindquist is an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a minor in Religious Studies from Duke University. As a Robertson Scholar and an Ethics Fellow with the Parr Center for Ethics, Campbell’s research interests include how structures of gender, embodiment, and power in the contexts of moral philosophy, transformational change, and material life unfold in the field of transgender studies.

Ryan Carroll: Borderless Butterflies and a Queer Christ for the End-Times”

Ryan Carroll is a PhD student in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. His interests in queer studies include dialectical utopianism, queer liberation theology, and the relationship between theory and action. Ryan’s theological writing has been has been published by Macrina Magazine and the Jesuit Conference of Canada and North America.

Montia Daniels: “God Loves Women, and I Do Too: Black Queer North Carolinian Women’s and Non-binary Folks Engagement with Spirituality and Religion”

Montia Daniels is a senior studying women’s and gender studies and media and journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her interest in queer studies stems from her own experiences as a Black queer woman in the South, and her research focuses on how religion and spirituality have affected Southern Black queer women and non-binary folks.

Keynote Presenter Dr. Eddy Alvarez: 5:30-7:00 pm

“Sequined Routes and Movements: Queer and Trans Latinx Pasts and Futures”

Merging scholarly research, creative nonfiction, performance and reflection, this presentation is an offering to queer and trans Latinx lives and memories. Drawing on personal and collective memories and histories, physical and ephemeral archives, and analysis of popular culture and aesthetic, this talk maps and honors multiple and intertwining routes, journeys, and movimientos taken by families, activists, artists, scholars, healers, and more, as they “find sequins in the rubble” while imagining different pasts and futures.

Read more about Dr. Alvarez here.  

Queer MiniCon, 2022

Queer MiniCon, 2022

Join us for this year’s Queer MiniCon centering themes of futurity and resilience in times of crisis.

This year’s Queer MiniCon will be a one-day virtual conference showcasing outstanding UNC undergraduate and graduate research in queer studies during the afternoon of April 8th. It will consist of two panels (one graduate and one undergraduate) with four 15 minute paper presentations and a keynote address.

Additionally, we are pleased to announce that Chicanx and Jotería Studies scholar Dr. Eddy Alvarez Jr. (Dept. of Chicana/o Studies, Cal State University Fullerton) will be this year’s keynote speaker. After the undergraduate and graduate panels, Dr. Alvarez will present some of his scholarly and creative works followed by a Q&A session.

Run of Show: 

Visual Culture and Political Resistance: 1:30-3:00

Spirituality, Community Formation, and Queer Temporalities: 3:30-5:00

Keynote Address: 5:30-7:00

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER 

“Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world” – José Esteban Muñoz Cruising Utopia: The Then and There and Queer Futurity pp. 1

Queer theorists have long-held investments in futurity and resilience. In this time of global social, political, environmental, and epidemiological crises, how we imagine alternative destinies is more vital than ever. In Feminist, Queer, Crip, Alison Kafer writes that “the futures we imagine reveal the biases of the present; it seems entirely possible that imagining different futures and temporalities might help us see, and do, the present differently” (28). As such, we invite abstracts for this year’s Queer MiniCon on all matter of queer and trans studies research. We invite presenters to consider: What do imagined futures reveal about the present? How do crises re-animate, disrupt, or erupt the public sphere? How can we draw from past queer and trans ways of being and knowing to address our current time of crisis? What innovative epistemologies can arise from times of crisis? What is the future of queer and trans studies?

Call For Papers: Queer Futurity and Resilience in Times of Crisis

Queer MiniCon 2022 Call for Papers: Queer Futurity and Resilience in Times of Crisis 

This year’s Queer MiniCon will be a one-day virtual conference showcasing outstanding UNC undergraduate and graduate research in queer studies during the afternoon of April 8th. It will consist of two panels (one graduate and one undergraduate) with four 15 minute paper presentations and a keynote address.

“Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality or concrete possibility for another world” – José Esteban Muñoz Cruising Utopia: The Then and There and Queer Futurity pp. 1 

Queer theorists have long-held investments in futurity and resilience. In this time of global social, political, environmental, and epidemiological crises, how we imagine alternative destinies is more vital than ever. In Feminist, Queer, Crip, Alison Kafer writes that “the futures we imagine reveal the biases of the present; it seems entirely possible that imagining different futures and temporalities might help us see, and do, the present differently” (28). As such, we invite abstracts for this year’s Queer MiniCon on all matter of queer and trans studies research. We invite presenters to consider: What do imagined futures reveal about the present? How do crises re-animate, disrupt, or erupt the public sphere? How can we draw from past queer and trans ways of being and knowing to address our current time of crisis? What innovative epistemologies can arise from times of crisis? What is the future of queer and trans studies? 

Additionally, we are pleased to announce that Chicanx and Jotería Studies scholar Dr. Eddy Alvarez Jr. (Dept. of Chicana/o Studies, Cal State University Fullerton) will be this year’s keynote speaker. After the undergraduate and graduate panels, Dr. Alvarez will present some of his scholarly and creative works followed by a Q&A session. 

Interested applicants should submit a 150-300 word abstract describing their queer and/or trans research and questions to sexuality@unc.edu by March 11th. Please include a paper title, your name, the degree you are earning, and major/department on the abstract. 

Janet Mock Event

Join the QTPOC on Wednesday (11/10) at 6:30 pm to welcome the legendary Janet Mock! 

Janet Mock is an Emmy-nominated writer, director, and executive producer for the FX drama series POSE and the Netflix limited series HOLLYWOOD and MONSTER. She’s also the New York Times bestselling author of two memoirs, Redefining Realness (2014) and Surpassing Certainty (2017) about her journey as a trans woman.

In 2019, Mock signed a historic deal with Netflix, making her the first trans person to sign a production pact with a major studio. With her partnership with the streamer, Janet will create and produce her own television projects. That same year, she received Harvard University’s Artist of the Year Award and was named one of The Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment Power 100” and included on Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment” list. She has also been named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people. She has written for The New YorkerThe New York Times and Marie Claire, and has appeared on the covers of Entertainment WeeklyBritish VOGUEMarie Claire and the Hollywood Reporter.

We hope to see you there! 

WGST & SSP Meet and Greet

Join us on Thursday, October 7th from 1-2 pm for the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and the Sexuality Studies Program Meet and Greet. We will convene in the tent outside of the Smith Building to get to know the other students and faculty in our wonderful programs.

EVENT OF INTEREST: Queer Kinship Roundtable

Please join us on Friday, September 24th from 1-3 pm for the Queer Kinship: Race, Sex, Belonging, Form Roundtable sponsored by UNCG. The event will be led by Dr. Mark Rifkin, a Linda Arnold Carlisle Distinguished Excellence Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

The roundtable will address the complexities of family, intimacy, affection, and interdependence as those relationships are crosscut by race, class, nationality, and other manifestations of institutionalized power and privilege.

Speakers include

Tyler Bradway – SUNY Cortland

Elizabeth Freeman, University of California – Davis

Dilara Caliskan, University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign

Christopher Chamberlin, Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry

J. Demartini-Brito, University of Cambridge

Aobo Dong, Emory University

Brigitte Fielder, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Natasha Hurley, University of Alberta

Joseph Pierce, Stony Brook University

Mark Rifkin, UNC Greensboro

Poulomi Saha, University of California – Berkeley

Click this link to register for the webinar.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Student Art Contest for Symposiums Honoring Randall Kenan – 3 Award Prizes of $333 Each Due May 18th @ 5pm

Call for Proposals Due Immediately! 

Art Contest for next year’s symposiums honoring Randall Kenan  

The Sexuality Studies Program supported by the Provost’s Committee on LGBTQ Life 

is offering three UNC students 

$333 Awards 

Deadline Extended: Tuesday, May 18th by 5p.m. 

  

In the spring of 2021, the English and Comparative Literature Department hosted the first of a series of events honoring the legacy of the late Randall Kenan. Two Wings Take Flight featured a panel of scholars, writers, and artists discussing the impact of Kenan on African American Literature and Southern Studies and particularly Black Southern gay literary traditions. In the coming year, American Studies and Sexuality Studies will continue looking at Randall Kenan’s legacy with events on Kenan’s impact on the fields of Black Geographies and LGBTQ Studies. In doing so, we want to feature the creative work of students on all event promotional and program materials honoring Kenan.   

 

We will award three UNC undergraduate or graduate students $333 for a winning proposal to produce a piece of visual art for next year’s symposiums hosted by American Studies and Sexuality Studies honoring the late Randal Kenan. The art will be used on event programs, flyers, and websites. 

  

We are soliciting proposals for art with themes from Kenan’s novels and short stories (particularly: A Visitation of Sprits, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, The Fire This Time) from students. In particular we ask that your work depicts what it means to carry on the legacy of critically and creatively engaging with Southern Black Queer Geographies in North Carolina. The awards will be chosen by the end of May with the final artwork due by the end of August.   

  

We are asking for a QUICK TURNAROUND: Please go to this link and fill out this form by Tuesday, May 18th at 5p.m.  

  

If you have any questions, email Jacob Lau, Director of Sexuality Studies: jrlau@email.unc.edu  

UPCOMING EVENT: Lavender Graduation 2021 – May 9th @ 4pm

Lavender Graduation 2021

Please register by the end of Sunday April 18th. See link below.

Carolina’s sixteenth annual Lavender Graduation celebrating LGBTQIA+ and allied student contributions will be held on Sunday, May 9th, 2021 at 4:00 pm.

Lavender Graduation is a commencement ceremony honoring graduating LGBTIQA+ and allied students. It is a cultural celebration that acknowledges the achievements and contributions that students of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions have made at Carolina. Recipients of the LGBTIQA+ Advocacy Awards and Sexuality Studies Awards are announced during the ceremony. This year’s ceremony is hosted co-presented by the LGBTQ Center, the Program in Sexuality Studies, the Provost Committee for LGBTQ Life, and Student Life and Leadership.

Keynote Speaker

We are honored to welcome K. Tajhi Claybren (UNC 2014) as this year’s keynote speaker. K. Tajhi is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in the field of community health-supporting youth and young adults (ages 12-24); black, indigenous, and communities of color; transgender and non-binary communities; LBGQ communities, and people living with HIV. They are committed to supporting the healing (individual and collective), self-actualization, and liberation of TNB/LGBQ communities of color at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. While at Carolina, she was a Ronald E. McNair Research Scholar, a program assistant for the LGBTQ Center, and the student leader of the Gender Nonspecific Housing Coalition from 2011 to 2013. K. Tajhi earned their Master of Social Work and Social Work Administration from the University of Chicago and is now part of the Integrative Empowerment Group (IEG) therapy collective in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Graduate Gift Box

Since we cannot hold Lavender Graduation in person this year, we are offering graduating participants the option of having their gifts shipped. This year’s gift bundle includes a 2021 rainbow graduation tassel, a copy of Pauli Murray’s Song in a Weary Throat, purple decorations to adorn your space during the ceremony, a certificate of participation, and a ceremony program. To protect participant privacy (particularly those who live in unsupportive households) gifts will be shipped in plain USPS boxes.

Participation Details 

The ceremony will be held live via Zoom. Registered participants will be given a link to share with their guests. Participants can register with a legal or chosen name, customize how they are honored during the ceremony, and designate the amount of visibility they are comfortable with.

Key Dates

  • The LGBTQ Center will accept participant registrations until Sunday, April 18th at 11:59 pm.
  • The audience invitation and registration link will be released by Friday, April 30th.
  • The 2021 Lavender Graduation ceremony will be held virtually on Sunday, May 9th at 4:00 pm. 

Eligibility Requirements

Participants must be approved to graduate in the most recent Fall semester or the current Spring semester.

Participants must be one of the following at UNC-Chapel Hill:

  • Undergraduate student
  • Graduate student
  • Professional student
  • Doctoral candidate

How to Register as a Graduate

Register at go.unc.edu/LavGrad to be included in the ceremony. For more information please visit the LGBTQ Center’s Lavender Graduation page.

UPCOMING EVENT: Celebrate Holi with Poet Rajiv Mohabir – March 24th @7:30pm

On March 24th at 7:30pm  Indo-Carribean Poet Rajiv Mohabir will give a reading and discuss his book I Even Regret Night: Holi Songs of Demerara (Kaya Press, 2019), Mohabir’s translation of Lalbihari Sharma’s 1916 book of poems. The only known literary work by an indentured servant in the Anglophone Caribbean, this book captures the hardships of life as an island “coolie” worker.
Tyree Daye (UNC Chapel Hill, author of Cardinal) will then join and interview Rajiv about his poetic career and upcoming projects.
This event is hosted by the Asian American Center. Please register here: http://go.unc.edu/holi