A Collaboration between the Alberta Public Interest Research Group, The Landing and University of Alberta Pride Week
Call for Facilitators: Intersections of Queer Symposium
————————–
Arts Based Research Studio, University of Alberta
March 5 and 6, 2015
Deadline for submissions/contact: February 6, 2015
A collaboration between the Alberta Public Interest Research Group, The Landing, and the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies & Services.
None of us are solely gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, queer or transgender. We all occupy a multitude of social positions in the world, and this complexity 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.
With 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. Based on a structural engagement with the intersections of queer identity, 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 actively seeking individuals who are interested in facilitating sessions around these intersections. Importantly, we encourage creative approaches to learning and connecting including popular education models, arts-based practices (dance, theatre, visual arts, spoken word, and poetry) and facilitated discussions that value 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 are marginalized within dominant LGBTQ communities and conversations and what are the implications of these exclusions?
• What dominant forms of oppression operate within lgbtq communities? How might we go about recognizing them in meaningful and active ways?
• What are useful tools and practices for exposing, examining and changing inequalities within LGBTQ communities?
• How do experiences and identities of LGBTQ differ across intersections? How do we value these differences in ways that resist the dominant systems of value and oppression?
• 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 this two day symposium (March 5-6, 1:00- 5:00pm) please contact Parker Leflar (Manager, the Landing) at thelanding@su.ualberta.ca with the following information:
• name and contact information
• type of workshop/space/discussion you are wanting to facilitate
• how your space relates to the topic of intersections of lgbtq
• any support/resources/
• the length of your space/workshop
• any accessibility needs/wants that you have
Please be in contact by February 6, 2015.
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.