The conference starts Thursday.
Even with a consistently full schedule and the end of the semester coming up, the LGBT Center is not winding down as it gears up to host its third annual Queer Studies Conference.
The conference is set to run Thursday and Friday of this week and is titled “Rainbow Intersectionality: Coming Out at the Crossroads of Identity.” The conference is free for everyone who wishes to attend.
Last year, the decision was made to mix up panels to have all different perspectives present, a decision LGBT Center Director Delfin Bautista wanted to continue.
“I felt that it just enriched the conversation because you had a student perspective, an undergraduate perspective versus a graduate perspective versus a faculty and staff person and rather than people just bowing to the faculty person, a lot of the professors who were on panels last year really looked to the students,” Bautista said.
Thursday will feature a Brown Bag discussion, with lunch provided, to open the day. Following, Doug Cloud, an OU alum, will host a discussion on “Queer in the Workplace.”
Also on Thursday, there will be a performance of the Coming Out Monologues. Like the Vagina Monologues, where individuals share their stories and also read pre-scripted stories about gender and sexual experiences, the Coming Out Monologues will do the same for the process of coming out, Bautista said.
“(The monologues are) an opportunity for people to share what it feels like coming out, … offering a space for people to share coming out stories and narratives across a spectrum of identities and rather than starting off with a keynote, using ‘queer’ as a pedagogy … and queering what we mean by an ‘academic session,’ ” Bautista said.
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Friday will feature a plethora of panels, presentations and academic events to discuss intersections of race, gender, sexuality and identity. A lunchtime discussion with the Career Leadership and Development Center will talk about prepping oneself for the job market.
Speakers will not be limited to those working at Ohio University, but also individuals from institutions like University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, Mount Holyoke, University of Texas in Dallas, and William and Mary.
Bautista said a goal for future conferences is to secure more funding so that the center would be able to provide lodging or compensation for travel.
Britt Seals, a senior studying psychology and sociology, said she hopes to attend the conference for this year.
“I’d encourage (people, whether they know or don’t know about queer theory) to go because even if you’re somebody who is really invested into queer theory and LGBT stuff, you can always learn more and especially if you don’t know practically anything you can always learn something,” Seals said.
Nelly Herman, a senior studying women, gender and sexuality studies, said he plans on attending, and because it is a smaller conference, it will allow for more chances for dialogue.
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“I just want to learn what are OU students and students at other colleges studying around (these topics) and just a chance to get to talk to people even one-on-one afterwards is especially what I’m looking forward to,” Herman said.
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