Organized by the UCLA Department of Comparative Literature

DATE: May 25, 2018

TIME: 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM

LOCATION: 314 Royce Hall

RSVP: http://complit.ucla.edu/event/area-impossible-sexuality-geopolitics/

Within queer studies, the geopolitical has posed a much-needed challenge to the spatial and temporal logics of the field (logics that often mire the field in the US), especially in the aftermath of the turn to transnationalism. Comparative literature has historically fashioned its domains outside US borders, but despite its range has remained somewhat tied to nationalist coagulations/formations.  This symposium brings together speakers who engage comparative analytical forms towards a more disruptive and capacious queer geopolitics.

Program

9:30-10:00am

Introductory remarks

Anjali Arondekar, Visiting Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, UCLA and Associate Professor, Feminist Studies, UCSC

Welcome address

David Schaberg, Dean of Humanities, UCLA

10:00-10:45am

Queer Coolitude/ An Indo-Caribbean Reading

Rajiv Mohabir, Assistant Professor of English, Auburn University.

11:00am-12:30pm

Freud in Translation/ Three Essays, a Survey, and a Group

Omnia El Shakry, Professor of History, UCD

Respondent: Gil Hochberg, Ransford Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, and Middle East Studies, Columbia University

12:30-1:30pm

Lunch for participants

1:30-3:15pm

Trespassing Queer Kindship/ Temporality and the Geopolitics of Attachment

Sima Shakhsari, Assistant Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota

Respondent: Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare and Geography, UCLA

3:15-3.30pm

Coffee break

3:30 -5:00 p.m.

None Like Us/ Black Exception Black Exemption

Stephen M. Best, Associate Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley

Respondent: Shana Redmond, Associate Professor, Musicology and African-American Studies, UCLA

5:00-6:30pm

Reception