Working in the Shadows: Collaboration as Queer Practice

2015

The following texts have been written by a range of talented young scholars, artists and activists. We consider the first issue of the SSSCP Proceedings a great contribution to a wider body of research conducted within the field of cultural studies overall, but also to queer theory/politics/practice, gender studies, media and studies of the body. What differentiates this collection from others is a delicate balance between personal journeys and academic adventures that authors have taken upon. The first edition is also of invaluable importance and an immensely relevant input to a regional political and cultural struggle to embrace otherness. We would even go as far as to claim that the present collection represents a fresh and daring contribution to the inert regional academic production and a useful, empowering tool for various sorts of activist and artistic endeavors. Stanimir Panayotov and Ana Koncul (Eds.), Proceedings from the Summer School for Sexualities, Cultures and Politics 2014, Belgrade: IPAK.Center, 2015. ​Stanimir Panayotov and Ana Koncul Note from the Editors Steph Schem Rogerson Queer Archives Claire Finch Mutating France’s Queer Territories Antonina Anna Ferrante In Drag We Trust: Normative Drives and Homonationalism in RuPaul’s Drag Race Thomas Muzart Pornography Must Be Defended: Rethinking Pornography with Lionel Soukaz Marius Henderson Tentative Heretical Notes on Queer “Necro” Practices and Sensibilities Jennifer Vilchez Hard to Swallow: Porn Star James Deen’s Arousing Work and Young Women’s Fandom france rose [ the space in between ]: The Power of Contemporary Art to Reimagine Gender Mónica Guerreiro Intense, Animal, Imperceptible: Vera Mantero’s a mysterious Thing, said e. e. cummings* as a Queer Dance Solo Anna Wates Grieving as Political Action: Contesting Austerity Politics through Narratives of Loss in the Disabilities Rights Movements Melisa Slipac When a Woman Loves a Woman: Lesbian Love and Homosexual Desire in Ajla Terzić’s Novel Mogla je biti prosta priča (Could Have Been a Simple Story)​

gender/sexuality/italy, 2020

The editorial board is pleased to issue a call for submissions for Number 7 2020 of gender/sexuality/italy (g/s/i), a peer-reviewed, digital open-access journal on gender studies in Italian culture (http://www.gendersexualityitaly.com). g/s/i—gender/sexuality/italy 7 (2020) invites essays studying and interventions performing collaborations as they intersect and cross research, pedagogical, and creative practices, gender and sexuality studies, and Italian Studies. Some areas that might be considered: • Horizontal and vertical intellectual and creative exchanges • Decolonizing pedagogical and research practices • Intersectional and interdisciplinary collaborations • Collaborations across space • Collaborations as continuum (continuing former collaborative efforts) • Intra and extra-academic collaborations • Inter-institutional collaborative models • Collaborative practices among affiliative groups (such as organizations, families, teams, etc.) Submissions due: August 1 The articles will be sent to reviewers for a process of double blind peer review, according to the g/s/i policies for guest edited volumes (see http://www.gendersexualityitaly.com/policies/). Comments and feedback will be returned to authors in fall 2020, for final editing. Articles must be either in English or Italian, no longer than 10,000 words with spaces (including bibliography and footnotes), must conform to the standards of The Chicago Manual of Style, and must be accompanied by an abstract (500 words), a brief bio (200 parole) and 5 keywords. Please submit your article through the journal website using the Submit an Article page: http://www.gendersexualityitaly.com/article-submissions/submit-article-to-gsi/.

g/s/i, 2019

This article examines the translations into Italian of four post-porn and transfeminist Spanish texts, written by the writers and performers Diana Torres and Itziar Ziga: Pornoterrorismo/Porn terrorism (2014), Fica Potens/ Powerful Cunt (2015), Vomitorium/Vomitorium (2017), and Diventare Cagna/Becoming a Bitch (2015). The texts were translated by a group of Italian transfeminist translators. The presentations of these translations, between the years 2014 and 2017, have helped to enhance the Italian debate on post-porn and on issues such as slut-shaming, prostitution rights, and male violence against women. The concepts that will be discussed in this article are performativity, DIY translation, and contamination. Performativity and the DIY ethos relate to the fact that, prior to the publication of these translations, the texts were partially translated/interpreted by non-professional translators as well as performed, or used, within workshops of self-experimentation (for example those on female ejaculation); the presentations of these translations contributed to the creation of subsequent translations, workshops, performances, and performers. The concept of contamination, finally, is the product of these DIY translations and self-experimentations, which are capable of generating a contagious energy (Massumi 2002; Gregg and Seigworth 2010) that contributes to the creation of new affective networks and alliances among transfeminist collectives.

Educ. Form., Fortaleza, v. 6, n. 2, e4448, maio/ago. 2021 , 2021

A philosophical analysis of J. Butler's performativity in relation to Comprehensive Sexual Education is carried out, which allows us to understand the implicit heterosexist matrix of intelligibility in pedagogies of gender and sexuality. In the context of implementation of Comprehensive Sexual Education in Argentina and based on research on its achievements and challenges, it is argued that this gender perspective contributes to overcoming binary approaches that stigmatize sexual diversity. As an interdisciplinary contribution to the educational field, reflection from performativity enhances changes in curricular content that Queer and feminist movements demand, as well as liberating displacements of the norms in school practices. Educación Sexual Integral en Argentina y performatividad: un abordaje filosófico feminista Resumen Se realiza un análisis filosófico de la performatividad de Judith Butler en relación a la Educación Sexual Integral, que permite comprender la matriz heterosexista de inteligibilidad implícita en pedagogías del género y de la sexualidad. En el contexto de implementación de la Educación Sexual Integral en la Argentina y a partir de investigaciones sobre sus logros y desafíos, se argumenta que esta perspectiva del género contribuye a superar enfoques binarios que estigmatizan la diversidad sexual. Como aporte interdisciplinario al campo educativo, la reflexión desde la performatividad potencia cambios en contenidos curriculares que reclaman movimientos queer y feministas y también desplazamientos liberadores de las normas en las prácticas escolares. Palabras clave: Performatividad. ESI. Género. Diversidad. Educação Sexual Integral na Argentina e performatividade: uma abordagem filosófica feminista Resumo Realiza-se uma análise filosófica da performatividade de Judith Butler em relação à Educação Sexual Integral, que nos permite compreender a matriz heterossexista de inteligibilidade implícita nas pedagogias de gênero e sexualidade. No contexto da EDUCAÇÃO & FORMAÇÃO Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE) Educ. Form., Fortaleza, v. 6, n. 2, e4448, maio/ago. 2021 2 implementação da Educação Sexual Integral na Argentina, com base em pesquisas sobre suas conquistas e desafios, argumenta-se que esta perspectiva de gênero contribui para a superação de abordagens binárias que estigmatizam a diversidade sexual. Como contribuição interdisciplinar para o campo educacional, a reflexão a partir da performatividade potencializa mudanças nos conteúdos curriculares que os movimentos queer e feministas exigem, bem como deslocamentos libertadores das normas nas práticas escolares. Palavras-chave: Performatividade. Educação Sexual Integral. Gênero. Diversidade.

QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 4, No. 2, 2018

All rights reserved. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.-Audre Lorde This article is an artistic documentation of The Last Seduction/La Seducción Fatal (2015-current). This project incorporates art and advocacy through modes of resistance by dismantling heteronormativity, racism, classism, colonialism, the idea of "an art master," and (art) institutions who uphold this notion. This project initiates an intersectional dialogue by examining race, gender, class, sexuality, and the other. It is interdisciplinary, and includes performance, photography, new media, video, and the Internet. The Last Seduction/La Seducción Fatal is a melding of performance, photography, and painting, re-envisioning a queer, people of color history digitally merged into the painting canon of the nineteenth century. The name of this project is taken from a painting exhibition in Buenos Aires from 2015 at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA-National Museum of Fine Arts). The subject matter is an in-depth visual portrayal of myths, fables, seduction, and betrayal, all within a plethora of female nudes. I appropriate these nineteenthcentury paintings to use as the background and reinsert my queered, mundane, and fetishistic contemporary photographic portraits as the subject(s).

IPCC2018 Proceedings, 2018

This paper focuses on my thoughts after attending a conference with another colleague of mine, and our talks among each other regarding this experience, which made us think about the method in an inclusive manner. On the other hand, due to the fact that my ongoing Ph.D. dissertation research is based on a personal story, I have been thinking about a new approach towards method for some time now.

According to Michael Birchall (2014), the role of visual activist artists has become integral to contemporary curatorial strategies because curators are increasingly using exhibitions, and the practice of curating, as mechanisms and platforms for knowledge diffusion. Brenson (1998:16-17) concurs that the role of the curator, within the contemporary art world, has undergone transformation; moving from a “behind-the-scenes aesthetic arbiter to [a] central player in the broader stage of global cultural politics”. As such, the new curator recognises the capacity of art to communicate, to facilitate, to mobilise, and to encourage conversations surrounding issues that inform the contemporary milieu. Curators, like visual activist artists, can similarly give voice to social issues by focusing their exhibitions, their use of space and the selection of artworks and art objects to rethink “[ideologies], methodologies and iconographies both for what they do say, and for what do not say” (Reilly, 2011:22). Co-curators Dr Laura De Becker and Leigh Blackenberg, partnering with Haley McEwen from the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, staged an exhibition, titled "queer and trans Art-iculations: Collaborative Art for Social Change" (2014), featuring artworks by South African social and art activists, Zanele Muholi and Gabrielle Le Roux. The exhibition, as an intervention sought to address the ongoing violence and hate crimes faced by black members of the South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community. Showcasing artworks from Muholi’s ongoing "Mo(u)rning" project, which aims to memorialise the lives of deceased queer womxn of colour, and Le Roux’s "Proudly African & Transgender" (2008-2010) and "Proudly Trans in Turkey" (2010-present) series, two bodies of work “combin[ing] art and activism to… promote social justice” for transgender persons globally. The exhibition highlighted “the importance of art activism as a means to [address] the need for locally situated knowledge and action around issues of sexual orientation and gender identity” (Haysom, 2014:1; Le Roux, 2013:54). Quoted in Blackenberg and McEwen (2014:62), the curators stated that the discursive or theoretical framework, which informed queer and trans Art-iculations’ (2014) curatorial strategy, was based on Steyn’s (2010:50-81) theory of conscientisation. Conceptualised as a method for mobilising critical consciousness, the theory is concerned with a person’s acknowledgement and questioning of how power – in relation to privilege and oppression – operates within social and political discourses, whilst recognising the implications of emotional and affective responses on such discourses; “conscientisation… is both cognitive and affective, and, above all, relational [in its process” (Steyn, 2010:74). Following this framework, the exhibition established a space for viewers to learn and critically engage with issues of discrimination faced by South African queer communities through representations of lived experience. Additionally, the Wits Art Museum (WAM) gallery became a safe environment in which sexuality, sexual diversity and gender could be expressed, discussed and celebrated (McEwen & Milani, 2014:4-5). While the exhibition served as a ‘creative rupture’ to address the injustice and intolerance faced by queer people in South Africa, it could be said that the exhibition addressed the decolonisation of gender within South African discourse. The artistic representations exhibited critique, interrogate and re-negotiate ‘traditional’ heteronormative understandings of gender binaries and sexual identities (Haysom, 2014:2; McEwen & Milani, 2014:5; Wits Art Museum, n.d.). The intention of this essay is to critically examine and unpack how queer and trans Art-iculations (2014) established a framework for the decolonisation of gender and sexuality. Initially, the essay briefly contextualises an approach towards the decolonisation of gender and sexuality. Secondly, the text explores how the inclusion of specific bodies of work, by Muholi and Le Roux, “can be seen as the beginning of a decolonising [gender and sexuality] project that emerges from Africa” (Milani, 2014:75). Finally, it investigates how the engagement and use of a Comments Wall, by the exhibition’s visitors to express their responses, promoted discussions and dialogues surrounding the social and political complexities of gender and sexual diversities.

Revista Feminismos, 2015

Typically, when researchers in social sciences reflect upon political engagement and the implications of their work on social transformation, they focus on how their research affects the social reality and the lives of the the people they work "on", "with", or "for." These are quite often marginalized groups. In this paper, we would like to critically address the issue from the point of view of how the material and cultural conditions of academic work affect us-the researchers. We will highlight that the discipline required by the academic labor market produces a kind of subjectivity that actually hinders the social transformation we are seeking as queer activists, although the content of our research may be consistent with it and may even seem to foster it. It is not by accident that the urge to address the issue in this terms comes from the Italian context, where the conditions of work in general and academic work in particular have been degenerating rapidly over the past ten years. At the same time, the privatization of university seems to be a global trend, such that our analysis may be of interest also for Brazilian feminist and queer researchers. We are writing as members of SomMovimento NazioAnale, a network of transfeminist queer collectives and single activists based in various parts of Italy, also including some activists that used to be based in Italy and emigrated in other European countries for economic reasons. Some people within this network work in the academy; almost all are in very precarious conditions. Recently, the network started a discussion about the relationship between academic work and activism.