Call for Facilitators: Intersections of Queer Symposium, Thursday March 10, 2016
Deadline for submissions/contact: February 12, 2016
None of us are solely gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, queer or trans; we all occupy multiple social positions in the world. How these positions intersect informs and transforms our experiences of gender and sexuality. In seeking to build communities and spaces for LGBTQ* people, it is these places of intersection, of transformative complexity, that must guide our practices, our explorations and our learning.
Rooted in this intention, the Intersections of Queer Symposium is an attempt to create spaces for critical engagement with the complexities of LGBTQ* experiences, bodies, identities and communities. Our goal is to support a series of workshops, discussions and facilitated spaces that share knowledge and facilitate collaborative learning around issues of race, class, ability, gender, mental health, spirituality, ethnicity, indigeneity, and citizenship in relation to queerness.
We are seeking individuals who are interested in facilitating sessions around these intersections. We encourage creative approaches to learning, sharing and connecting, including: popular education models, arts-based practices (dance, theatre, visual arts, spoken word, and poetry) and facilitated discussions that engage the experiences and knowledges of all participants.
Questions for engagement include:
- How do we build communities that create space for the complexity of each of our experiences beyond simply LGBTQ*?
- Who is marginalized within LGBTQ* communities and conversations, and what are the implications of these exclusions?
- How do we challenge the tokenistic inclusion of certain identities within queer communities and foster meaningful community-building and change?
- How do other forms of oppression operate within LGBTQ* communities? How might we go about recognizing them in meaningful and active ways?
- How do experiences and identities of LGBTQ* folks differ across intersections? How do we value these differences in ways that resist dominant systems of value and oppression?
- What are useful tools and practices for exposing, examining and changing inequalities within LGBTQ* communities?
- How are advocates of sex work organizing in queer spaces?
- How does madness and mental health intersect with queerness?
- In what ways can queer communities decolonize authentically and meaningfully? How has erasure limited the identities of non-western queer individuals?
- What/how can queer people of colour experience [in] queer spaces? How do white supremacy and post-colonial contexts shape QPOC bodies in Canada?
- How are advocates for Asexuality organizing in queer spaces? What spaces and barriers exist?
- How does one integrate spirituality and religion within the contexts of queer identity?
If you are interested in facilitating a space/workshop/discussion during the symposium, please contact Emily Dutton (Executive Director, the Landing) at thelanding@su.ualberta.ca with the following information:
- name and contact information
- type of workshop/space/discussion you would like to facilitate
- how your space relates to the topic of intersections of lgbtq
- any support/resources/supplies you will need
- the length of your space/workshop
- any accessibility needs/wants
Please be in contact by February 12, 2016
APIRG is located on Amiskwacîwâskahikan Indigenous Territories and explicitly acknowledges that as we work towards identifying, challenging, and addressing intersections of oppression, it is critical to confront the ongoing practices of colonization of indigenous peoples and the land on which we live.
The Intersections of Queer Symposium is a collaboration between the Alberta Public Interest Research Group and the Landing.