International debate on sexual and gender diversity held in Barcelona

From 13 to 15 September international academics, professionals and activists will meet at the Espai Francesca Bonnemaisone in Barcelona to analyse sexual and gender diversity from the perspective which takes into account the differences implied in places of origin, social class, age, religion and (dis)capacities.

12/09/2017

What is the role of social networks and the media in the configuration of sexual identities? What policies are being applied that affect the LGBT collective and what effects do they have? What resistance strategies are there in the processes of medicalisation and pathologisation of non-normative sexual identities?

These and other questions will be analysed at the Fourth European Geographies of Sexual Identities, coo-rganised by the Gender Research Group and the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and the Geography and Gender Research Group of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Following the editions held in Brussels (2011), Lisbon (2013) and Rome (2015), the fourth edition held this year in BArcelona was inaugurated on Wednesday 13 September at 9 a.m. with a plenary session on the LGBT struggles in Catalonia.

The inauguration included a round table with several expers who debated the struggles of the LGBT community in Catalonia and was moderated by UAB Geography lecturer Maria Dolors Garcia Ramon. Also participating were University of Vic lecturer Gerard Coll-Planas, lawyer and feminist activist Laia Serra, researcher and feminist activist Miriam Solá, and Judit Juanhuix, scientist and trangender activist.

During the three conference days a total of 160 different issues will be debated in 33 parellel sessions. The first day will include conferences on «Interseccionando identidades: madre y lesbiana», «International lesbian couples living in Spain: legal rights, intimate citizenship and new family formations» and «Islamofobia de género y educación secundaria en España: actuar contra las discriminaciones desde los institutos».

Thursday's plenary session will be offered by Eleanor Wilkinson from the University of Southampton. Her conference is entitled «The Lonely Queer» and focuses on singles who are satisfied with their lifestyle. Also speaking on Thursday will be Lucas Platero from the Spanish National Research Council on the invisibility of transgender parents in Spain.

The parallel sessions will focuse on gay parenting in the media, representations of masculinity in homosexual dating sites, and expressions of gender and intimacy in different online dating applications.

The final plenary, entitled «Homonationalism in Trump Times» will take place on 15 September at 6:30 p.m. and will be offered by Rutgers University professor Jasbir Puar, who coined the term "homonationalism", a concept which allows understanding the instrumentalisation of policies related to the LGBT community to justify racist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic positions taken on by national governments.

Jasbir Puar, author of Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (winner of the Cultural Studies Book Award 2007 by the Association of Asian-American Studies) and columnist for the Guardian and Huffington Post, will reflect upon the past ten years of homonationalism and its effects. She will particularly talk about what Trump's presidency and other right-wing governments represent for the successes and failures of LGBTQ human rights platforms and the elasticity of homonationalism.

More information can be found at https://egsc2017.wordpress.com/