Queer and trans studies have long been preoccupied with negativity. Propulsively emerging as a site of contentious, intradisciplinary debate during the 2005 MLA Annual Convention between Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, José Esteban Muñoz, and Tim Dean, negativity has continued to shape the contours of queer theory today. At the same time, trans studies can be said to have emerged from a negative positionality originating from entrenched institutional transphobia, which can be found in the works of Eva S. Hayward, Cameron Awkward-Rich, and Susan Stryker, among others. We are interested, then, in deepening the discursivity that negativity produces across queer and trans studies by gathering graduate students and faculty from cinema and media studies, art history, visual studies, and literature to create generative frictions together. What does negativity reveal about subjectivity, aesthetics, the culture industry, social formations, collectivity, hegemonic relations, discursive limits, queer worldbuilding, Afro-pessimism, and politics among other concerns?
Leads
- Kanika Lawton, Ph.D. cand., Cinema Studies/Sexual Diversity Studies
- Jas Rault, Arts, Culture & Media UTSC
- Avneet Sharma, Ph.D. student, Cinema Studies/Sexual Diversity Studies
Faculty Members, University of Toronto
- Kass Banning, Cinema Studies
- T.L. Cowan, Arts, Culture & Media UTSC
- Lauren Cramer, Cinema Studies
- Angelica Fenner, German
- Jessica Lapp, Information
- Bliss Cua Lim, Cinema Studies
- æryka jourdaine hollis o’neil, Cinema Studies/Sexual Diversity Studies
- Brian Price, (chair) Visual Studies UTM
- John Paul Ricco, Visual Studies UTM
- Dana Seitler, English/Sexual Diversity Studies
- Meghan Sutherland, Visual Studies UTM
- Grant Wiedenfeld, Cinema Studies
Faculty Members Outside University of Toronto
- Eugenie Brinkema, Literature & Comparative Media Studies, MIT
- Jean-Thomas Tremblay, Social & Political Thought, York University
Postdoctoral Fellows, University of Toronto
- Lamiae Bouqentar, Women & Gender Studies
- Alice Parrinello, Italian
- Camille Sung, East Asian Studies/Centre for the Study of Korea
Postdoctoral Fellow Outside University of Toronto
- Joshua Falek, Literature, Duke University
Graduate Students, University of Toronto
- Aaditya Aggarwal, MA student, Cinema Studies
- Benjamin Beauchemin, Comparative Literature
- Nathan Clark, Art History
- Tia Glista, English
- Alexandra Hall, Women & Gender Studies
- Tamar Hanstke, Cinema Studies
- William Hunt, Comparative Literature
- Jixin Jia, Cinema Studies
- Ben Koonar, Comparative Literature
- Jade MacDonald, English
- Daniel McGuire, Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
- Lyra A. McKee, MA student, Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
- Maandeeq Mohamed, English/Women & Gender Studies
- Matthew Molinaro, English
- Cassandra Olsen, English
- Parth Pant, Cinema Studies
- Sam Reimer, Cinema Studies/Sexual Diversity Studies
- Karen Ren, Cinema Studies
- Ami Xherro, Comparative Literature
Graduate Students Outside University of Toronto
- Maral Attar-Zadeh, English, University of Cambridge
- Hy Damitz, English, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Jakob Henselmans, Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam
- Cassandra Luca, English/Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Duke University
- William Wells, English, University of Illinois at Chicago
Staff, University of Toronto
- Jesse Carliner, Liaison Librarian for Sexual Diversity Studies
- Kate Johnson, Innis College Librarian
- Roshaya Rodness, Sessional Lecturer, Cinema Studies Institute
Community Members, Outside University of Toronto
- Margaret Pereira, Film Festival Professional
- Mattea Roach, CBC Host, Bookends
Other
- Yves Chang, Independent Scholar