Queer London Conference: Call for Papers
Saturday 23rd March, 2013
Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, University of
Westminster
Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Matt Cook (Birkbeck College, University of London)
This one-day conference is dedicated to a consideration of London and its
role in creating, housing, reflecting and facilitating queer life. It aims
to bring together scholars from a variety of different disciplines and
backgrounds to consider representations of queer London and how London
itself represents queers.
That London is a focus and centre for queer life and culture can be seen on
its stages; in its bar and club scenes; in its film festivals and its
representations in film; in its performance art; in its political life; in
its gyms; in its history; in its book groups and book shops; and in its
representations in the contemporary queer fiction of writers like Alan
Hollinghurst and Sarah Waters. That London is a hub and an axis goes without
saying. What the ŒQueer London¹ conference aims to do then is to offer an
opportunity for further analysis and investigation of these
representations/representational platforms and to consider the
socio-cultural role that London plays in queer life.
The conference will focus on the period 1885 to the present and welcomes
interdisciplinary proposals and those from a wide range of disciplines,
including: Literature, History, Art, Cultural Studies, Theatre and
Performance Studies. Potential topics might include, but are not limited to:
* Mapping queer London
* Lesbian Londons
* Queers of colour and London
* Queer modernisms
* Queer institutions and structures
* Literary representations of queer London
* Films of queer London
* Queer drama and performance in/on London
* Queer histories of London
* London¹s queer temporalities
* Queer flâneurie
* London¹s AIDS narratives
* Queer urban subcultures
* London¹s queer festivals
* Queer sex workers
* London¹s queer activism
* Heterosexual and homosexual London, meeting points and overlaps
Please send abstracts of 500 words, or proposals for panels of three linked
papers, by Friday 30th November 2012 to Dr. Simon Avery and Dr. Katherine M.
Graham at the University of Westminster. Abstracts should be sent as Word
attachments to s.avery@westminster.ac.uk and k.graham1@westminster.ac.uk,
and should include details of your current affiliation and a very short
author bio.
Mark Carrigan 