RGS-IBG ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2016
Royal Geographical Society
London, United Kingdom
30 August – 2 September 2016
Call for Papers
Resisting Equalities and Civil Rights: Gender and Sexuality
Sponsored by the Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group and Space, Sexuality and Queer Research Group, both RGS-IBG groups
Convened by Prof. Kath Browne and Prof. Catherine Nash
Significant strides have been made for LGBT equalities and civil rights agendas, particularly through legislative, political and social initiatives pertaining to sexual and gender minorities and women. The form, substance and timing of these initiatives and related protections and duties vary considerably geographically, reflecting specific historical and social contexts. Despite these widespread successes, resistances to LGBT and queer equalities continues in many quarters, often driven by specific local circumstances as well as broader national and sometimes international events. Familiar oppositional arguments include claims to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, appeals to parental and children’s ‘rights’, accusations about so-called LGBT and queer ‘imperialism’ and ‘colonialism’ and arguments about the need for tolerance, diversity and a rejection of ‘political correctness.’ Various resistances also surface within LGBT and queer communities framed around critiques about exclusionary homonormativities often framed within claims about gendered, racial and class privilege. Finally, many LGBT and queer people relish being ‘ordinary’ and accepted, some claiming we have entered a ‘post-gay’ era where identities grounded in defined sexual orientations no longer have salience.
We are seeking papers that explore these various resistances in all their myriad forms and specificities by bring together papers to discuss the ways in which equalities and other ‘progressive’ legislations are resisted, opposed or transformed. These may address questions of conservative and religious oppositions to sexual and genders equalities, or they may take a critical approach to the exclusions and normativities of legislative change, or they may approach the question of resisting equalities in other ways. By placing these strands in parallel and in conversation, we hope to develop new awareness and understandings.
Please send proposals (in a word document that contains title, abstract of 200-300 words, and presenter name and email) to Kath Browne at k.a.browne@brighton.ac.uk and Catherine Nash cnash@brocku.edu, by Friday 12 February 2016.