SC 2018 - 2018 Sexual Citizenship: A GLobal Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference

Exploring the relationship between sexuality and personhood, this project seeks to understand how sex and sexuality shape citizenship, belonging, identity, and expression. Embracing an ethos of cultural humility, we wish to explore how sexual citizenship manifests organically within and across communities and cultures.
Sexual citizenship is often constructed in ways that enforce inequities in access, disparities in full social and political participation, and hierarchies of belonging and non-belonging. The concept of citizenship is fraught with complication. How does citizenship relate to, or reject, notions of nationalism, patriotism, and hyperpatriotism? What is the relationship between citizenship and belonging? Who has access to citizenship, and how can citizenship be conceived in ways that transcend counties, states, provinces, and nations? Does sexual citizenship equate to homonationalism, or can it deconstruct and complicate loyalties specific to place and state? If citizenship serves to perpetuate binaries of inclusion and exclusion, can sexual citizenship nevertheless be a useful framework? The project looks beyond sexuality as simple desire and seeks to explore how sexuality and sexual citizenship shape political, social, and cultural engagement and research across a wide variety of contexts and disciplines.
Our first interdisciplinary conference on Sexual Citizenship seeks to form connections across professions and communities to discuss and explore research and activity on this theme, to identify areas to be subsequently explored in further depth, and to generate collaborative action that will lead to change in the inequitable ways that sexual citizenship is constructed, enforced, and maintained. While we welcome traditional papers, we would also like to solicit applied and multimodal expressions of research and engagement with sexualities topics. To that end we are particularly interested in panels or roundtables, seminars, workshop proposals, performances, policy brainstorming sessions, art exhibits and other forms of expression – recognising that different disciplines express themselves in different mediums and that different cultures have different ways of knowing. We seek submissions exploring any of the following themes:
1. Community Activism and Grassroots Organising in Marginalised Sexuality Communities
We are particularly interested in workshops on do-it-yourself activism, forming activist collectives, and case studies of successful and unsuccessful activist endeavours; activism promoting harm reduction; sexuality inclusive anti-racist practice; inequity, power relations, and sexual citizenship; homelessness and sexuality, particularly as it relates to citizenship and belonging; sexual freedom, personhood, resistance, and rebellion; sexual activism in an age of political apathy; activism, NGOs, and/or voluntary sector work addressing queer intimate partner violence; activism to rethink law and policy including:
laws governing sexuality at local, state/province, regional, and national levels; policies regulating sexuality within institutions and workplaces;
laws governing citizenship, immigration, and detention, and their relationships to sexuality
2. Sexual Citizenship and Belonging
Modern sexual ethics, including non-monogamous ethics; marriage and the sexual politics of assimilation/accommodation; immigration, migration, and sexual citizenship; intersex and transgender sexual citizenship; asexual citizenship in a predominantly sexual world; bi-erasure; sexual citizenship for religious figures/clergy; the heretical and the sacred and their place in desire; nameless, unlabellable sexualities and relationships; theories of sexuality such as queer, crip, affect, social constructionism, etc.; disability and sexuality; race, ethnicity, and sexuality; the politics of pride and queer visibility, particularly as a Western strategy of citizenship and belonging, and the rejection or critique of coming out; sexual expression in various global contexts; unnamed and unspoken sexualities and sexual encounters; citizenship within queer time and space; subcultural citizenship
3. Artistic, Narrative, and Performative Depictions of Sexuality
We are particularly interested in projects that explore sexuality and sexual citizenship through art, artistic creation, and narratives. Potential mediums include:
narrative and/or oral history workshops focused on sexual storytelling (as sexual minority communities are frequently collectivists and collectivist communities often communicate through storytelling); theatrical or performative depictions of sexuality; narrative or poetry readings or performances; visual and aesthetic art; workshops on creating, or presentation of existing, zines or chapbooks
4. Negotiating Sexuality in Different Contexts (sexual code-switching)
Identity, desire and lived experience; negotiating multiple citizenships; altering expression in different cultural contexts; sexual embodiment and disability, intersex, or trans identity; dislocated, homeless, disassociated, uprooted sex and desire; disability and/or crip sexualities; sexual identity versus sexual expression; race, ethnicity, and sexuality; fat studies and sexual embodiment; asexual affectionality and romanticism; mapping desire; public sex and the politics of public versus private sexuality; sex games and sexual play that make people uncomfortable; situational sexuality
5. Sex Workers and the Sex Economy
We are particularly interested in hearing from sex workers and the volunteer sector or NGO workers who support their autonomy. Topics may include:
sex workers’ rights, autonomy, and lived experiences; sex work and safety; sex workers’ access to citizenship; sex as economic, social, and symbolic capital; bodily autonomy and sexual agency; sex work and the barter economy; trading sex and engaging in sex work; sex tourism; sexual consumption and consumerism; purchasing sex, sex toys, and sexual images; commoditization of sexuality; sex as currency; sex as labour
6. Workshopping Professional Practice, Training, or Policy
Embracing the ethos “nothing about us without us,” we seek proposals from professionals that focus on work-shopping or soliciting feedback on improving practices, training, or policies related to sexuality in your field. What are promising practices for practitioners in your field? Where is your field heading? Presentations in this category must be understandable by a non-specialised or lay audience. We are especially interested in submissions from fields such as:
medicine and healthcare, mental healthcare, education, business and finance, law and law enforcement, immigration and detention, research, social services, sex work, activism, trades, hospitality and tourism, science, etc.
What’s so special about Progressive Connexions Events?
A fresh, friendly, dynamic, format – at Progressive Connexions we are dedicated to breaking away from the stuffy, old-fashion conference formats, where endless presentations are read aloud off powerpoints. We work to bring you an interactive format, where exchange of experience and information is alternated with captivating workshops, engaging debates and round tables, time set aside for getting to know each other and for discussing common future projects and initiatives, all in a warm, relaxed, egalitarian atmosphere.
A chance to network with international professionals – the beauty of our interdisciplinary events is that they bring together professionals from all over the world and from various fields of activity, all joined together by a shared passion. Not only will the exchange of experience, knowledge and stories be extremely valuable in itself, but we seek to create lasting, ever-growing communities around our projects, which will become a valuable resource for those belonging to them.
A chance to be part of constructing change – There is only one thing we love as much as promoting knowledge: promoting real, lasting social change by encouraging our participants to take collective action, under whichever form is most suited to their needs and expertise (policy proposals, measuring instruments, research projects, educational materials, etc.) We will support all such actions in the aftermath of the event as well, providing a platform for further discussions, advice from the experts on our Project Advisory Team and various other tools and intellectual resources, as needed.
An opportunity to discuss things that matter to you – Our events are not only about discussing how things work in the respective field, but also about how people work in that field – what are the struggles, problems and solutions professionals have found in their line of work, what are the areas where better communication among specialists is needed and how the interdisciplinary approach can help bridge those gaps and help provide answers to questions from specific areas of activity.
An unforgettable experience – When participating in a Progressive Connexions event, there is a good chance you will make some long-time friends. Our group sizes are intimate, our venues are comfortable and relaxing and our event locations are history-laden and suited to the event.
What to Send
The aim of this interdisciplinary conference and collaborative networking event is to bring together academics, professionals, practitioners, NGO’s, voluntary sector workers, in the context of a variety of formats: papers, seminars, workshops, panels, q&a’s, performances etc.
300 word reviews of your proposed contribution (abstracts, proposals for workshops, collaborative works, round tables, overviews of artistic projects or any other relevant forms of participation you are interested in) should be submitted by Friday 23rd February 2018.
All submissions will be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Advisory Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.
You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday 9th March 2018.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 22nd June 2018.