‘Sexualities and Borders’ symposium to bring regional scholars
to campus

Whether symbolic or physical, the borders that exist in society have a profound effect on people’s lives, often determining where they may live and how. And something as personal as one’s sexuality can be as strong a barrier as a concrete wall. As those who have sought to breach that border have learned, the penalties can be both physical and emotional.

BGSU will host a symposium next week on “Sexualities and Borders,” during which prominent scholars of sexuality, gender and immigration issues will examine the borders that exist within society and try to begin to imagine a world in which the constructs of “us” and “them,” “male” and “female,” “black” and “white” and other categories are less rigid. The event will be held March 23 and 24 in 201A and 201B Bowen-Thompson Student Union. All activities are free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Department of Ethnic Studies in conjunction with the Institute of the Study of Culture
and Society (ICS), the symposium will begin with a March 23 keynote address by Dr. Roderick Ferguson of the University of Minnesota on “The Stratifications of Normativity: Race, Governmentality and Minority Formations.” Ferguson is author of Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, published in 2003 by the University of Minnesota Press. His talk, beginning at 6:30 p.m., is also part of the Provost’s Lecture Series.

Dr. Robert Buffington, history faculty member and one of the symposium’s organizers, noted that scholars are interested in the ways in which perception of others is translated into public policy on a national level and how “the way we construct categories and the borders between categories resembles geographical boundaries.” Thus, immigration policy has been shaped historically by fears of allowing in people who do not fit into the categories society approves and is often used as a tool to control the reproduction of people from outside the United States in order to preserve the majority racial and ethnic composition, he said.

On March 24, many of the discussions will center around the struggles of people who not only are not of European ancestry but whose sexuality is also suspect in the eyes of society and its agencies.

Following a 9 a.m. welcome by Dr. Donald Nieman, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Buffington, and Dr. Susana Peña, ethnic studies, the day will be divided into sessions on such topics as “Embodied Borders: Race, Sexuality and Gender,” “Queer Border Control: Crime, Surveillance and Sexuality,” and “Dialogues with Roderick Ferguson’s Aberrations in Black."

Later, “Framing Transgender Latino/as: Gender Identity in Two Video Shorts” will feature “Some Reasons for Living,” an examination of the daily struggles of transgender Latinas, and “Mind if I Call You Sir?” an oral history of queer Latino/as and gender expression.

Participating scholars will come from BGSU, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Ohio State University and Oberlin College.

The day will end with Síle Singleton in a premiere of her one-person show, “Paint!” The performance, an exploration of Singleton’s transgendered self through “personal narrative, social commentary and street smarts,” will begin at 8 p.m. in the Union Theater and is free.

The symposium is organized by the ICS Sexualities and Borders Cluster, comprising Buffington, Peña, William Albertini, Vibha Bhalla, Christina Gerken, Eithne Luibhéid, Amy Robinson and Joelle Ruby Ryan. It is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate College, the Ethnic Cultural Arts Program, the Social Science Research Council’s Research Fellowship Program, the history department and the American Culture Studies Program.

For more information, contact Buffington at robbuff@bgsu.edu or Peña at susanap@bgsu.edu, or call 2-2030.