Contributions reflecting the experiences of LGBTIQ people living in and beyond the culture wars are invited.
Australia’s Homosexual Histories Conference was first established in 1998 as an initiative of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives. It intended to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Archives’ establishment in 1978.
This year, the conference Beyond the Culture Wars: LGBTIQ History Now invites contributions that reflect on the experiences of LGBTIQ people living in and beyond the culture wars.
It has been argued that culture war encounters are productive events; they shape their protagonists as much as they shape the sexual politics of the time. This raises questions about what can be learned from past episodes of culture wars on gay liberation, law reform, public health and education.
Culture war encounters also highlight questions regarding the dangers in engaging in culture wars, living well when terms of existence are being questioned, and how the LGBTIQ community can move beyond engagements that amplify anti-LGBTIQ voices.
Beyond the Culture Wars aims to bring together academics, students, community historians and activists to reflect on and discuss these questions.
Papers, panels, workshops, posters and roundtables are invited, especially those that connect the histories of LGBTIQ lives and politics with the following themes:
- Activism, social policy and community organisation
- Race, Aboriginality, migration, whiteness
- Religion, culture and identity
- Comparative and international LGBTIQ culture wars
- Childhood, education
- Trans, non-binary and intersex histories
- Feminist and lesbian spaces
- Media, film, documentary and art
- Sport, ageing, and embodiment
- Health, medicine, pathology and pleasure
- Crime, law reform and policing
- Archiving and collecting LGBTIQ histories
