The Ohio State University

Columbus, OH

May 18-19, 2012

Deadline for proposals: Aug. 12, 2011

*Confirmed speakers*

Joseph Boone, Tim Dean, Kale Fajardo, Roderick Ferguson, Brian Glavey, Scott
Herring, Eithne Lubhéid, Victor Mendoza, Deborah Miranda, José Esteban
Muñoz, Hoang Tan Nguyen, Juana María Rodríguez, Nayan Shah, Justin Spring,
Susan Stryker, Shane Vogel

***

We invite proposals for the inaugural queer studies conference at The Ohio
State University. The title is meant as an expansive call to consider a host
of issues evoked by queer places (local/global, urban/rural, North/South,
East/West, public/private, mobility/immobility ?), queer practices (sexual
cultures, expressive cultures, political activism, academic work ?), and
queer lives (biography, hagiography, psychology, sexology, history,
development ?). We envision the conference as an opportunity both to take
stock of inter/disciplinary trends as well as provoke new ideas and
frameworks for future work.

The inspiration for this expansiveness and reevaluation is Samuel Steward,
an OSU alum of the 1930s and the subject of Justin Spring?s critically
acclaimed biography *Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward,
Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual
Renegade*(2010). As a
literary studies academic, writer, and visual and tattoo
artist, Steward lived a highly varied life, coming into contact, and in some
cases formed long-lasting friendships, with such figures as Gertrude Stein,
Alice B. Toklas, Thornton Wilder, André Gide, Thomas Mann, Alfred Kinsey,
Albert Camus, Christopher Isherwood, George Platt Lynes, and Paul Cadmus. As
something of a gay Casanova (and a scrupulous archivist of his sexual
encounters), Steward also ?linked in,? as he might say, with such movie
stars as Rudolf Valentino and Rock Hudson.

In 1995, Steward?s estate donated funds to the OSU English department to
further research in LGBTQ scholarship, but these funds have only recently
been ?rediscovered.? To pay tribute to this queer Buckeye who studied at,
taught at, and invested in OSU, we are taking our points of departure for
panel themes from Steward?s life and work. Papers may thus address any of
the following (or related) topics:

Aestheticism, decadence, Catholicism

Archives and material culture

Biography, autobiography, life-writing

Body art and modification

Colonialism, imperialism, decolonization

Expatriatism, migration, diaspora

Genealogies, invented traditions

Modernism

Performativity, self-elaboration, world-making

Popular genres (pulp, erotica, mystery novels)

Public intellectuals and subcultural lives

Queer life in the academy, 1920-present

Race and ethnicity

Regionalism (especially the Midwest)

Rural, urban, suburban sexual geographies

Sailors, seamen, and other seafarers

Sexology (especially Havelock Ellis and Kinsey)

Sexual pleasure and perversity (BDSM, porn, hustling)

Visualities (painting, photography, film)

In addition, we are planning to publish a collection of essays on Samuel
Steward after the conference. Thus, papers that focus on any aspect of
Steward?s life and work are especially welcome.

Send 500-word abstract and 2-page CV by *Aug. 12, 2011 *to Joe Ponce
ponce.8@osu.edu.

Direct inquiries to Debra Moddelmog moddelmog.1@osu.edu or ponce.8@osu.edu.

*Conference organizing committee*

Mollie Blackburn

Andrea Breau

Debanuj DasGupta

Tommy Davis

Ally Day

Nikki Engel

Meg LeMay

Chris Lewis

Corinne Martin

Debra Moddelmog

Joe Ponce

Jim Sanders

Mary Thomas

Blake Wilder

Shannon Winnubst