Queer and trans studies have long been preoccupied with negativity. Propulsively emerging as a site of contentious, intradisciplinary discourse during the 2005 MLA Annual Convention, where the antisocial thesis proposed by theorists such as Lee Edelman and Jack Halberstam bristled against the queer utopianism made popular by José Esteban Muñoz and Tim Dean, negativity has continued to shape the contours of queer theory today. This includes its relevance as a field of inquiry, prompting Edelman to argue that queer theory teaches us nothing. At the same time, trans studies can be said to have emerged from a negative positionality originating from entrenched institutional transphobia.
We are interested in deepening the discursivity that negativity produces across queer and trans studies by gathering critical thinkers from different disciplines to create generative frictions. While we take negativity as a focal point in our discussions, our goal is not to endorse it wholesale but to explore negativity holistically. To that end, we will address critiques of negativity’s place in queer and trans studies. We will also explore other potential 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? And lastly, if queer and trans studies tend towards negativity, what matters at the end of it all?
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, MA student, Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
- Tia Glista, English
- Alexandra Hall, Women & Gender Studies
- Tamar Hanstke, Cinema Studies
- Jixin Jia, Cinema Studies
- Ben Koonar, Comparative Literature
- Cam MacDonald, English
- Lyra A. McKee, MA student, Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies
- Maandeeq Mohamed, English/Women & Gender Studies
- Matthew Molinaro, English
- Cassandra Olsen, 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