Embodied Belongings Symposium: Exploring the Politics of “Queer” in South Asia
The South
Asia Center is pleased to announce that it will hold a symposium titled
“Embodied Belongings: Exploring the Politics of ‘Queer’ in South Asia on
October 5 and 6.
The
Symposium will kick off at 7pm on Thursday, October 5, with Toronto-based
artist, Vivek Shraya’s multi-media performance. She will show and discuss a
range of her work -- literature, song and film -- to highlight the complex
relationship between belonging and the body itself. Her work consistently tackles what it means
to belong (and not belong) in relation to family, religion, community spaces,
queerness and transness.
The second
day of the symposium will open up with a keynote address on “With Respect to
Sex, Revisited” by Professor Gayatru Reddy, a sociocultural anthropologist
whose interests lie at the intersections of sexuality, gender, health, and the
politics of subject and community-formation in India. Following the keynote,
there will be three panels exploring the politics, cultures, and arts of queer
communities in South Asia. The Symposium will conclude with a reading by Shyam
Selvadurai, an award-winning author from Sri Lanka. His novel Funny Boy draws on his experience of
being gay in the violent 1980s of Sri Lanka.
This
symposium has been made possible by support from: the Department of Education
Title VI National Resource Center grant, the Moynihan Institute of Global
Affairs, the College of Arts and Sciences Ray Smith Symposium and the
Humanities Center. We have also received co-sponsorships from the Departments
of Anthropology, Religion, Women’s Studies, English, Writing Studies, Rhetoric,
and Composition, the LGBTQ Program and the Ford Maxwell Professor of South
Asian Studies.
All events
are free and open to the public. Light breakfast, lunch, and coffee breaks will
be provided. There is no need to register. Please see our website: https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/queersouthasia for additional details.