Since its introduction in 2000, the Black Queer Studies Conference has aimed to celebrate the intersection of Black and queer culture, encompassing many speakers and topics over the years. The conference showcases Black Queer Life at UNC, in North Carolina and beyond, and its importance now more than ever. This is a continuation of the work the COMM department has done over the years, dating back to the Process Series performance “The Story of Us” – bringing the stories of Black Queer communities to the forefront and making those stories relevant.
“During that time [in 2000], Queer studies at large was becoming codified as an area of research in the academy,” BQSC co-founder Dr. E. Patrick Johnson said. “One of the things that struck me about how Queer theory and Queer studies emerged was that the emphasis on race was absent. Many of us who were working on sexuality were trying to make interventions and get the voices of BIPOC folk in the conversation. The emphasis for the conference was to do that, to have an academic gathering to bring folks who were working in the area together around sexuality and gender.”
This year’s conference, the 25th anniversary of the very first BQSC co-founded by Dr. Johnson and Dr. Mae G. Henderson, will play host to a variety of panels and speakers, from members of the original BQSC to up and coming artists and scholars in the Black Queer community.
“I hope [the BQSC] is a place where future scholars, artists, and activists will take some kind of pride in the fact that this is something that has been around, that is going to be around, and then they have the opportunity to keep it moving forward,” Johnson said. “My hope is that especially this next generation will be inspired by some of the original scholars who are going to be there. It’s going to be a star-studded event.”
This year’s panels are as follows:
- Policing Black Bodies: Queer Studies, Public Policy, and The Law
- Disciplinary Tensions: Black Studies and Queer Studies
- Representing the Race: Queer Images of Blackness
- How to Teach the Unspeakable: Race, Queer Studies & Pedagogy
- Black Queer Writing: Who’s Reading Us?
- Black Queer Identities: Sex & the Future of Queerness
- Black Queer South: Regionalism & Transnational Flows
- Black Queer Digitality
A keynote panel will also be held between inaugural conference leader E. Patrick Johnson and Evelynn Hammonds that will focus on how the failure of queer studies in the late 1980s/early1990s to consider race prompted a generation of scholars, artists, and activists to address the absence. There are also a variety of co-sponsors for the conference, speaking to the collective investment and the importance and relevance the topic holds to many groups here at UNC and beyond.
“I’m happy that this 25th Anniversary is be celebrated at UNC,” Johnson said. “UNC is my alma mater and I’m really excited to have the conference return to the place where it all began.”
Find the conference schedule and more details here. All events are free and open to anyone, but due to limited space, registration is required. Visit the BQSC website to register.