University of Wisconsin hosting ‘Embodying Feminism’ conference to discuss ‘queer theory, disability studies, and fat studies’
‘We encourage proposals that explore transfeminism, queer theory, disability studies, and fat studies, especially those which explicitly bring focus to embodiment,’ the organizers write.
Several other schools are also hosting similar conferences on intersectionality.
The University of Wisconsin is hosting a conference on feminism featuring “queer theory, disability studies, and fat studies.”
The conference is titled “Embodying Feminism: Calling In, Calling Out, Calling to Action,” and is scheduled from April 10-12. It is hosted by the University of Wisconsin System’s Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium and the Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian, and will take place at the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.
The conference aims to examine the idea of “embodiment” as part of feminist theory.
“This year, we dive into the concrete, physical ways we interact with the world and each other, how our lives are impacted by how we feel and move through spaces, and strategies to embody feminist ideals,” the event description states.
Proposals from participants will discuss “feminist embodiment” through “transnational, legal, political, reproductive, anti-carceral, digital, artistic, and pedagogical” lenses.
“We encourage proposals that explore transfeminism, queer theory, disability studies, and fat studies, especially those which explicitly bring focus to embodiment,” the description states.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison has covered similar intersectional themes on other occasions.
The school, for example, is currently offering a course on understanding “fatness” as it intersects with other “social justice” issues.
Students of “Framing Fatness: Gender, Size, Constructing Health” are studying how “fatness” supposedly “intersects with other systems like big pharma, the food industry, beauty industry, globalization, neoliberalism, and consumerism.”
In the fall semester, the university also offered courses on “Queering Ecofeminism” and “Gender, Sexuality, and Performance: Madison Trans and Queer Performance Activism.”
[RELATED: Barnard College’s ‘Borders and Bodies’ course goes straight for queer theory]
Other universities are hosting similar conferences. Southern Connecticut State University is planning an upcoming conference in April on the “intersections of gender, race, communities, and institutions,” and the University of Colorado Boulder is hosting a March conference on “TRANSforming Gender” that will discuss subjects like “queering biology” and “Decolonial and trans* of color critiques.”
Campus Reform contacted the University of Wisconsin-Madison for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
