Summer Institute in Sexuality Studies kicks off weeklong lecture series

Vari Hall
Vari Hall

The Centre for Feminist Research at York University presents the Summer Institute in Sexuality Studies (SISS) 2017, running June 5 to 9. This week-long event features free public lectures and this year will focus on the theme “Perversion at the Crossroads of Critical Race Studies, Psychoanalysis, and Queer Theory”.

Lectures in this series aim to create a continuous transnational platform for emerging and established scholars to share innovative knowledge in sexuality studies. Its goal is to support graduate student research and training, provide a high-quality educational environment to develop theoretical frameworks and methodologies, and facilitate discussions between students and internationally renowned scholars as well as among peers.

SISS seeks to expand and deepen research within the field of sexuality studies, and therefore encourages collaboration between scholars and students working in areas of race and racism, colonization and postcolonial thought, whiteness studies, queer and trans studies, histories of sexology, critical psychology, BDSM and fetish communities, literature, poetry, visual arts, transnational sexualities, and citizenship studies.

This year’s events include:

Monday, June 5, noon to 1:30pm, 519 Kaneff, York University
Lecture by Aparna Mishra Tarc, “Pedagogy and the perverse in Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child,” introduced by Toby Wiggins.

Tuesday, June 6, 10 to 11:30am, DB 0014 – Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Building, York University
Lecture by Trish Salah, “Race as Kink: Reading Trans-Racial Fetishism,” introduced by John Greyson.

Tuesday, June 6, 5 to 7pm, 25 Seaforth Ave., FAG Feminist Art Gallery
Art exhibition and reception with Emelie Chhangur, Jennifer Chan, and Jesika Joy, co-sponsored by the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies.

Wednesday, June 7, 10 to 11:30am, 519 Kaneff, York University
Roundtable: “Performing Perversion” with Amber Jamilla Musser and Trish Salah in conversation with John Greyson, Sheila Cavanagh and Emelie Chhangur, and chaired by Allyson Mitchell.

Wednesday, June 7, 12:30 to 2:30pm, 519 Kaneff, York University
Lecture by Amber Jamilla Musser, “Carrie Mae Weems and the Question of Brown Jouissance,” introduced by Sheila Cavanagh.

Thursday, June 8, 10 to 11:30am, 519 Kaneff, York University
Lecture by David Eng, “Race as Relation,” introduced by David Murray.

Friday, June 9, 10 to 11:30am, 519 Kaneff, York University
Roundtable: “Thinking Perversion Transnationally” with David Eng and Aparna Mishra Tarc in conversation with David Murray and David Seitz, and chaired by Dai Kojima.

SISS is organized by the Centre for Feminist Research at York University, in collaboration with the Sexuality Studies Program and the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies.

RSVP to confirm attendance via EventBrite at goo.gl/5nxGWg. For more information, visit siss.info.yorku.ca.

This event is supported by a Connection Grant from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the following areas at York University: Office of the Vice President Academic & Provost; Office of the Vice President Research and Innovation; the Faculty of Education; the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; the Faculty of Graduate Studies; the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies; the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies; Glendon Gender and Women’s Studies Program; the Sexuality Studies Program; Institute for Feminist Legal Studies at Osgoode Hall Law School; Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought; Department of Anthropology; Department of History; Department of Political Science; Department of Social Science; and the Centre for Feminist Research.