RACE -Tracing Queer Citizenship over Time; REMEMBER – Vivências de pessoas LGBTQ Idosas no Portugal Democrático (1974-2020); GPS – Grupo de Pesquisa em Sexualidade (CES); Centre for Social Studies, Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal (Web)

Time: 18.-22.09.2023
Venue: Centre for Social Studies, Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal
Proposals by: 15.04.2023

The image of the monster has been historically used to epitomise danger, abnormality, sin. Even before angels, monsters were portrayed as messengers who anticipated catastrophes, such as storms and other dramatic events which would be too strong to be explained. Only good behaviour, submission to rules or faith into another inexplicable bigger entity, such as magic, witchcraft or religion, could prevent societies from being touched by monsters. The othering of monsters – or monsters as estranged from an imagined “us” – is part of the cultural narrative that dismisses the complexity of what we call humans, contributing to the binary division between good and bad, silencing all of which exists in-between. Indeed, monsters inhabit the spaces in-between narrow definitions and expose the failure of rigid divisions between “normal” and “abnormal”. Ultimately, the figure of monsters confronts us with the precariousness of by-default normativities, triggering the need to rethink what humanity is, and who counts as a human being, especially under the current political backlash against gender and sexual diversity.
The Monsters Summer School III embraces monstrosity in what it offers regarding the undoing of binaries and the celebration of embodied differences. The organizers aim to trace, remember and reclaim monsters through a queer lens. They want to explore monsters as a possible theoretical figuration to escape mainstream celebrations of humanity and to embrace the vivid possibilities offered by interdisciplinary, boundary-crossing contributions from different fields of knowledge. The organizers aim at creating spaces to discuss contributions and experiences that often fall out of the map even within critical studies. Finally, they … read more (Web)

Source: genus-request@listserv.gu.se