Call for Papers SCS Queer Caucus Society for Cinema Studies Conference May 24-27, 2001, Washington, D.C. "Re-Conditioning the 'Queer': Moving-Image Theory and Culture in the Age of Global Transnationalism" In contemporary academic discourse, "queer" has come to signify a particularly postmodern mode of socio-cultural subversion. In Eve Sedgwick's classic description, "queer" designates an "open mesh of possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone's gender, of anyone's sexuality aren't made (or can't be made) to signify monolithically: the experimental linguistic, epistemological, representational, political attaching to the very many of us who may at times be moved to describe ourselves as (among other possibilities) pushy femmes, radical faeries, fantasists, drags, clones, leatherfolk, ladies in tuxedos, feminist women or feminist men, masturbators, bulldaggers, divas, Snap!queens, butch bottoms, storytellers, transsexuals, aunties, wanna-bes, lesbian-identified men or lesbians who sleep with men, or people able to relish, learn from, or identify with such (Eve Kosofsky-Sedgwick, "Queer and Now" in TENDENCIES, 8). This understanding of "queer" as sex-gender extremity, oversufficiency, and differential superfluity has indeed disseminated quickly and energetically across the rapidly intensifying ranges of international moving-image culture. Over the past decade, film, television, and the Internet have supplied "queers" with tools to re-envision sex-gender subjectivity and social relations on an unprecedented scale, with "queer" sensibilities and critical projects emerging globally. At the same time, however, the political, economic, and ideological contexts and determinants of "queer" moving-image culture have not generally been acknowledged, much less challenged. That the intensification of international moving-image culture, especially in the Third World and former Soviet bloc, is largely a hegemonic offensive launched in the interests of primarily U.S.-based transnational corporations (TNCs) remains a fact worthy of sustained interrogation by and within "queer theoretical" circles. Is it possible that "queer theorists" and "queer" moving-image artists exist who oppose this offensive? Might they voice their outrage and come to stand firmly, in solidarity, against the TNC-interested dominance of international media, which would co-opt the "queer" as paradigm of global deregulation and reposition "queerness" as a stereotypical vehicle for "creative" adventure and celebration of "success"? In view of this possibility, the Queer Caucus of the Society for Cinema Studies is calling for papers that address the following questions and issues: 1) Does the internationalization of the "queer" through global moving-image culture provide us with reason to celebrate? Which "queer theoretical" and "queer" cultural practices "succeed" on the global market, and which are designated margins of risk periodically deemed expendible because "unmarketable"? Are the gay.coms and planetout.coms marks of "queer" liberation or harbingers of ever-extensive super-exploitation? How might "queer" signify "creativity" and "success" without also reifying the relations of transnational capitalism? 2) What has been the function of glbt and glbt-friendly international film festivals in the dissemination of the "queer"? How do these festival programs (e.g., romantic comedy headliners, corporate sponsorships, "indie" film promotion, the turn to "spirituality") work to strengthen or undermine the project of "queer" liberation? 3) Have "queer theory" and "postfeminism" developed a synergy? What might be the relationship between "queer" deregulation of sex-gender subjectivity and "postfeminist" abandonment of progressive legislation including Affirmation Action/Equal Opportunity? Have critiques of this phenomenon been sufficient to stave off "queer" reaffirmations of laissez-faire? 4) How might "queer" racism and anti-feminism be related to this phenomenon? In what ways do "queer" racism and anti-feminism operate under the guise of a celebratory transnational "queer culture"? How does the marketablity of "global queer" and its purported creative difference satisfy the assimilationist and ideological dreams of liberal humanism and (post)western imperialism? E-mail 250-300-word proposals for 20-min. papers to: Terri Ginsberg, Co-chair <[log in to unmask]> AND David Gerstner, Co-chair <[log in to unmask]> Deadline: August 31, 2000 Visit the SCS Queer Caucus web site at: http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/dagerstner/SCSQueerCaucus.html (Participants must be members of SCS.) ---- For past messages, visit the Screen-L Archives: http://bama.ua.edu/archives/screen-l.html