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Exploring the Global Politics of Pride: LGBTQ+ Activism, Assimilation and Resistance

日期 : 2018-11-14

时间 : 12:30 - 2:00pm

地点 : Rm 109, Chen Kou Bun Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Speaker: Dr. Daniel Conway

Moderator: Prof. Suen Yiu Tung (Director of Sexualities Research Programme, CUHK)

Registration: https://bit.ly/2PHtXTC

Abstract:

Gay Pride (more commonly referred to as Pride) originated in the United States as a specific festival, season of public events and site of protest aiming to celebrate and affirm the LGBTQ+ community, generate greater visibility and campaign for increased rights. Now held in over 200 towns and cities across the world, Pride festivals can attract up to 3.5 million attendees and have been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ rights activism.

However, in recent years has attracted controversy, with its political and social purpose widely debated by LGBTQ+ groups and in the media. This paper draws from research conducted as part of a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship and explores the contemporary global politics of Pride, examining the politics of Pride in selected non-Western contexts. The paper investigates Pride as a transnational and global phenomenon, documenting and analysing the contemporary politics, performances, effects and trajectories of Pride across selected national contexts, with a particular focus on non-Western and Global South Pride events. It seeks to analyse the political purposes of Pride, the issues Pride encompasses in local terms and the points of controversy about Pride.

Using research material gathered at Shanghai Pride, Soweto Pride and Taiwan Pride, the paper will argue that Pride remains a significant site of LGBTQ+ politics and protest in multiple forms. The paper reassesses earlier literature on Pride, which has mainly focused on the history of Pride and on Pride in Global North (primarily the US). It also interrogates existing theorisations of queer activism, as a distinct form of activism, which has predominantly been considered in Western-centric terms. This develops an understanding of the roles, importance and problematics of Pride and conceptions and practices of queer activism.

Speaker's Biography:

Dr. Daniel Conway is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. Daniel has written extensively about gender, sexuality and race in South Africa including (2012) Masculinities, Militarisation and the End Conscription Campaign: War Resistance in Apartheid South Africa (Manchester University Press and Wits University Press) and with Professor Pauline Leonard (2012) Migration, Space and Transnational Identities: The British in South Africa (Palgrave). He is currently researching a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship on ‘The Global Politics Pride: LGBTQ+ Activism, Assimilation and Resistance’ that will focus on Pride events and LGBTQ+ politics in Asia, Africa and South America.