Queer
Theory Research Focus Group
Conveners:
Mireille Miller-Young, Assistant Professor, Department
of Women’s Studies, Mireille_lorien@hotmail.com
Horacio Roque-Ramirez, Assistant Profess, Department
of Chicana and Chicano Studies, roqueramirez@chicst.ucsb.edu
The Research interests of the group
For the 2005-06 academic year, the Queer Theory Research
Focus Group (QTRFG) will dedicate itself to examining
“Deviant Sexualities.” The group will
engage the following themes:
• The rigorous interrogation of intersections
of race, class, gender, sexuality and deviance.
• Discourses of marginalized sexual communities,
including media and public cultural practices and
(re)presentations of deviant sexualities.
• Theorizing HIV/AIDS politics in marginalized
communities.
• Deviant sexualities in relation to the State,
social institutions and the economy.
• Examining the intersection of queer and diaspora
theories.
• Sexual/Gender performance praxis
• Queer gender and sexual cultural formations
• Pornography, sex work, and sexual economies
• Feminist theories of embodiment
• Subversive or alternative sexual identities,
geographies and social movements
The names of conveners of the group, as well
as the names of the faculty and graduate students
who have agreed to participate in the group and/or
strategies for identifying and recruiting members:
Mireille Miller-Young (Women’s Studies), convener
Ellie Hernandez (Women’s Studies)
Leila Rupp
Grace Chang
Eileen Boris
Roberto Strongman
Guy Mark Foster
Horacio Roque Ramirez
Darieck Scott (English)
Johari Jabi (Religious Studies)
Stephan Miescher (History)
Karl Bryant (Sociology and Women’s Studies)
Jessi Quizar (Sociology)
Nikki Jones
Heather Tirago Gilligan
Tania Israel (Counseling/Clinical/School Psychology)
Verta Taylor
Mashey Bernstein (Writing Program)
Aaron Belkin (Political Science)
Paul Amar (Law and Society)
Jackie Stevenson
Activities Planned
• Presentation of new research and works in
progress for review, reading and discussion of cutting
edge scholarship on the topic, and welcome guest speakers
to address the group.
• Our focus on “Deviant Sexualities”
references our interest in developing and participating
in the most current scholarship in the fields of Sexuality
Studies and Queer Theory.
• Following Cathy Cohen’s interrogation
into “deviance as resistance,” this group
will examine the multiplicity of ways in which deviant
sexual constructions and practices elicit resistive,
autonomous, defiant, or self-constituting behaviors
and subjectivities.
• Organize and sponsor events for World AIDS
Day, Dec 1, 2005, with the intention of raising awareness
among members of the university and broader community
about the exigencies of the HIV/AIDS pandemice and
its devastating effects on the marginalized communities.
• One-day conference on the topic of “Deviant
Sexualities” to occur in the Spring Quarter
of 2006.
Activities, 2002-2003
In 2002-2003, the IHC Research Focus Group Queer Theory
(hereafter RFG) organized four seminars with pre-circulated
readings, one informal talk, and one public lecture.
The public lecture by Joanne Meyerowitz, Professor
of History, Indiana University, and Editor of the
Journal of American History, attracted an audience
from across caII1pus. The RFG plans to continue meeting
in 2003-2004.
Fall 2002
Thursday, October 24,2002,
Leila Rupp, Women Studies, and Verta Taylor, Sociology,
gave a talk about their forthcoming book, Drag Queens
at the 801 Cabaret (University of Chicago Press).
November 17,2002
Mattie Richardson, doctoral fellow, Women's Studies,
led a discussion about representations of African-American
lesbians in film and literature (work-in-progress).
Readings were precirculated.
Winter 2003
January 30, 2003
Alison Kafer, doctoral fellow, Women's Studies, led
a discussion about the intersection of queer studies
and disability studies. Readings were pre-circulated.
Spring 2003
April 10, 2003
Robert Caputi, graduate student, Sociology, led a
discussion about queer identities in "bear communities"
of Southern California. The RFG read his dissertation
proposal, "The Bears: Exploring the Alternative
Sexual Aesthetics of a Gay Male Subculture.
May 12, 2003
IHC, McCune Conference Room
RFG Queer Theory Annual Lecture
“Rethinking Sex: The Case of Christine Jorgensen”
Joanne Meyerowitz, Professor of History, Indiana University,
and Editor of the Journal of American History
This well attended lecture was co-sponsored by the
Department of History and the Hull Chair in Women’s
Studies
