<div dir="ltr"><b><font size="4"><u>Call for Participants:</u></font><br><br></b><br clear="all">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:rgb(102,0,0)"><b>Untethering Queer: Thinking Beyond the
Normative/Anti-Normative Binary in Queer Political, Personal, and Pedagogical
Life</b> <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:rgb(102,0,0)"><b>Long Table Session at the Canadian Association for
Theatre Research</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"><br>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">While considerable work in queer theory has been founded on
the assumption that antinormativity is a fundamental character of queering
scholarship and practice, more recent work has begun to question this investment (see Duggan 2015; Halberstam 2015; Wiegman
and Wilson 2015; Tongson 2014; Jacobson 1998; among others). This debate has
become increasingly important in light of the recent US presidential election
and the threat to basic civil rights it threatens, if not promises. (If not the
end of the world, this is at least the end of the world as we know it.) In this
open roundtable discussion, participants will consider the implications of
denouncing antinormativity in activism, performance, and daily life. What do we
lose if we, as queer theorists, are no longer fastened to the realm of the
antinormative?
</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Furthermore, the roundtable will consider how antinormativity
is often only tenable from a position of privilege: Who is given the freedom
and liberty to refuse normativity without reprisal? Through this line of
questioning, the roundtable will consider the intersections and divisions of activism,
performance, and scholarship in relation to performing queer activism and queer
theory.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(102,0,0)"><b>POSSIBLE QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">• What do we lose if we lose antinormativity?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">• Who performs antinormativity?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">• How does queer theory in academia lose the ability to
perform queerness (particularly if it is no</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">longer invested in antinormativity?)</p>• How does a discussion on antinormativity/normativity in
and of itself reinscribe binaries that
<p class="MsoNormal">queer theory seems to want to destabilize and denounce? <br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"><b><br></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left"><span style="color:rgb(102,0,0)"><br></span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(102,0,0)"><b>PROPOSALS: </b></span>Those interested in participating are
asked to send a short statement (250-500 words) with their stance on queer
theory and anti-normativity, which will be shared online with other roundtable
members three weeks before the conference. During the long table, participants
will present concise, two-to-three-minute summaries of their stances.</p>
<br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:rgb(102,0,0)">STRUCTURE</span>: </b>Following the format of Lois Weaver’s “long-table
discussion” “an experimental open public forum that is a hybrid
performance-installation-roundtable-discussion-dinner-party designed to
facilitate dialogue through the gathering together of people with common
interests” (LADA 2014), this discussion will, literally, invite participants to
the table. After the initial presentations, audience-participants who wish to
join the conversation may gently tap a currently seated participant on the
shoulder, and that participant will offer their place at the table to the audience-participant.</p>
<br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(102,0,0)"><b>DEADLINE EXTENDED: </b></span>February 15, 2017</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Please contact <a href="mailto:laineyale@gmail.com">laineyale@gmail.com</a> with your proposal or any
queries</p>
<br>
<div><div><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><font face="times new roman, serif" color="#000000">--</font></div><div style="font-size:small"><font face="times new roman, serif" color="#000000">Laine Zisman Newman, </font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"times new roman",serif">M.A., M.F.A, PhD Candidate</span></div><div><font face="times new roman, serif" color="#000000"><font size="2">Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies </font></font></div><div><font face="times new roman, serif" color="#000000"><font size="2">& Sexual Diversity Studies, </font></font><span style="font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"times new roman",serif">University</span><span style="font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"times new roman",serif"> of Toronto</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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