Queer London Conference
Saturday 23rd March, 2013
Department of English,
Linguistics and Cultural Studies,
University of Westminster, London, UK
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Matt Cook (Birkbeck College, University of London)
This one-day conference is dedicated to a consideration of London and its role in creating, housing, reflecting and facilitating queer life. It aims to bring together scholars from a variety of different disciplines and backgrounds to consider representations of queer London and how London itself represents queers.
That London is a focus and centre for queer life and culture can be seen on its stages; in its bar and club scenes; in its film festivals and its representations in film; in its performance art; in its political life; in its gyms; in its history; in its book groups and book shops; and in its representations in the contemporary queer fiction of writers like Alan Hollinghurst and Sarah Waters. That London is a hub and an axis goes without saying. What the ‘Queer London’ conference aims to do then is to offer an opportunity for further analysis and investigation of these representations/representational platforms and to consider the socio-cultural role that London plays in queer life.
The conference will focus on the period 1885 to the present and welcomes interdisciplinary proposals and those from a wide range of disciplines, including: Literature, History, Art, Cultural Studies, Theatre and Performance Studies. Potential topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Mapping queer London
- Lesbian Londons
- Queers of colour and London
- Queer modernisms
- Queer institutions and structures
- Literary representations of queer London
- Films of queer London
- Queer drama and performance in/on London
- Queer histories of London
- London’s queer temporalities
- Queer flâneurie
- London’s AIDS narratives
- Queer urban subcultures
- London’s queer festivals
- Queer sex workers
- London’s queer activism
- Heterosexual and homosexual London, meeting points and overlaps
Please send abstracts of 500 words, or proposals for panels of three linked papers, by Friday 30th November 2012 to Dr. Simon Avery and Dr. Katherine M. Graham at the University of Westminster. Abstracts should be sent as Word attachments to s.avery@westminster.ac.ukand k.graham1@westminster.ac.uk, and should include details of your current affiliation and a very short author bio.
Conference blog page: http://queerlondonconf.wordpress.com/