QUEER PLACES, PRACTICES, AND LIVES: A SYMPOSIUM IN HONOR OF SAMUEL STEWARD

CALL FOR PAPERS THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY COLUMBUS, OH MAY 18-19, 2012 Deadline for proposals: Aug. 12, 2011 Confirmed speakers Joseph Boone, Tim Dean, Kale Fajardo, Roderick Ferguson, Brian Glavey, Scott Herring, Eithne Lubheid, Victor Mendoza, Deborah Miranda, Jose Esteban Munoz, Hoang Tan Nguyen, Juana Maria Rodriguez, Nayan Shah, Justin Spring, Susan Stryker, Shane Vogel *** We invite proposals for the inaugural queer studies conference at The Ohio State University. The title is meant as an expansive call to consider a host of issues evoked by queer places (local/global, urban/rural, North/South, East/West, public/private, mobility/immobility), queer practices (sexual cultures, expressive cultures, political activism, academic work), and queer lives (biography, hagiography, psychology, sexology, history, development). We envision the conference as an opportunity both to take stock of inter/disciplinary trends as well as provoke new ideas and frameworks for future work. The inspiration for this expansiveness and reevaluation is Samuel Steward, an OSU alum of the 1930s and the subject of Justin Spring's critically acclaimed biography Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade (2010). As a literary studies academic, writer, and visual and tattoo artist, Steward lived a highly varied life, coming into contact, and in some cases formed long-lasting friendships, with such figures as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Thornton Wilder, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann, Alfred Kinsey, Albert Camus, Christopher Isherwood, George Platt Lynes, and Paul Cadmus. As something of a gay Casanova (and a scrupulous archivist of his sexual encounters), Steward also "linked in," as he might say, with such movie stars as Rudolf Valentino and Rock Hudson. In 1995, Steward's estate donated funds to the OSU English department to further research in LGBTQ scholarship, but these funds have only recently been rediscovered. To pay tribute to this queer Buckeye who studied at, taught at, and invested in OSU, we are taking our points of departure for panel themes from Steward's life and work. Papers may thus address any of the following (or related) topics: Aestheticism, decadence, Catholicism Archives and material culture Biography, autobiography, life-writing Body art and modification Colonialism, imperialism, decolonization Expatriatism, migration, diaspora Genealogies, invented traditions Modernism Performativity, self-elaboration, world-making Popular genres (pulp, erotica, mystery novels) Public intellectuals and subcultural lives Queer life in the academy, 1920-present Race and ethnicity Regionalism (especially the Midwest) Rural, urban, suburban sexual geographies Sailors, seamen, and other seafarers Sexology (especially Havelock Ellis and Kinsey) Sexual pleasure and perversity (BDSM, porn, hustling) Visualities (painting, photography, film) In addition, we are planning to publish a collection of essays on Samuel Steward after the conference. Thus, papers that focus on any aspect of Steward's life and work are especially welcome. Send 500-word abstract and 2-page CV by Aug. 12, 2011 to Joe Ponce ponce.8@osu.edu. Direct inquiries to Debra Moddelmog moddelmog.1@osu.edu or ponce.8@osu.edu. Conference organizing committee: Mollie Blackburn Andrea Breau Debanuj DasGupta Tommy Davis Ally Day Nikki Engel Meg LeMay Chris Lewis Corinne Martin Debra Moddelmog Joe Ponce Jim Sanders Mary Thomas Blake Wilder Shannon Winnubst 

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