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.