Panel discussion, June 23rd @ The Gladstone Hotel, 7-930p

Description:

You may have heard the term homonationalism or gay imperialism and other hard-to-digest language that youre certain means something, youre just not sure what! Queer of colour academics have been talking about these concepts for about 7 years but many queers outside the academic industrial complex are still looking for a more concrete understanding of such theories and more importantly, how theyre relevant to social/political justice movements, including prison abolition and Indigenous resurgence and decolonization. This interactive panel will aim to answer basic questions about homonationalism and other concepts, as well as some ways in which queer scholarship may help inform community-based initiatives to address/challenge racist and settler colonialist contradictions in refugee/immigration support work, Pride events, hate crime agendas that rely on policing and gentrification, international solidarity work, and other queer of colour, trans of colour, Black/Caribbean and Indigenous/2-Spirit activism.

Panelists: Fatima Jaffer, Rinaldo Walcott, Jin Haritaworn, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour.

Moderator: OmiSoore H. Dryden

Note: This venue is wheelchair accessible and has gender neutral bathrooms. More on accessibility: http://www.gladstonehotel.com/about/

We regret that ASL interpretation will not be available for this event.

Speaker Bios:

OmiSoore H. Dryden is a Lecturer in the Department of Womens Studies at Thorneloe University at Laurentian University, Sudbury ON. She is completing a co-edited collection with Dr. Suzanne Lenon, University of Lethbridge, titled Disturbing Canadian Homonationalisms. OmiSoores research focuses on black queer diasporic lives, blood gay blood and blood possibilities, and the disruption of Canadian homonation making.

Jin Haritaworn is a settler of colour whos done trans/queer of colour organizing since the early 2000s. In summer 2010, this included a campaign under the slogan No Homonationalism by the Berlin SUSPECT collective, to forge an anti-violence movement that does not rely on racist crime panics and border control. Their relevant co/authored writings include Where now? From Pride Scandal to Transnational Movement, Gay Imperialism, Queer Necropolitics and Queer Lovers and Hateful Others. They are interested in having conversations that go beyond theoretical concepts and debates and build community against the harms caused by racist and colonial gender and sexuality regimes to racialized and Indigenous bodies and communities. Jin is Assistant Professor at York.

Fatima Jaffer is an alternative journalist, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, and an activist with anti-racist, anti-colonialist and feminist social movements in Vancouver. She co-facilitates Trikone Vancouver, a South Asian queer organization, and her PhD research examines the relations between QOC and Indigenous queer movements and queer, diasporic and mainstream media.

Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour Secwepemc/English is a recent Masters graduate of Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at University of Toronto and is currently working for Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. His two recent publications engage findings from a study he conducted in his home of Tkemlups te Secwepemc Kamloops, in so called British Columbia exploring the lived experiences of Aboriginal self identified lesbian, gay, bisexual and two-spirit peoples. Indigenizing the Gay Agenda: A Note on Cultural Relativism and Homonationalism from the Colonial Margins appears in, The Gay Agenda: Creating Space, Identity, and Justice. His next venture titled Cross-Dancing as Culturally Restorative Practice is in print, and will appear in Gender and Sexual Diversity: Social Work Practice, Policy, Research and Pedagogy. The intent of his work is to bring voice and visibility for a diverse community that is often left in the margins when it comes to the majority of social work discourse while simultaneously troubling and disrupting heteropatriarchy in Aboriginal communities and hegemonic settler impositions of gender and sexuality.

Rinaldo Walcott is an Associate Professor and Director of Women and Gender Studies Institute July 1, 2014 at the University of Toronto. Rinaldo is the author of Black Like Who: Writing Black Canada Insomniac Press, 1997 with a second revised edition in 2003; he is also the editor of Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism Insomniac, 2000. As well Rinaldo is the Co-editor with Roy Moodley of Counselling Across and Beyond Cultures: Exploring the Work of Clemment Vontress in Clinical Practice University of Toronto Press, 2010. Black Diaspora Faggotry: Frames Readings Limits is forthcoming from Duke University Press. Rinaldos research is centered in Black diaspora politics, gender and sexuality, and decolonial politics. He is also a Research Fellow of the Broadbent Institute.