The Queer
Turn
Destabilizing trends and practices relating to gender and
sexuality in culture and research
An interdisciplinary
research group at the Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research,
University of Oslo
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| New forms of
intimacy An international conference on intimacies and sexualities at the changing interfaces between private and public University of Oslo, Norway Niels Henrik Abel's building, seminar room on floor 12 12-13 October 2006 |
| The
conference is jointly organised by "The queer turn" and "Men and
masculinities", both research groups at the Centre for Women's Studies and
Gender Research, University of Oslo, funded by the Research Council of Norway.
The event is co-sponsored by the Centre for
Women's Studies and Gender Research. Programme Speakers' biographies and abstracts Registration, travel and accommodation Deadline for registration: 1 September 2006 Contacts Jørgen Lorentzen, j.l.lorentzen@skk.uio.no Wencke Mühleisen, wencke.muhleisen@skk.uio.no Turid Markussen, turid.markussen@skk.uio.no Introduction During the last thirty years there have been significant changes in understandings and practices of gender, sexuality and intimacy. In heterosexual relationships, there has been a transition from the male breadwinner / female homemaker model of the household to a dual income model of partnership. Serial monogamy, new practices of gender and sexuality and multiple forms of family have replaced the traditional nuclear family system, while friendship has gained in importance as a key relation of intimacy. At the same time, increasing transnational migration has added to the complexities of the organization and understandings of intimacy, sexuality and gender. New cultural discourses and forms of media representations also suggest that radical shifts are underway in the interface between the private and public sphere. Both studies of masculinities and queer studies are simultaneously a part of and an attempt at describing and analyzing the more complex and differentiated practices of gender, sexuality and intimacy developed during these thirty years. Feminist/pro-feminist studies of masculinities have questioned the position of men as a hegemonic gender. Queer studies have brought the subject of sexuality into the foreground of contemporary research and theory, highlighting and questioning heteronormativity in the disciplines and in the wider social formation. The conference draws on theories and perspectives from these two research areas, and on new approaches in gender studies more widely, to develop tools for the analysis of the new social and cultural practices of intimacy and sexuality, as well as new mechanisms of inclusion/exclusion. It is a particular challenge to forge stories and analyses of these changes that are sensitive to the specificities of cultural and national contexts. We have invited speakers to consider these questions from their perspective, within their own national and disciplinary context, and beyond. The conference will focus on new configurations and representations of intimacy, gender, sexuality and family-life related to ongoing changes in the relationship between private and public. A further objective is to combine new theoretical perspectives with understandings of the political situation of today's gender politics. The conference invokes inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches. How do we create relations of love, care, bonding and intimacy within and beyond the traditional family under new social and economical circumstances? Where do we find new practices of love, intimacy, sexuality and communities? How is intimacy and sexuality formulated in the representational/aesthetical regimes in a late capitalist consumer and media culture? We need new knowledge, approaches and stories to understand the ongoing changes within intimacy, sexuality and the private/public binary. The conference aims to address and problematize some of these new stories. |
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