Our new home is: https://rolesbham.wixsite.com/home
ROLES 9TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS
The Roles Sexuality & Gender Forum at the University of Birmingham will be holding its 9th annual conference on the 9th May 2019 and we are now calling for papers. The conference will be offering an interdisciplinary space and we invite you to submit abstracts related to any and all aspects of the study of Gender and Sexuality. This conference is organised by students and is designed to provide a platform for presenting research to an audience of students and established academics alike. We are delighted to announce our keynote speaker will be Jess Phillips MP.
Please send your abstract to rolessexualitygender@gmail.com by Saturday 30th March (max 250 words plus 50 word bio). If you would like any more information on this conference then do not hesitate to get in touch via email or social media.
We look forward to receiving your submissions!
This is a free event and we will strive to make this conference fully accessible. We will have facilities for wheelchair access, assistant animals, rest spaces and visual accessibility. Please contact us if you have any questions or further access requirements. There will be live tweeting and blogging of the event.
Facebook: facebook.com/rolesforum
WordPress: groles.wordpress.com
PROGRAMME AND TIMETABLE.
ROLES CONFERENCE 2018 – TIMETABLE
PDF version here
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Conference takes place in Muirhead Tower at University of Birmingham. The morning and afternoon panels will be on the fourth floor in the rooms 415 and 420 and the keynote talk will be on the seventh floor, in the room 714 with designated wheelchair spaces.
Registration for the conference will be open at 9:30 am in the social study area just in front of room 714. There will be a break between 11:20 and 11:40, and lunch will be served between 13:00 and 14:00. The conference will end around 17:30, and there will be a wine reception afterwards. The conference is an open event and attendance are welcome to come and go as they please.
Muirhead Tower is 10-15 minutes’ walk from the University train station. It is situated on Ring Road North, and close to the Alan Watts Building. The building does not have level access at the main entrance, though there are accessible lifts available; positioned at the front and rear of the building. The building work currently on campus may make the building seem inaccessible, do not worry we have an accessible route available to the lifts and stairs. Inside the building the different floors can be accessed with lifts and stairs with handrails. Quiet rest spaces and gender-neutral toilets will be available. The unisex toilets are located on the Mezzanine Level and 5m from the lift.
The venue has its own car park, but it is not free for all users. Parking is free for Blue Badge holders and do not need to be booked in advance.
Full building accessibility details:
https://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/university-of-birmingham/muirhead-tower
PDF wider version here
ROLES 2018 ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Dylan Dunnett
Dylan (they/them) is currently in their second year of the part-time University of Birmingham Sexuality and Gender research Masters programme. They are researching the process of claiming asylum in the UK based on persecution due to sexuality and gender identity. They also work part-time as an Independent Domestic Violence Advocate at Birmingham LGBT centre.
Jay Martin
Jay is finishing her MA in Literature and Culture at the University of Birmingham and holds a PhD place to study the cultural discourses and literary representation of genetic science in contemporary sci-fiction. A related area research she explores is ‘cripping the queer’; the intersection of gender and sexuality and disability studies. She has previously spoken at Roles 2017 on intersex identity, history of medicine, and DSD.
–
Felipe Moreira
Felipe is finishing His PhD in Anthropology at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro/BR) and acted as visiting researcher at the University of Birmingham (School of Social Policy). His thesis centres on disability studies and epistemological approaches to sightlessness, adding to the cosmological view of disability.
–
Azadeh Sarjoughian
Azadeh is an Iranian artist with over ten years of experience who has graduated in sculpture (BA) from the University of Tehran and illustration (MA) and from the University of Art, Tehran, Iran. Currently, she is studying Sexuality and Gender Studies (MRes) at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests include the representation of gender identity in contemporary Middle Eastern art and the social aspects of contemporary curatorial practices.
If you would like to be part of next year’s organising committee, please speak to one of us or send us an email at rolessexulaitygender@gmail.com!
ABSTRACTS AND BIOGRAPHIES
Keynote Lecture (14:00 – 15:30, Room 714)
Dr Gemma Commane (Birmingham City University) – Kinktrepreneurship: BDSM, Kink and the Creative Industries
In this keynote, I introduce the term ‘Kinktrepreneurship’ and consider what this frame might mean in repositioning the Professional Dominatrix as ‘entrepreneur’ within discussions on (unconventional) entrepreneurship. The paper will explore Kinktrepreneurship and the Professional Dominatrix, with a specific focus on visibility, entrepreneurial pursuits and the importance of self-representation. The keynote is based on a new proposed intellectual project (submission of the research bid is imminent), and I will be discussing how ‘Kinktrepreneurship’ and the ‘Kinktrepreneur’ can enable us to seriously focus on a marginalised group with a set of industrial practices, which are situated in wider social and cultural politics. These kinky contexts are not readily included in contemporary discussions of entrepreneurship and the enterprising woman (Kirby 2003, Chell, 2008, Grandy and Mavin 2011, Naudin 2018, Duffy and Hund 2015, Loaker 2013, Grey 2003, Nicholls and Cho 2006, and others). This absence potentially further marginalises and misrepresents other forms of valid entrepreneurship that are already existing within the creative industries and sexual economies. The distinct gap in academic work and non-academic discussions is problematic as assumptions may prevail around what types of entrepreneurship matter (see Jones 2015 on the fictive entrepreneur), and what forms of work are enabling factors for the ‘neo-liberal woman’ within the boundaries of consumer capital. The keynote will acknowledge that Kinktrepreneurial activities exist in a professional and sex-positive context, are legitimate, and that the distinctive nature of Pro-Domme work, potentially contributes new embodied knowledge to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial femininity.
Biography:
Dr Gemma Commane is Lecturer in Media and Communications, and an active researcher in the fields of media and cultural studies, and gender and sexuality. Her academic background is in Media and Cultural Studies, but she also specialised in Continental Philosophy. Gemma’s doctoral research was a cultural, sociological and ethnographic enquiry into female sexual identity in burlesque, fetish and BDSM clubbing cultures. Gemma’s research interests focus on contemporary cultural studies, alternative constructions of femininity, entrepreneurship within BDSM and kink, gender and sexuality, dirt and stigma, neo-burlesque / queer performance art and ethnography. She is currently working on her monograph: ‘Bad Girls, Dirty Bodies: Sex, Performance and Safe Femininity’ (I.B.Tauris 2019). Another area of research she is presently working on is: ‘Kinktrepreneurship, Sex Work and Social Media.’
Panel One – (10:00 – 11:20, Room 420)
10:00 – Chris Foster – The Hierarchy of Aesthetic Queerness
Although they are often seen as liberatory spaces, this paper argues that queer/lgbtq communities reproduce their own hierarchies based upon norms of ‘queerness’. It will use theoretical concepts derived from Foucault, Bourdieu, and Rubin to analyse a series of qualitative interviews conducted with members of trans communities in the West Midlands. These interviews revealed how lgbtq people felt external pressure to conform to ‘queer-normative ideals’ to be accepted and validated within their social groups. It will argue that members of the community who seemingly conform better to queer norms are granted more social capital. This hierarchy is based on aesthetical queerness in which identity and presentation are prioritised over political conviction. Members of the community who have more social capital sometimes use their position as a shield for their abusive/problematic behaviour in which their ‘aesthetic’ queerness shrouds their actions. The purpose of this talk is to reexamine queer/lgbtq communities as areas of both resistance and control which reproduce queer bodies that conform to its narrow definition of non-normativity. To view lgbtq/queer spaces as inherently liberating is to misunderstand the mechanisms of power within social groups. Instead of policing ‘queer’ aesthetics the community should focus on deconstructing the norms which control and subjugate its members. In essence, this paper is calling for a queering of ‘queerness’.
Biography:
Chris recently finished their masters in Sexuality and Gender Studies and has since ‘enjoyed’ being exploited by the capitalist machine (Working). Their interest is the social construction of identity with focus on non-binary genders and is applying for Phd’s soon as it’s the easiest way to get a gender-neutral title.
10:40 – Eliza Garwood – All Grown Up: the life narratives of adult-children with LGBTQ parents
Despite the increasing literature on LGBTQ kinship, there continues to be limited research on the (adult-)children within these families. The social, legal and political context for LGBTQ people has transformed drastically over the twentieth and twenty-first century and the construction of the life course for people with LGBTQ parents has formed alongside these changes. This paper explores the ways that the subjectivities of people with LGBTQ parents have shifted throughout their life course, particularly addressing the intersections of family, identity, social norms and historical context.
Based on biographic narrative interviews with adults who have been raised by LGBTQ parents, this paper will present a summary of the initial findings of a broader PhD research project exploring the life courses of people with LGBTQ parents. This will include the differing paths to disclosure and non-disclosure, intergenerational family dynamics and lack of a clear trajectory for community formation.
I focus on how people’s identities, everyday performances and feelings towards their ‘non-normative’ family have been shaped through their childhood and adolescence, family dynamics, turning points and socio-historical contexts. I interrogate how the power embedded within everyday spaces, such as the home, classroom, playground, workplace and church, may enable and/or constrain (adult-)children with LGBTQ parents. This power embeddedness specifically drives non-disclosure, feelings of belonging and isolation and the ability to navigate their own route into kinship and family construction. Ultimately, I seek to examine the way in which our intimate lives are historically, culturally and spatially situated.
Biography:
Eliza Garwood is a second-year PhD student in Geography and Environment at the University of Southampton. Her research interests include the geographies of gender and sexuality; queer geographies; LGBTQ kinship and intimacy and the potential for resistance through everyday enactments and experiences.
Panel Two – (10:00 – 11:20, Room 415)
10:00 – Matthew Cull – Resistant Metaphysics of Gender: Trans People Against Abolition
Analytic metaphysics of gender has, since Sally Haslanger’s landmark (2000, 2006, 2012) work, taken an ameliorative turn, concerned less with descriptive questions, such as Simone de Beauvoir’s famous “what is a woman?” and more with ethical and political questions regarding what our concept of gender ought to be, and how gendered society should therefore be structured, given current gender injustices, and our moral-political concerns. One traditional political position within feminism, abolitionism about gender, which claims that we ought to mandate gender out of existence, has therefore seen a renewed interest. This position is ameliorative in nature, demanding particular kinds of changes to our gender concepts and resistance to the way that society is organised – in this case, demanding that gender concepts and gender itself are eliminated from society. In this paper I will warn against a (re)turn to political advocacy for abolition.
I will consider three arguments for abolitionism from radically different perspectives – Sally Haslanger’s simple argument (Haslanger 2012), Alyson Escalante’s Gender Nihilism (Escalante 2016), and Susan Moller Okin’s argument from ideal theory (Okin 1989). I will deny that any of the above manage to establish the desirability of gender abolition – and, moreover, that as transfeminists we should be extremely wary of the abolitionist position, as despite being a supposedly progressive political program, it imperils trans lives in our current political situation.
Biography:
Matthew is a Ph.D candidate at the University of Sheffield. They work on anti-essentialist approaches to gender, bringing together trans and feminist theory with contemporary analytic metaphysics. They were editor of Aporia, and their work has appeared in Kriterion Journal of Philosophy, Collective Reflections, and Slutever.
10:40 – Lydia Stone – You are not entirely certain how to operate this genital’: The Trans Grotesque
Our attraction to horror can be analysed as counterphobic attitude – we seek out depictions of our worst fears being realised as a kind of self-inflicted exposure therapy in a safe environment, for the sense of relief when we walk out of the cinema and remember that, in all likelihood, our town will not be overrun by zombies. In the case of body horror, the fear exploited is that of the perversion of bodily integrity, whether through violence or disease, or with more nuance in transformation horror, through being forcibly changed into something grotesque and inhuman, at odds with our identity or personhood. This is enjoyable to be afraid of only because it is unlikely – for most people. For transgender people, the process of unwanted change into something grotesque begins in utero, calcifies at puberty, and even if alleviated by social and medical transition, only changes into something even more grotesque to society than it already is to yourself. As such, in fiction by and for trans people, the kind of grotesque transformation that would be horrific in mainstream stories is often the very opposite – uplifting, empowering, a kind of apotheosis. In this presentation I will be examining, across a range of media, the use of grotesque imagery in fiction by transgender people, analysing the ways and reasons it diverges from what we have come to expect of mainstream horror, and criticising the aspects of mainstream horror that assume an able-bodied, cis-normative audience.
Biography:
Lydia Stone is an English undergraduate at the University of Birmingham, interested in games and interactive fiction, transgender writing and genre theory.
Panel Three – (11:40 – 13:00, Room 420)
11:40 – Stefan Garel – Queer tinted teaching for 15 to 18 year olds in North-Eastern France
Through their construction of adulthood, adolescents simultaneously deconstruct and demystify both authority and its embodiment, the adult, which poses a firm challenge to any teacher. Not only can a queer reference in class (Quentin Crisp, lesbian feminism, transgender identities, Ikea marketing) cause unease, distrust or a mental block in teenagers, it can also be misconstrued as a form of proselytism, which is forbidden by the French school system. Thus, an enqueered approach to teaching the history of gender, identity politics and protest movements is a fraught and delicate journey.
The legalisation of same-sex marriage in May 2013, with the inference that any two unrelated, consenting adults can be recognised socially and legally as a couple, is slowly establishing those pairings outside a heteronormative and patriarchal model. So how is this reflected in the behaviour of our current lycée students? Ostensibly, they seem closer to verbalising and even performing their pan-curious doubts, whilst still unsure of the legitimacy of these urges. In this context, the prism offered by Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (1899)[1] seems more tangible than ever; if teenage dreams censor the object of desire as a taboo, and replace it with a more familiar face, is queer-LGBTQI, cross-cultural visibility not an indispensable tool to help shape an open and worthy sense of self and sociability within these adults in potentia?
Biography:
After 10 years in filmmaking, Stefan went into teaching English and inter-cultural communication to head managers and postgraduates in France and Germany. He holds a PhD from the university of Exeter. Currently, Stefan works as a state school English teacher in France, directing an interdisciplinary workshop on fast food and the body.
12:20 – Hugh Hammond – Prohibitions, Intelligibility, and the Agender Individual in Althusser’s Interpellative Scene
The Althussersian concept of Interpellation refers to the process by which an individual becomes a subject, subjugated to the terms of the laws that bind a society. These laws, predominantly discursive, limit the field of possible acts available to the subject while simultaneously allowing those acts that fall within the purview of the law to be recognised as meaningful acts. Interpellation, then, presents a dilemma for those who wish to act outside the framework of the law as it limits the framework of meaning that can be understood by subjects operating within the law. This paper explores the ways in which gender is constituted through interpellation by the law and tries to conceptualise a method by which the agender individual – a person signifying themselves as possessing no gender – can enter the discursive framework of the law. A focus is given to the concept of the “prohibition”, as outlined by Judith Butler, as the point at which something becomes comprehensible within the law through its exclusion: to prohibit something, one most invoke its name in commanding its prohibition. The key, I argue, for something that is outside the discursive framework of the law to enter into it is, perversely, to produce a prohibition against itself. Through recourse to Marxist Feminist thinkers such as Silvia Federici and Laura Mulvaney, this paper will consider what it means to express a gender within capitalism. This will allow us to consider ways in which the Law can be forced to acknowledge agender modes of being and thus the journey towards agender acceptance can begin.
* the essay covers misgendering, aphobia, the threat of police violence, sexism, and to a lesser extent homophobia and incest in the context of Freudian psychoanalysis. These are all mostly discussed in theoretical terms and none of it is “extreme”.
Biography:
Hugh Hammond is a MA student studying Critical Methodologies at King’s College London. His interests include queer theory, structures of power, and the digital image in video games.
Panel Four – (11:40 – 13:00, Room 415)
11:40 – Lauren Arbuzzo – Against Commercial Surrogacy: A Gender and Sexualities Perspective
In this paper, I discuss moral problems that arise from commercial surrogacy (CS) as an example of selling one’s body or body parts. I assess CS that takes place via full surrogacy, i.e., the surrogate uses a donor egg and the hopeful parent’s sperm. I argue that legalising CS contracts is morally impermissible insofar as: (i) CS has a non-trivial chance of being consequentially bad for the surrogate, and (ii) CS contracts would be symbolically problematic for women and people with uteruses if endorsed by law. First, CS contracts require that (i) the surrogate takes particular physical and emotional risks that are not insignificant enough to permit CS. My reasoning is that allowing a subject to risk her health for non-urgent matters raises unique moral concerns in the case of CS, since, as I argue, the social implications of CS are inseparable from the contract itself. Additionally, I claim that (ii) legalising CS contracts sends an unpalatable message about the social value of women and people with uteruses. This is because only women and people with uteruses can acquiesce to CS contracts and thus they are the only ones who are vulnerable to the physical and emotional consequences. The risks of CS, then, are selective, and they thereby express worrisome notions about how society treats these individuals. My conclusion raises worries about the acceptability of selling one’s body or body parts when these processes express harmful social expectations about the gender and sexual roles of women and people with uteruses.
Biography:
Lauren Abruzzo is a postgraduate in the Human Values and Human Rights M.Sc. at the University of Birmingham. Her research explores topics in bioethics, theories of justice, and social epistemology. In August 2018, she will begin her Ph.D. in philosophy at City University of New York.
12:20 – Rob Thielker – (Trans) gender in John Lyly’s Galatea: early modern text explored through modern transgender performance
This paper will explore the gender of the two female lovers in Lyly’s Galatea, arguing that a modern queer reading should embrace transgender genders, and that such a reading is not ahistorical or anachronistic. The paper will begin with an overview of the characters and the textual moments where gender is affirmed, transgressed, crossed, or thrown out the window altogether. It will move on to the dramaturgical practices of the early modern stage, specifically regarding gender, and mark where these intersect with queer and trans dramaturgical practice today. Finally, the paper will look at the early modern gender context that trans performance of this text highlights, specifically the ways that trans embodiment and performance intersects with gendered embodiment and performance then. The paper will conclude with a thought on the power of connecting to history through embodiment.
Biography:
Rob Thielker is a trans MRes student researching early modern text through modern transgender performance. He presented research on queer narratives in E M Forster’s A Passage to India at Oxford Brookes University’s Undergraduate symposium and in 2018 he returned to the same symposium as a panel chair.
Panel Five– (16:00 – 17:20, Room 420)
16:00 – Emily Cox – “Her Eyes Were Green”: Assembling and Dissecting Women and Female Sexuality in Blade Runner/49
In 1980 Deleuze and Guattari argued in their work A Thousand Plateaus that “becoming-woman” is a process whereby “as atoms of womanhood capable of crossing and impregnating an entire social field, and of contaminating men, of sweeping them up in that becoming” (P.323). In other words, as women have entered the workplace and assumed more dominant roles their being has gradually altered the masculine world. Science fiction can be seen as going through the same process of transformation; a genre that has recently enjoyed great mainstream success, science fiction is no longer solely male-oriented genre as celebrated and long-standing franchises champion their new female heroines like Rey and Rose of the new Star Wars instalments and Michael Burnham of Star Trek: Discovery, the sequel Blade Runner 49, has similarly introduced new conceptualisations of femaleness and femininity.
Though not entirely unproblematic the film’s portrayal of women is tantalising in terms of its potential for analysis, partly as an example of an iconic film negotiating femaleness in new, progressive ways (and additionally contribute to new interpretations of the original blade runner film), but also as it informs as analysis of women’s social and political position more generally, as the product of the gender machine that produces and regulates the process by which a human becomes, grows and is culturally understood as a woman. Like the replicants of the Blade Runner universe, women themselves can be seen as similarly assembled, packaged and programmed for popular consumption. At the same time, however, their presence within the world, through the process of becoming-woman, has the potential to reconfigure the patriarchal apparatuses that commodify them.
Biography:
Dr. Emily Cox is a post-doctoral researcher specialising in gender theory, science fiction and the work of Giorgio Agamben and Gilles Deleuze. She recently completed doctoral dissertation on the portrayal of women in science fiction. In her thesis she explores the relationship between Gilles Deleuze’s system of the virtual and Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of inoperativity and bare life, arguing that their philosophies can be usefully allied with gender and feminist theory. She was recently awarded the SFRA Support a New Scholar Grant and is this year’s winner of Foundation’s essay competition.
16:40 – Azadeh Sarjoughian – Shirin Neshat’s Photographic exploration: The Representation of Iranian Muslim Women In-Between Worlds
My research will attempt to further the analytical research on female identity embodied in contemporary Iranian art. In this regard, I will investigate what influences the visual strategies of Iranian artists, considering expectations imposed on their practices by two forces: the domestic ideological discourse and the Western audience. Furthermore, I aim to determine how Iranian artists would defy the monolithic or “one-view” formula of the image of the Muslim woman, woman-in-veil, in their works.
I concentrate on those Iranian artworks which emphasise a deconstruction of the West/East, masculine/feminine binaries by offering an interstitial space between fixed and stereotypical identifications. This paper is driven by the works of Shirin Neshat, a well-known female diasporic artist based in the US. By referencing to Neshat’s Women of Allah series, I attempt to examine the local and global reception of the works, as well as the present anxiety about self-exoticism in Iranian art criticism to indicate the dominant debates on the representation of Muslim women in the current social and cultural contexts. I suggest that the persistence of the practice of ‘self-exoticisation’ by non-Western artists can act as a reverse representational strategy, analogous to Foucault’s reverse discourse, which undermines the repressive mechanism of exoticism and reclaims the subjectivity of the exotic bodies. My intention is for this research to challenge the essentialised depiction of Muslim femininity and to create more diversity in general perceptions of Iranian artworks.
Biography:
Azadeh is currently studying for an MRes in Sexuality and Gender Studies, and holds a PhD place to study the representation of Muslim men’s and women’s bodies in contemporary Middle Eastern art. She is an artist, working with various media in sculpture, and installation. She is part of this year’s ROLES organising committee.
Panel Six – (16:00 – 17:20, Room 415)
16:00 – Patricia Nistor – The Past is a Queer Country
This paper will follow Henrik Olesen’s 2007 installation “Some GayLesbian Artists and/or Artists relevant to Homo-Social Culture Born between c. 1300–1870.” The seven panels show reproductions of famous paintings under headers like Bondage, Bodies, Girl’s Rooms, as well some textual sources. The main aim of the paper is to explore to what extent Olesen’s intervention can be seen as a tenable proposal towards a gay artistic canon. I will establish that his work is consequential because it successfully employs the structure of canonicity against itself, subverting its heteronormative tradition without denying its form, destroying and instituting at the same time. I will argue that his critique of the logic of canonicity is enough to create an expanded gay-lesbian canon understood in Griselda Pollock’s conceptualisation. Following a method similar to Pollock’s, Olesen reads so-called high art against the grain and teases out traces of homosocial desire. I will rely on Eve Sedgwick Kosofsky’s established definition of homosociality as a continuum and take a closer look at its blurriest part, the anxiety-inducing contact area between straight bonding and homoerotic desire. Olesen uses the accepted historical reality of this continuum but pushes it further by subverting authorised correlations between signs and meanings and taking them to irreverent new extremes. In order to see how his critique functions, it is necessary to show how Olesen’s work occupies an interstitial space between queer and gay-lesbian taxonomies. Overall, his productive heuristic will be deemed a necessary intervention into how transgressive bodies can be re-instituted into canons and history.
Biography:
Patricia Nistor is a University of Birmingham graduate, currently working towards a Research Masters in Arts and Culture at Leiden University. Her research interests are diverse, focusing on questions of public space and reclaiming the city as well as constructions of the feminine in various contexts, from Weimar Germany to the field of bio-art.
16:40– Keisha Fraser-Bruce – Dissecting Millennial Black Feminism: Black Women’s Spaces, Histories and Images
This paper discusses how Black women have utilised pop-culture and social media to resist fictitious myths of Black womanhood. Recently, a Black Feminist pop-culture has developed which prioritises the visible and audible exposure for Black women. I conceptualise this Black female-centred pop-culture moment as a product of, what I term, Millennial Black Feminism (MBF). MBF uses social media and pop-culture to reassess and then reform Black women’s cultural representation. It is a process in which the Black woman becomes visible and regains the means to liberate herself. Visibility is at the core of the cultural movement and although Black women’s invisibility has been a subject of Black feminist discussion since the late 1800s, it is only now that Black women are able to directly challenge it due to the influence of former and current Black liberation movements, the emergence of a democratic cyberspace and a distinctly Black-tailored pop-culture.
This paper begins by briefly discussing the key influences that provide a background to understanding the origins of MBF: #BlackLivesMatter, 1970s Black Power aesthetics, and Afrocentrism. Afterwards, this paper will outline MBF’s methods: “creation” of Black women-owned spaces, “reclamation” of resistance memory, and “reconstruction” of Black women’s self-image, and tests these against several sources including the hashtag #BlackGirlMagic, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s visual album, Lemonade (2016), Issa Rae’s television series Insecure (2016) Ultimately this paper aims to contribute to Black Feminist thought as it conceptualises a popular cultural movement as a distinct wave of Black Feminism.
Biography:
Keisha Fraser-Bruce currently assists on the AHRC-funded networking project “Geographies of Black Protest”. She will begin her PhD in Black Studies at the University of Nottingham in Autumn 2018 and this will offer a transatlantic study of digital blackness. Her interests include African Diaspora studies, Black Feminism and pop-culture.
[1] Equally debunked (Wolfe, 1996) as it is supported (Kandel, 2012) by contemporary neurology.
OPEN REGISTRATION FOR ROLES 2018 AND ACCESS GUIDES!
To register for the 8th Annual ROLES: A Sexuality & Gender Forum conference on 8th of June, 2018, please fill out this form.
The keynote speaker for Roles 8th Annual Conference will be Dr. Gemma Commane, who will be presenting ‘Kinktrepreneurship: BDSM, Kink and the Creative Industries’
[Image Description: Poster for Roles 8th Annual Conference. On the top it reads “8th of June – ROLES / 8th Conference. On the bottom left corner and on the bottom left corner, progressively and on top of each other, it reads A GENDER AND SEXUALITY FORUM.]
–
Registration is free and includes lunch, refreshments and a wine reception. Registration on the day from 9am.
The conference will take place in Muirhead Tower at University of Birmingham. The morning and afternoon panels will be on the fourth floor in a room and the keynote talk will be on the seventh floor, in a room with designated wheelchair spaces. The building does not have level access at the main entrance, though there are accessible lifts available; positioned at the front and rear of the building. The building work currently on campus may make the building seem inaccessible, do not worry we have an accessible route available to the lifts and stairs which we will be checking on the day. Inside the building the different floors can be accessed with lifts and stairs with handrails. Quiet rest spaces and gender neutral toilets will be available. Unfortunately we cannot subsidise travel costs.
Full building accessibility details: https://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/university-of-birmingham/muirhead-tower
If you would be interested in volunteering to help us set up on the day and be on the registration, please let us know.
If you have any questions, please get in touch via the Facebook page or email us at rolessexualitygender@gmail.com.
Facebook: facebook.com/rolesforum
Twitter: @groles
WordPress: groles.wordpress.com
MAP
ROLES CONFERENCE 2017: WE WANT YOUR VIEWS!
We hope you enjoyed our annual conference!
Whether you did (or didn’t…) we’d love for you to tell us what was great and what could have been better.
Programme for ROLES 7th Annual Conference
ROLES CONFERENCE 2017 – TIMETABLE
|
9:00 Registration |
|
|
9:30 Welcome and Introduction |
|
| 10:00 – 11:30 PANEL ONE – Representations and Art Room TBC 10:00 – Jacquie Bridgman – ‘The more tattoos a woman has, the less attractive she becomes’: An exploratory analysis of factors that influence heterosexual men’s attitudes towards heavily tattooed women 10:30 – Hazel Impey – The Presence and the Absence: Contrasting Depictions of Asexuality in Fantasy Literature 11:00 – Giselle Lowe – New (ART)iculations: A qualitative exploration of abortion narratives in South Africa |
10:00 – 11:30 PANEL TWO – Politics and Identities Room TBC 10:00 – Paulina Klik – Journey into Authenticity: LGBT+ Poles in the West Midlands 10:30 – Martha Robinson Rhodes – ‘Not Totally Gay, I Suppose’: A Queer Critical History of Multiple-Gender-Attraction in the British Gay Liberation Movement, 1970-1980 11:00 – Gemma Jennings – Engendering Inequality? Oil and the Development of Gender Roles |
|
11:30 – 12:00 Break |
|
| 12:00 – 13:00 PANEL THREE – Challenging Cisnormativity Room TBC 12:00 – Jay Martin – Models, Myths and Medicine: the bias of biological sciences 12:30 – Char Utton – Beyond the Tipping Point: where next for trans rights in the UK? |
12:00 – 13:00 PANEL FOUR – Individual Narratives Room TBC 12:00 – Aysha Musa – Judith, A Beautiful Assassin 12:30 – Ana Maria Sapountzi – Making Meaning of Laurence Olivier: Reading Queer Sensibilities in His Hollywood Performances from 1939-1960 |
|
13:00 – 14:00 Lunch |
|
|
14:00 – 15:30 Dr Katharine Jenkins, University of Nottingham |
|
|
15:30 – 16:00 Break |
|
|
16:00 – 17:30 16:00 – Yvonne Ehrstein – The postfeminist reconciliation challenge: Representations and lived experiences of maternal femininities on Mumsnet.com |
|
|
17:30 – 18:30 Closing Remarks and Wine Reception |
|
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Conference takes Place on Thursday 18th May 2017 in the Gisbert Kapp Building on the University of Birmingham Campus.
Gisbert Kapp is 10 -15 minutes’ walk from the University train station, and close to the 98 and 99 route bus stops. It is situated on Pritchatts Road, past North Gate and on the opposite side of the road to the Alan Watts Building/Muirhead Tower.
There is parking outside the venue and a multi-storey car park besides the building.
Registration for the conference will open at 9am, with the welcome talk starting at 9:30. There will be a break between 11:30 and 12, and lunch will be served between 13:00 and 14:00. There will be another break between 15:30 and 16:00. The conference will end around 17:30, and there will be a wine reception afterwards. The conference is an open event and attendees are welcome to come and go as they please.
PLEASE REGISTER AT https://goo.gl/forms/Dji0nJ1wPjBrrNcn1
Disability Access
Gisbert Kapp is wheelchair accessible from the main entrance. The rooms for the conference are divided between the second and third floors; the lifts are accessible to wheelchair users and there is an accessible toilet on the ground floor near the café.
All rooms used for the conference are wheelchair accessible and have double doors. However, there are only limited wheelchair spaces available in the main lecture room, so please inform us through the registration form if you require a designated space.
We have booked a separate quiet space for attendees if they are struggling with the conference and need time to re-energise during the day. This will be located in room 328.
We are in the process of investigating the use of hearing loops within the venue and will update the guide with the information we receive.
For more information on the accessibility of the venue please consult this guide http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/university-of-birmingham/gisbert-kapp-building-2 and for any further queries please email us at rolessexualitygender@gmail.com.
Evacuation Procedures
In the case of an emergency the alarms will ring and attendees are to make their ways to the stairs and follow the signed route.
For those with mobility impairments, there is a evacuation point positioned next to the elevators which has a separate alarm that will need to be pressed. This will alert the emergency services to your presence so they can help you evacuate the building safely.
Childcare facilities
Unfortunately we are unable to provide any daycare for children during the conference. Although Gisbert Kapp does not have any baby changing facilities, the Arts Building has baby changing facilities on the ground floor. The Arts Building is located about 5-10 minutes’ walk from the venue. We hope this will be sufficient.
Prayer rooms
There are designated prayer rooms on campus located in both the Guild of Students and the Chaplaincy. The chaplaincy also comes equipped with various denominations of chaplains if they are needed. This is located a 10-15 minute walk from the venue.
Gender Neutral Bathrooms
Gisbert Kapp has recently acquired gender neutral bathrooms. They will be open to all attendees during the event, and are located at the end of the corridor on the 3rd floor.
ROLES 2017 ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Chris Forster
Chris is an MRes student at the University of Birmingham specialising in the construction of gender norms. Other interests include disability theory and the intersection of oppressions. Chris still lives in Birmingham and is also working on a side project researching the performance of gender in online spaces.
Martha Robinson Rhodes
Martha recently graduated in History from the University of Oxford, and is currently studying for an MRes in Sexuality and Gender Studies at the University of Birmingham. She specialises in the history of multiple-gender-attraction and bisexuality, with a focus on multiple-gender-attraction in the British Gay Liberation movement in the 1970s. She also recently wrote interpretations for the ‘Out in Oxford’ LGBTQ Museum Trail, which was launched in February 2017.
Mae Rohani
Mae is currently studying for an an MA in Migration, Superdiversity and Policy at the University of Birmingham; she graduated in International Relations in 2015, and is a former Women’s Officer at the Guild of Students and an activist. Her research interests include gender and social reproduction, migration and citizenship, and Feminist-Marxist theories. She was an editor for The New Birmingham Review in 2014-2015, and was involved in organising Roles 2016.
If you would like to be part of next year’s organising committee, please speak to one of us or send us an email at rolessexualitygender@gmail.com!
ABSTRACTS AND BIOGRAPHIES
Keynote Lecture (14:00 – 15:30, Lecture Theatre 1)
Professor Katharine Jenkins (University of Nottingham) – Gender Identity: A Guide for the Perplexed
There is widespread confusion among cis people about the notion of gender identity. This matters for two reasons. Firstly, because cis people are called upon to use this concept, including about themselves. Secondly, because this concept can play a useful political role in the movement for trans rights, for example in anti-discrimination legislation, which requires that it be generally understood. Gender identity is often defined as ‘having a sense of oneself as a man, woman or some other gender’. However, it is increasingly common for terms like ‘woman’ to be used to refer to gender identity. This leads to circularity in the definition of gender identity: someone has a gender identity of ‘woman’ if she has a sense of herself as someone who has a gender identity of ‘woman’. This talk proposes a definition of the concept of gender identity that avoids this circularity whilst being suitable for use in emancipatory political practice.
Biography:
I joined the Philosophy Department at the University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor in September 2016. Before that, I was a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. I hold a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Sheffield, and a BA and MPhil in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge. I grew up in the Lake District and I think I’ll always miss the fells. When I’m not doing philosophy (and sometimes when I am) I enjoy hiking, yoga, knitting, sewing, and playing tabletop games.
Panel One – Representations and Art (10:00 – 11:30)
10:00 – Jacquie Bridgman – ‘The more tattoos a woman has, the less attractive she becomes’: An exploratory analysis of factors that influence heterosexual men’s attitudes towards heavily tattooed women
Representations of heavily tattooed women are now prevalent in popular culture (Gavin, 2013). A recent survey (Heywood, Patrick, Smith, Simpson, Pitts & Shelley, 2012) has suggested that young women are now the largest consumers of tattoos in the population. Despite the popularity of tattoo’s, previous literature has shown that women who have tattoos are perceived as being more promiscuous (Swami & Furnham, 2007), rebellious (Swami, Gaughan, Tran, Kuhlmann, Stieger & Voracek, 2015) and likely to indulge in risky behaviours (King & Vidourek, 2013). This study has explored the role of ambivalent sexism and social dominance in men’s attitudes towards heavily tattooed women. Adult Heterosexual men (n = 350) were recruited via social media to complete an online survey which looked their perceptions of heavily tattooed women. Participants completed the Perceptions of Heavily Tattooed Women scale along with the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory and Social Dominance Orientation SDO 7 scale. An exploratory analysis was conducted to investigate whether these predictors would contribute towards heterosexual men’s negative attitudes of heavily tattooed women. Multiple regression was conducted and it was found that age, men’s own tattooed status, ambivalent sexism and the social dominance orientation sub scale anti-egalitarianism account for a significant proportion of the variance in men’s negative attitudes towards heavily tattooed women (F(5,344)=42.99, p<.05, R²=.38, R²adjusted =.38). Results showed that men who endorsed sexist views were more likely to view heavily tattooed women negatively and men who were tattooed themselves were more likely to view heavily tattooed women more positively than those women without. The conclusion considers the impact negative perceptions could have in relation to the wellbeing, relationships and employment opportunities of women who choose to become heavily tattooed.
Biography:
Jacquie Bridgman is a final year undergraduate at University of Northampton studying a Joint Honours programme in Psychology and Social Care. Research interests include gender identity, sexuality and tattoos. When she’s not studying Jacquie enjoys knitting, watching rugby and listening to The Archers. Jacquie is currently researching men’s perceptions of Heavily Tattooed Women for her final year undergraduate dissertation.
10:30 – Hazel Impey – The Presence and the Absence: Contrasting Depictions of Asexuality in Fantasy Literature
Asexuality is one of the lesser-known sexual identities encompassed by the LGBTQIA community, and its representation in fiction is correspondingly limited. Combine this with the problems that fantasy (particularly fantasy with a historical or pseudo-historical setting) often has with diverse representation, and the rarity of asexual representation increases. In this paper, I will be analysing two examples of asexual representation in fantasy literature. Nancy, the protagonist of Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway (the first book in a new contemporary fantasy series, published in 2016), explicitly identifies herself as asexual. And the titular character of Garth Nix’s Clariel (a prequel of sorts to his medieval fantasy ‘Old Kingdom’ series, published in 2014) is pointedly uninterested in men or women, though the word asexual is never used. These characters demonstrate two kinds of sexuality representation: the present (Nancy) and the absent (Clariel). In a society where asexuality is often ignored, mis-labelled, and maligned, each representation of it in fiction takes on considerable weight and can have a correspondingly significant impact. I will be examining the ways in which asexuality is represented in these two texts and the possible effects that they have, focusing on three main aspects. Firstly, the way in which asexual representation is conveyed in language (given that in some fantasy settings, language use is purposefully limited by the author); secondly, the concept of “stealth” representation in contrast with explicit representation; and thirdly, the manifestation of aphobia in both texts.
Biography:
I am currently writing my PhD thesis at Northumbria University, on the representation of non-binary gender in medieval fantasy literature. I have a particular interest in contemporary fiction and genre fiction, as well as gender and sexuality studies. Outside of an academic setting I enjoy fiction writing and amateur dramatics.
11:00 – Giselle Lowe – New (ART)iculations: A qualitative exploration of abortion narratives in South Africa
Abortion was legalised in South Africa in 1997 with the introduction of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1996 (Act No.92 of 1996). However, the complex realities of the systems of social inequality at play within the country complicate the daily lived experiences influencing accessibility to autonomous reproductive choices.
Acknowledgement of these inequalities can be a point of departure when discussing the confusion as to why, with the free, safe, legal options made available by the state, many women still resort to clandestine forms of abortion practices.
This paper will examine the potential of creative narratives (oral biographies, literature and art) as alternative knowledge sources which prioritise decolonial research methodologies. It will explore how alternative forms of abortion accounts, in contrast to traditional historical documents or statistical data sets (which often fail to be representative of, or exclude the voices of marginalised individuals), can be useful in developing a truer depiction of the lived realities of individuals who have procured abortions in South Africa.
Grounding my research in the situated experiences of the women whose narratives will be shared, I will explore how women express their abortions (procedures, healing, support, and actors) and how these alternative articulations “remind us […] that social facts are mediated daily in enormously complex ways by the positioning of those observing, experiencing, and performing them.” (Hunt 2007: 21). Approaching them not merely as social descriptors, but as detailed resources, our understanding of and approach to abortion research can be further developed and more inclusive.
Biography:
Giselle is currently in the second year of a Masters in Women’s and Gender studies (GEMMA) at the University of Hull. Completed a BA and Honours degree (Psychology and Anthropology) at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Research interests include institutionalised discrimination, and decolonial research methodologies.
Panel Two – Politics and Identities (10:00 – 11:30)
10:00 – Paulina Klik – Journey into Authenticity: LGBT+ Poles in the West Midlands
After Poland’s EU accession in 2004, together with economic migration, the UK received a wave of LGBT+ Polish migrants fleeing state and church propagated homophobia. This large-scale move was especially evident in big metropolitan areas, such as Birmingham, where queer migrants sought to live without the fear of exclusion. In Poland, queer subjects lack both visibility in the public sphere (i.e., visual identifiers of queerness such as hand holding in same-sex partnerships and other open expressions) and representations in media. Conversely, once these same subjects arrive in the UK, they are publicly open about their sexuality. This juxtaposition and evident shift is what inspires my investigation into the motives and experiences of queer Polish migrants.
My research analyses oral history interviews with fourteen self-identified gay, lesbian and bisexual Poles living in Birmingham and West Midlands, in an effort to determine the global and local context of identity politics of queer Polish diaspora. Throughout the study, I question how these people conceive of coming-out discourses and understand their visible expression in different environments, and how these understandings might have changed since moving to the UK. I also consider how the intersectionality of identity influences the interviewees’ imagined and lived realities, and how these narratives construct specific images of a homophobic, repressive Poland and a tolerant, accepting Britain. This project attempts to queer the commonly held notions of Polish migrants in the UK, while also suggesting the differences between the identity politics between the East and West.
Biography:
Paulina Klik is a final year student of MA in Women’s and Gender Studies at Central European University in Budapest and University of Oviedo in Spain. As an expat herself, her primary research interests are migration studies, as well as queer theory. She also works as an interpreter for the NHS.
10:30 – Martha Robinson Rhodes – ‘Not Totally Gay, I Suppose’: A Queer Critical History of Multiple-Gender-Attraction in the British Gay Liberation Movement, 1970-1980
This paper will address the question of whether and why multiple-gender-attraction posed a political problem to groups in the British Gay Liberation Movement, how groups’ and individuals’ responses to this problem changed over time, and how individuals made sense of circulating discourses of bisexuality. I will argue that attraction to multiple genders, and bisexuality as an identity, was seen as ‘emotional’ and ‘sexual’, rather than a ‘political’ identity.
‘Multiple-gender-attraction’ can mean those who identified as bisexual as well those who identified otherwise but experienced attraction to multiple genders. In addition to these complexities of self-definition, identity and practice, I will address how attitudes towards multiple-gender-attraction intersected with categories of gender, age, and class. I will also analyse different groups within the Gay Liberation Movement, from the ‘moderate’ Campaign for Homosexual Equality to the ‘radical’ Gay Liberation Front, and assess how their attitudes changed over time and on national and local levels.
Following the work of Clare Hemmings, I will also focus on discourses in which bisexuality and multiple-gender-attraction are absent but play an important constitutive role. This was particularly evident in the construction by more ‘radical’ groups of a binary of ‘heterosexual’ (associated with conservatism and sexism) and ‘homosexual’ (associated with radicalism and subversion). My work raises issues about the relationship between liberation and exclusion in the construction of ‘radical’ identities in sexual liberation movements, at a moment when the term ‘bisexual’ was relatively new and the binary distinction of gay and straight was just becoming socially dominant.
Biography:
Martha is currently studying for an MRes in Sexuality and Gender Studies, specialising in the history of sexuality. She is part of this year’s ROLES organising committee, and she also recently wrote interpretations for the ‘Out in Oxford’ LGBTQ Museum Trail, which was launched in February 2017.
11:00 – Gemma Jennings – Engendering Inequality? Oil and the Development of Gender Roles
This paper will explore the impacts of the oil industry on gender roles across two prominent exporters of oil, Nigeria and Algeria, in the late twentieth century. The study will examine how the hydrocarbon sector, central to both national economies, interacted with and impacted on political and economic structures from a gendered perspective. Ultimately, I argue that an understanding of the oil industry is crucial to the historiography of gender in these states.
Existing research has engendered a growing controversy around the extent to which the oil industry, comparative to cultural and religious values, determined prevalent gender paradigms in oil-producing countries. Statistical studies have demonstrated correlation between oil extraction and reduced female labour force participation and political representation, and theorists have contentiously argued that this results from the preponderance of the male dominated oil sector in a national economy, reducing female employment opportunities and concomitantly limiting the political mobilisation of women (Ross, 2008). There has been limited work, however, which has tested and explored these purported trends in contextualised case studies.
This paper, therefore, will conduct a comparative analysis of two distinct political and cultural contexts, to develop a historical account of the impacts of oil extraction on gender in these nations. The paper will compare the impacts of the oil industry on Algerian and Nigeran economic and political structures at a national level, particularly employment trends, political participation and representation, alongside localised studies of employment opportunities, household economic roles and grassroots political movements around key oil extraction points.
Biography:
Gemma Jennings is a PhD student in History at the University of Birmingham. She holds a BA in Combined Studies and an MA in History.
Gemma’s research explores the social history of the oil industry, particularly the consequences of this sector for gender roles and relations.
Panel Three – Challenging Cisnormativity (12:00 – 13:00)
12:00 – Jay Martin – Models, Myths and Medicine: the bias of biological sciences
The primary objects of analysis within this presentation are the models of embryonic genital development of a foetus in the womb, created by Adolf and Friedrich Ziegler, and how they have been used to incorrectly justify the gender binary. The models were initially used as revolutionary teaching aids within medicine degrees throughout the late 19th Century and are currently stored in the University of Birmingham’s Special Collections within the College of Medicine and Dentistry.
When they were first published, they were mistaken by the scientific community and the general population as indicative evidence of cisnormativity and its associated gendered stereotypes. This misreading of the models stem from them being binary in their presentation of genital development, while also being sequenced in a developmental narrative in which the end point of genital development is the current cisnormative categorisation of gender upon birth. This developmental narrative isolates intersex development as it relies on the existence of a strict binary within biological sex thus erasing everything which exists outside of these categories. I will use the theories of disability outlined by Lennard J Davis and Susan Wendall, alongside the discussion of gender furthered by Foucault, to explain how the misuse of items such as these models is a symptom of a wider issue of biological determinism within medicine which directly oppresses both trans and intersex people.
Biography:
My name is Jay Martin, my undergraduate degree was in English Literature and American and Canadian Studies. I have applied for a Masters degree in Literature and Culture. I have a special interest in queer theory, disability theory, and the field of Medical Humanities.
12:30 – Char Utton – Beyond the Tipping Point: where next for trans rights in the UK?
TIME Magazine called 2016 the ‘Transgender Tipping-Point’, National Geographic released a special issue in early 2017 entitled ‘The Gender Revolution’ – but trans rights still have a long way to go. The male/female binary remains deeply ingrained in our culture. There is still a lack of education and understanding of trans people, which can make some aspects of life difficult for them to navigate, and the people who should be there to help rarely know the answers either. Additionally, non-binary genders are still not recognised under the law and are therefore not explicitly protected, which is highly problematic due to the significant level of violence and exclusion they regularly face. Drawing from a combination of academic research and anecdotal experience, this presentation will look at which areas trans activism in the UK still needs to address – including reducing the number of gender-separated spaces, removing cisnormativity from medicine and sex education and making space for non-binary people in the legal and public spheres. Without these changes, trans people will likely continue to experience disproportionately high rates of aggression, violence, discrimination and suicide.
Biography:
Char is a current student at the University of Birmingham, studying MRes Sexuality and Gender Studies, and they hold a BA in Graphic Design from the University of Gloucestershire. They have a particular interest in non-binary gender and in education. They are looking into a career in primary teaching.
Panel Four – Individual Narratives (12:00 – 13:00)
12:00 – Aysha Musa – Judith, A Beautiful Assassin
Judith from the Apocryphal Book of Judith has been represented in film, art and literature, and in each has been constructed as virgin and/or whore, saviour and/or murderer, saint and /or sinner, soldier and/or seductress.
Although there are many disagreements when it comes to Judith, what is agreed upon is that she uses deceit and enhanced beauty, methods which are commonly considered ‘women’s weapons’, to act as a warrior assassin in order to save her people.
This paper will consider Judith’s enhanced beauty and investigate the level to which her aesthetic beauty enabled her to achieve such an unlikely victory over the enemy arm general, Holofernes. I will argue that Judith’s natural beauty enhanced by a beautifying ritual acts as a disguise, as a weapon, and provides her with both feminine and masculine power.
Biography:
Aysha Musa is a fully funded PhD student with the Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield, working in the field of Gender, Sexuality and the Bible. Her thesis focuses on constructions of gender and sexuality in the Book of Judges.
She has a BA and MA in Biblical Studies (first class honours and Distinction) and received an Academic Award and the Sheffield Graduate Award, and was recently made a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
12:30 – Ana Maria Sapountzi – Making Meaning of Laurence Olivier: Reading Queer Sensibilities in His Hollywood Performances from 1939-1960
During his first year in Hollywood (1939-1940) English actor, Laurence Olivier, broke ground with his portrayal of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1939), Maxim de Winter in Rebecca (1940) and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (1940). Olivier’s sexy yet complicated spectacle achieved him instant success and heartthrob status with film audiences and critics. His performances in these films gained him international recognition as a film actor, and assisted in the establishment of his on-screen persona which would inform his entire oeuvre, especially his most legendary Hollywood roles such as George Hurstwood in Carrie (1952), the Regent in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), Gen. Burgoyne in The Devil’s Disciple (1959), and Crassus in Spartacus (1960). However, while existing scholarship on Olivier provides an extensive study of the actor’s work and supplies an evaluative focus on his Shakespearean performances, it notably neglects to deeply engage with his aforementioned Hollywood performances. Thus, Olivier is commonly positioned as a Shakespearean star.
In view of recent findings that reveal Olivier’s interest and practice of applying Freudian meanings to his performance right before his arrival in Hollywood, this paper will revisit his Hollywood work and create a discussion within seminal Queer theory to identify how his nuanced method of performing challenged the traditional ideals of “normalcy” within the larger context of 1940s and 50s Hollywood. In doing so this paper will explore an overlooked part of Olivier’s career whilst forging a new critical approach to the discourse surrounding the actor, recognising him as a queer star.
Biography:
Ana Maria Sapountzi is a first year PhD student at the Department of Film Studies at the University of St Andrews, where she is undertaking a queer study of Laurence Olivier’s Hollywood performances. Her main areas of research interest include gender and sexuality, identity, performance, cultural analysis, stardom, aesthetics and subversion.
Panel Five – Social Media, Apps, and Identity (16:00 – 17:30)
16:00 – Yvonne Ehrstein – The postfeminist reconciliation challenge: Representations and lived experiences of maternal femininities on Mumsnet.com
The question of how to combine paid work with parenthood is a pressing one, at least for women. With the shift from the male breadwinner model to the unisex adult worker model, women are now fully immersed in the labour market, evoking the semblance of accomplished gender equality. The new sexual contract (McRobbie, 2009), situating women in both the private-domestic as well as the public-productive work sphere, entails the demand to reconcile working and caring identities (Ringrose and Walkerdine, 2008). Yet, as feminist research continues to show, caring and domestic responsibilities are still unequally distributed, and women remain primary caregivers (e.g. Lyonette and Crompton, 2015). Thus, what I call the reconciliation challenge, the balancing of private and public realms of life, emerges as key site where persistent gender inequalities are played out. This PhD project is concerned with the interplay between lived experiences and cultural representations of working mothers in online environments. By analysing the influential, yet under-explored British parenting website Mumsnet.com both as a representation of contemporary parenting culture and as the largest UK parenting community, the research investigates constructions of work-family reconciliations and the ways in which these are navigated by maternal subjects. The presentation considers how gender inequalities that relate to the uneven distribution of caring and domestic labour are negotiated and discussed by Mumsnet users, and explores to what extent these lived experiences of site users correspond to and conform with mediated images of successfully combined maternal and occupational identities.
Biography:
Yvonne is a PhD researcher in the Department of Sociology at City, University of London. Having completed an M.A. in Sociology and German Studies (Distinction) at Goethe University, Frankfurt, her research interests centre around intersecting gender and class inequalities, the interrelation between subjectivity and culture, and feminist research methods.
16:30 – Paul Michaels – Imagine a date where you find yourself being told “OH BABZ! PEE! BRB! Tmi?”: Deaf gay men and their use of dating apps to (not) meet men
The emergence and development of technology and geo-social networking apps has changed the way men meet other men for friendship, dates or sex. Undoubtedly, the largest and most popular platform facilitating this activity is Grindr. They promote themselves as ‘a global community for men of all backgrounds to connect with one another.’ (Grindr LLC, n.d.) This sounds like the ideal world but unfortunately, this is not the case for many Deaf men using these apps.
Research conducted by Goedel & Duncan (2015) showed that 38% of hearing men reported using these apps to meet new sexual partners. This contrasts to the research I conducted with a sample of Deaf men who reported that making friends (22%) and having dates (19%) were the overarching motivations for use. In addition, I also found that only 10% of the Deaf gay men ‘often’ met men after chatting, which begs the question of how the Deaf men are making friends or going on dates if they are not meeting?
This presentation will provide evidence as to the reasons these apps are not serving the Deaf community in ways they aim to serve the hearing community and suggest ways in which improvements could be made.
Biography:
Paul is a qualified British Sign Language Interpreter and part-time PhD student at Durham University and has been working with the Deaf community for 12 years. His previous research focused on the identity, culture and language of the Deaf gay male community.
17:00 – Milly Morris – Track.Compare.Compete: fitness apps, self-surveillance and the gendered nature of quantifying the self
With a focus on Strava and MyFitnessPal, this paper will use Foucault’s theory of self-surveillance to question whether fitness applications have the potential to negatively impact female body image. Calorie-counting and calorie-burning applications are often viewed as a useful tool to combat ‘the obesity crisis’ on an individual level, allowing users to track their food intake/exercise levels and compare/compete with other trackers. Within the age of social media, the obsessive documentation of self is normalized – perhaps even expected – and so these apps appear as a harmless tool for ‘health conscious’ individuals. However, when viewed alongside Western culture’s pervasive fear of female fat, they arguably play into the mainstream narrative of the ‘in control’ thin female body as opposed to the ‘out of control’ fat female body. Likewise, the constant quantification of the female body into ‘improvable’ components potentially acts as an intensification of the mainstream media’s reduction of the body into parts to be graded and approved. Overall, the piece will suggest that fitness applications have the potential to exacerbate ritualistic tendencies designed to make women constantly watch themselves and their bodies.
Biography:
Milly is a second year PhD student at the University of Birmingham. Her thesis uses self-surveillance to explore the dieting industry, the fat female body and fat activism. Her other research interests include social media, reality TV and the politics of food. She teaches first year undergraduates and is a frequent contributor to the Feminist Academic Collective, a space for feminist ‘rants and musings.’
If you have any further questions please email rolessexualitygender@gmail.com.
Access Guide For ROLES: 7th Annual Conference
General Information
The Conference takes Place on Thursday 18th May 2017 in the Gisbert Kapp Building on the University of Birmingham Campus.
Gisbert Kapp is 10 -15 minutes’ walk from the University train station, and close to the 98 and 99 route bus stops. It is situated on Pritchatts Road, past North Gate and on the opposite side of the road to the Alan Watts Building/Muirhead Tower.
There is parking outside the venue and a multi-storey car park besides the building.
Registration for the conference will open at 9am, with the welcome talk starting at 9:30. There will be a break between 11:30 and 12:00, and lunch will be served between 13:00 and 14:00. There will be another break between 15:30 and 16:00. The conference will end around 17:30, and there will be a wine reception afterwards. The conference is an open event and attendees are welcome to come and go as they please.
Disability Access
Gisbert Kapp is wheelchair accessible from the main entrance. The rooms for the conference are divided between the second and third floors; the lifts are accessible to wheelchair users and there is an accessible toilet on the ground floor near the café.
All rooms used for the conference are wheelchair accessible and have double doors. However, there are only limited wheelchair spaces available in the main lecture room, so please inform us through the registration form if you require a designated space.
We have booked a separate quiet space for attendees if they are struggling with the conference and need time to re-energise during the day. This will be located in room 328.
We are in the process of investigating the use of hearing loops within the venue and will update the guide with the information we receive.
For more information on the accessibility of the venue please consult this guide http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/university-of-birmingham/gisbert-kapp-building-2 and for any further queries please email us at rolessexualitygender@gmail.com.
Evacuation Procedures
In the case of an emergency the alarms will ring and attendees are to make their ways to the stairs and follow the signed root.
For those with mobility impairments there is a evacuation point positioned next to the elevators which has a separate alarm which will need to be pressed. This will alert the emergency services to your presence so they can help you evacuate the building safely.
Childcare facilities
Unfortunately we are unable to provide any daycare for children during the conference. Although Gisbert Kapp does not have any baby changing facilities, the Arts Building has baby changing facilities on the ground floor. The Arts Building is located about 5-10 minutes’ walk from the venue. We hope this will be sufficient.
Prayer rooms
There are designated prayer rooms on campus located in both the Guild of Students and the Chaplaincy. The chaplaincy also comes equipped with various denominations of chaplains if they are needed. This is located a 10-15 minute walk from the venue.
Gender Neutral Bathrooms
Gisbert Kapp has recently acquired gender neutral bathrooms. They will be open to all attendees during the event, and are located at the end of the corridor on the 3rd floor.
Map
REGISTRATION FOR ROLES 2017 IS NOW OPEN!!
To register for the 7th Annual ROLES: A Sexuality & Gender Forum conference on 18th May 2017, please fill out this form.
Registration is free and includes lunch, refreshments and a wine reception. Registration on the day from 9am.
[Image Description: Poster for Roles 7th Annual Conference.
Text on the left side in red and black reads:
“ROLES: A Sexuality & Gender Forum 2017
7th Annual Conference
Call For Papers: We invite you to submit abstracts related to any and all aspects of the study of Sexuality and Gender
250 word abstract & 50 word bio
Submission to rolessexualitygender@gmail.com by Saturday 11th March 2017”
Image on right side depicts a monochrome photograph of Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera at the Stonewall Riot Police Line, with large red roses and small gold stars edited in around and above the picture of them.
Text at the bottom in white and black writing on a red box reads: “18th May 2017
Gisbert Kapp Building, University of Birmingham
This is a free event and we will strive to make this conference fully accessible. We will have facilities for wheelchair access and rest spaces. Please contact us if you have any questions or further access requirements. There will be live tweeting of the event.”
Text at bottom in white writing on a black box reads:
“facebook.com/rolesforum
Tweet @groles
groles.wordpress.com”]
Roles 2017 Keynote Announced: Dr. Katharine Jenkins
Exciting news!
We can now confirm that the keynote speaker for Roles 7th Annual Conference will be Dr. Katharine Jenkins, who will be presenting ‘Gender Identity: A Guide for the Perplexed’.
Abstract: There is widespread confusion among cis people about the notion of gender identity. This matters for two reasons. Firstly, because cis people are called upon to use this concept, including about themselves. Secondly, because this concept can play a useful political role in the movement for trans rights, for example in anti-discrimination legislation, which requires that it be generally understood. Gender identity is often defined as ‘having a sense of oneself as a man, woman or some other gender’. However, it is increasingly common for terms like ‘woman’ to be used to refer to gender identity. This leads to circularity in the definition of gender identity: someone has a gender identity of ‘woman’ if she has a sense of herself as someone who has a gender identity of ‘woman’. This talk proposes a definition of the concept of gender identity that avoids this circularity whilst being suitable for use in emancipatory political practice.
Biography: Dr. Katharine Jenkins
I joined the Philosophy Department at the University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor in September 2016. Before that, I was a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. I hold a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Sheffield, and a BA and MPhil in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge. I grew up in the Lake District and I think I’ll always miss the fells.
When I’m not doing philosophy (and sometimes when I am) I enjoy hiking, yoga, knitting, sewing, and playing tabletop games.
Poster for 7th Annual Conference!
Our wonderful new poster, designed by Zoe Paterson:
[Image Description: Poster for Roles 7th Annual Conference.
Text on the left side in red and black reads:
“ROLES: A Sexuality & Gender Forum 2017
7th Annual Conference
Call For Papers: We invite you to submit abstracts related to any and all aspects of the study of Sexuality and Gender
250 word abstract & 50 word bio
Submission to rolessexualitygender@gmail.com by Saturday 11th March 2017”
Image on right side depicts a monochrome photograph of Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera at the Stonewall Riot Police Line, with large red roses and small gold stars edited in around and above the picture of them.
Text at the bottom in white and black writing on a red box reads: “18th May 2017
Gisbert Kapp Building, University of Birmingham
This is a free event and we will strive to make this conference fully accessible. We will have facilities for wheelchair access and rest spaces. Please contact us if you have any questions or further access requirements. There will be live tweeting of the event.”
Text at bottom in white writing on a black box reads:
“facebook.com/rolesforum
Tweet @groles
groles.wordpress.com”]
Roles 