Outlandish: Life, Love, and Sex in the U. S., from the Viewpoint of Queer Regionalism

Dear Queer Diaspora Followers! The Program in Sexuality and Gender Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus, announces a conference "Outlandish:  Life, Love, and Sex in the U. S., from the Viewpoint of Queer Regionalism," to take place on March 18 & 19, 2011. This sounds like a wonderfully related conference. Hope to see you there!

SCHEDULE

Eisenhower Chapel, 118 Pasquerilla Center; Palmer Museum of Art; 121 Sparks Building

Scholars studying sexuality have broadened the sexual horizon, geographically and methodologically. Queer regionalism has been a notable result. It opens scholarship about sexuality and gender to new paradigms and new cultural forms. Queer regionalism initiates discussions about how distance from urban life, especially from bi-coastal metropolitan centers, influences intergenerational, inter-class, and inter-racial eroticism; formation and transmission of sexual customs; intersections of commodified queer culture with regional practices; and sexual life in regard to identity and class categories.

The symposium, which is free and open to the public, celebrates the initiation of the Sexuality and Gender Studies Minor at Penn State, University Park.

Friday, March 18

Session One. Queer Utah:  a Test Case for Queer Regionalist Studies. 10.30 a.m.-12.30 p.m. Eisenhower Chapel, 118 Pasquerilla Center

 “Hot Times in Q-tah: Puritans, Caviar, and Self-Penetration,” Kathryn Bond Stockton, University of Utah

“Queer Pioneers: Beyond the Mormonormative in Salt Lake City,” Lisa Duggan, New York University

Respondent: Melissa Wright, Penn State, University Park

Session Two. Queer Country. 1.30-3.30 p.m. Eisenhower Chapel, 118 Pasquerilla Center

“Hixploitation; or the Cultural Emergence of Sarah Palin,” T. Scott Herring, University of Indiana-Bloomington.

“Sex and the Country,” Nadine Hubbs, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Respondent: Nathaniel Belcher, Penn State, University Park

Session Three. Visualizing Queer Regionalism 4-5:30 p.m. Palmer Lipcon Auditorium, Palmer Museum of Art.

“Inroads and Outposts: Curating Queer Exhibitions in the Southwest,” Harmony Hammond, University of Tucson

Respondent: Christopher Reed, Penn State, University Park

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Session Four. Fun Home:  The Queer Alleghenies. 10.30 a.m.-12.30 p.m. 121 Sparks Building

Panel discussion: Anthony D’Augelli, Deb Preston, Julia Kasdorf; Penn State, University Park

Respondent: Carolyn Sachs, Penn State, University Park

Session Five. Queer South, Queer West. 2-4 p.m. 121 Sparks Building

“The Erogenous Asylum,” Mab Segrest, Connecticut College.

“The Middle of Somewhere: Queer Traffic on Highway 99,” Richard T. Rodriguez, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Respondent:  Christopher Castiglia, Penn State, University Park

For additional information, please contact the Person in Charge of the Sexuality and Gender Studies Minor, Penn State, University Park, Robert L. Caserio, Professor of English (rlc25@psu.edu)

Anna Campbell - The Seeding Trilogy: Sowing Dissent

To live apart from a major metropolitan area is to exist in a cultural ecology that is

more susceptible to anti‐queer conservatism. However, because of its smaller scale,

that kind of ecology can sometimes be more immediately impacted by strong queer

voices. My recent project, The Seeding Trilogy, was an attempt to reframe the hubris

in West Michigan surrounding Artprize, “the world’s largest art prize,” a competition

launched and funded by members of the ultra‐conservative DeVos family. Seeding

was motivated by the sense of dis‐ease I felt in the potential for a family known to

support anti‐gay causes to whitewash its political agenda via an art competition.

The work, itself entered into Artprize, was sited in a gay bar, and employed

vernacular media to help seed a conversation among the people most adversely

affected by that family. The difficulty I had in finding a bar willing to host my project,

and the tone of subsequent communication with superiors at my university, both

reflected a fear of what the project might trigger.

The Seeding Trilogy consisted of three elements: a video projection, a scrolling led

sign, and a series of coasters. The projection Your Lifestyle, or Queer as a Six Billion

Dollar Bill mined Amway recruiting videos for maps of world domination and

pyramid scheme diagrams. A hand holding a brush scrubbed the footage

throughout, referencing the cleaning supplies that are the staples of the Amway

inventory, while also attempting to “clean up” the contents of the video. The

scrolling led sign, Brand New Ticker, nested between keno monitors, enlisted those

whose voices were not represented by massive fortunes, to provide quotes that

could comment ‐ positively or negatively ‐ on the confluence of politics and

philanthropy present within the competition. Finally, I worked with bartenders and

servers to distribute a custom series of coasters to bar patrons. Favors describes

Richard DeVos’s influence in blocking domestic partner benefits at Grand Valley

State University where I teach, Chipping In details the amount of money given by the

DeVos family to support anti‐gay marriage amendments in three separate states,

and Focus on the Family outlines the political impact and aspirations of the extended

DeVos family. The tangibility of the coaster series became particularly effective in

initiating dialog, and many patrons were sufficiently appreciative of the coasters

that the supply was quickly depleted. The continued use of those coasters in

people’s homes helps the project continue to resonate.

West Michigan is among the many locations in the queer diaspora where the

conservatism of the cultural climate makes creative work that engages queerness

not only more imperative than in larger metropolitan centers, but also more

effective. Engaging the long‐standing queer strategy of mixing pleasure with

politics, The Seeding Trilogy used the utter ubiquity of Artprize to activate a bar that

is more generally considered a site for generating pleasure than political debate. In

instances where the project met resistance, opportunities emerged for people to

consciously prioritize the relevance of queer voices over conservative assimilation.

To see more visit Anna's website, www.annacampbell.net

Glenn Tramantano

My artistic practice is centered on an attempt to carve out a queer home within the
conventional frameworks of our society. My intention is to reveal the potential in
challenging conventional structures, turning them into something new and, hopefully,
more beautiful in the process. Creating in the “queer diaspora” means just this to me:
finding new ways of imagining the places we call home.

My current work is a series of drawings entitled Friends of Dorothy which deals with the
ongoing debate of gays in the military. As one of the few institutions left in our country
that silences the queer experience, it directly affects the notion of a queer diaspora. This
work addresses the history of a discriminatory policy, while at the same time imagining
the potential future of a queer military.

In the early 1980s the Naval Investigative Service was attempting to root out homosexual
personnel from the US military. Through their investigation, agents became aware of
the term “friend of Dorothy,” a common code used in the second half of the 20th century
to refer to gay men. It is thought that the term originated with the famous character of
Dorothy Gale, played by Judy Garland, in The Wizard of Oz. Not knowing the history
behind the phrase, the N.I.S agents were convinced that a real woman named Dorothy
existed who was at the center of a massive ring of homosexual military men. In an
attempt to expose these men, they launched a search for Dorothy.

This series of drawings re-imagines the world of Oz through the lens of that historical
moment of confusion. What if, in fact, Dorothy Gale was the leader of an underground
group of gay characters and military men? And what if the N.I.S. and the Wicked Witch
of the West were working together to bring Dorothy to justice?

These drawings play within the codes of gay iconography and lexicon. They question
historical meaning, and bleed fact into fiction. And they are created in the context of a
current political debate that more often than not fails to learn from the mistakes of the
past.

More of Glenn's work can be found at, www.glenntramantano.com