Queer and trans studies have long been preoccupied with negativity. We are interested in deepening the discursivity that negativity produces across queer and trans studies by gathering critical thinkers from across the disciplines to create generative frictions. While we take negativity as a focal point in our discussions, our goal is not to endorse it wholesale. We will address critiques of negativity’s place in queer and trans studies, as well as in the context of other branches of negativity, including suicidality, finitude, dispossession, censorship, and other discursive and existential limits. Why has negativity taken such a hold on queer and trans studies? What are negativity’s potentialities and limitations? How does negativity (and its refutation) impact our understanding of queer and trans art, cinema, and literature?
Leads
- Kanika Lawton, Ph.D. cand., Cinema Studies/Sexual Diversity Studies
- Bliss Cua Lim, Cinema Studies
- Avneet Sharma, Ph.D. student, Cinema Studies/Sexual Diversity Studies
Faculty Members, University of Toronto
- T.L. Cowan, UTSC Arts, Culture & Media
- Angelica Fenner, German
- Brian Price, (chair) UTM Visual Studies
- John Paul Ricco, UTM Visual Studies
- Dana Seitler, English/Sexual Diversity Studies
- Meghan Sutherland, UTM Visual Studies
- Lauren Cramer, Cinema Studies
- Jessica Lapp, Information
- æryka jourdaine hollis o’neil, Cinema Studies/Sexual Diversity Studies
Faculty Members Outside University of Toronto
- Eugenie Brinkema, Literature & Comparative Media Studies, MIT
- Jean-Thomas Tremblay, Social & Political Thought, York U.
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto
- Lamiae Bouqentar, Women & Gender Studies
Staff Members, University of Toronto
- Rachel Beattie, Media Commons Archives
- Jesse Carliner, Liaison Librarian for Sexual Diversity Studies
- Kate Johnson, Innis College Librarian
Community Professional
- Mattea Roach, CBC Host, Bookends
Graduate Students, University of Toronto
- Hayden Bytheway, Cinema Studies
- Yves Chang, MA student, Cinema Studies
- Nathan Clark, Art History
- Max Dent, Drama, MA student, Theatre & Performance Studies
- Tia Glista, English
- Alexandra Hall, Women & Gender Studies
- Tamar Hantske, Cinema Studies
- Jixin Jia, Cinema Studies
- Ben Koonar, Comparative Literature
- Cam MacDonald, English
- Lyra A. McKee, (MA) Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
- Maandeeq Mohamed, English/Women & Gender Studies
- Matthew Molinaro, English
- Sam Reimer, Cinema Studies/Sexual Diversity Studies
- Karen Ren, Cinema Studies
Graduate Students Outside University of Toronto
- Tamara Frooman, English, York University
- Izzy Thomas Howard, English & Comparative Literature, UNC-Chapel Hill
- Cassandra Luca, English/Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Duke University
Undergraduate Student, University of Toronto
- Petrose Tesfai, History