The Gensler Symposium (go/gensler for more information) is sponsored by the Program in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies and presents the following speakers as part of a week-long Symposium:

Tuesday, April 15, 4:30 p.m., Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room
I am NOT that Hungry: Creative Resistance, Black Queers, and Family
Lecture by Nikki Young, Assistant Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies & Religion, Bucknell University
Capitalism, as an economic system, creates and maintains capitalist family values, which operate through private/nuclear ownership and dominion, (singular) male leadership, inherent inequality within relationships, and the moral subjugation of dependents. This value system, in concert with the oppressive social constructions of race, gender, and sexuality, works to deprive black queers of a recognizable moral subjectivity. Through a process that I have called creative resistance, many black queers disrupt the disciplinary power within the capitalist family. They challenge (a) technologies of normalization that limit human possibility and relationships, (b) norms that subjugate diverse expressions of identities and selves; and (c) structures that foster unequal and oppressive relationship dynamics. In this presentation, I will describe the ethical framework through which black queers practice creative resistance, revision family dynamics, and imagine relational possibilities.

Thursday, April 17, 4:30 – 6 p.m., Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room
The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions Are Sabotaging Gay Equality
Lecture by Suzanna Walters, Director of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and Professor of Sociology, Northeastern University
In her talk, Professor Walters challenges received wisdom about gay identities and gay rights, arguing that we are not “almost there,” but on the contrary have settled for a watered-down goal of tolerance and acceptance rather than a robust claim to full civil rights. Drawing on a vast array of sources both popular and more scholarly, Professor Walters demonstrates how the low bar of tolerance demeans rather than ennobles both gays and straights alike.

Dwight Garner ’88, book critic for the New York Times presents a talk, “The Future of Book Criticism”  as the Robert W. van de Velde ’75 Memorial Lecturer for this year.  Please join us on Tuesday, October 23, 4:30 p.m. in Dana Auditorium.

More books are published in America than ever, but book review sections are dwindling and the critics we have left are too nice. Readers wonder, in an era of anonymous (and mostly dishonest) Amazon reviews, whom to trust. Mr. Garner takes a sharp look at the critical world that’s coming into view.

Please welcome our new faculty for 2012-2013.

l-r, 1^st row:  John Lytle, Jamie Thomas, Judith Sierra-Rivera, Mayu Fujikawa, Rebecca Taurog, Lisa Mangiamele, Luis Casteñada, Masako Hoye, Robert Greeley, William Ames, Pam Berenbaum, Jennifer Sellers, Andrew Smith, Christal Brown

l-r, 2^nd row:  Keegan Callanan, Kimery Levering, Erin Sassin, Nina Wieda, Kacy McKinney, David Allen, Ata Anzali, Charlie Bettigole, Darla Thompson, Catherine Cabeen

Not pictured:  Kristin Bright, David Miranda Hardy, David Joulfaian, Harshita Kamath, Stephen Kredell, Sarah Laurson, Orion Lewis, Peter Lourie, Natasha Ngaiza, Paul Ruud, Ioana Uricaru

Please join us for the first Carol Rifelj Faculty Lecture of the 2012-2013 academic year.
Associate Professor Jason Mittell, Department of Film and Media Culture presents a talk titled, “Complex Television and Serial Functions of Authorship.” This talk builds on his current research on television’s narrative complexity, discussing the technologically-enabled paratexts of podcasts, DVD commentaries, Twitter feeds and interviews that have enabled television creators to speak directly to viewers. He considers how viewers rely upon an inferred author function to make sense of contemporary television serials.