“Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens,” Twenty Years Later:
A Celebrationof theScholarship of
CATHY COHEN TENTH ANNUAL DC QUEER STUDIES SYMPOSIUM
FRIDAY APRIL 21, 2017
A one-day conference at the University of Maryland. Free and Open to the public.
At the close of the 20th century, Cathy Cohen insisted that “…a truly radical or transformative politics has not resulted from queer activism.” She instead offered ideas about coalitions organized in the name of the “nonnormative” and “marginal” and based in an intersectional analysis of power that demanded a move beyond an assimilative LGBT agenda. Twenty years after the publication of Cohen’s “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?” the relevance of these words echo loudly in our current political era. Cohen’s call became the basis for important research and political work in regards to race, sexuality, and class. In celebration of that landmark essay, and her overall breadth of scholarship and activism, this symposium invites Cohen and a wide range of other scholars and activists to revisit the influence of her vision and to explore the question: What does transformative political activism look like in the 21st century?
8:30–9:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
4:00–5:30 p.m.
BREAKFAST
BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENTS
KEYNOTE BY CATHY J. COHEN
9:00-9:15 a.m.
DAYO GORE, Ethnic Studies and Critical Gender Studies, University of California, San Diego
FIRST FLOOR LOBBY, TAWES HALL
WELCOME & OPENING REMARKS
ULRICH RECITAL HALL, TAWES HALL
9:15-10:45 a.m.
THE POLITICS OF COMMUNITY HEALTH
ULRICH RECITAL HALL, TAWES HALL
SARAH HALEY, Gender Studies and African American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles LESTER SPENCE, Political Science, John Hopkins University JONATHAN LYKES, Black Youth Project, DC
ULRICH RECITAL HALL, TAWES HALL
ELSA BARKLEY BROWN MODERATOR, History and Women’s Studies, University of Maryland
CHANDRA FORD, Community Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles
12:30–2:00 p.m.
DARIUS BOST, Sexuality Studies, San Francisco State University NIC JOHN RAMOS, American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California KENYON FARROW, Treatment Action Group CHRITINA HANHARDT MODERATOR, American Studies, University of Maryland
LUNCH ON YOUR OWN 2:00–3:30 p.m.
BLACK SEXUALITIES
ULRICH RECITAL HALL, TAWES HALL C. RILEY SNORTON, Africana Studies and Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, Cornell University LAMONDA HORTON-STALLINGS, Women’s Studies, University of Maryland ALIYYAH ABDUR-RAHMAN, English, African and Afro-American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Brandeis University MARLON BAILEY, Women and Gender Studies, Arizona State University
ULRICH RECITAL HALL, TAWES HALL CATHY J. COHEN is the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science and former chair of the department at the University of Chicago. She has served as the Deputy Provost for Graduate Education and is the former Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago. Cohen is the author of two books: Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (Oxford University Press, 2010) and The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press, 1999) and co-editor with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (New York University Press, 1997). Her work has been published in numerous journals and edited volumes including the American Political Science Review, GLQ, NOMOS, and Social Text. Cohen is principal investigator of two major projects: The Black Youth Project and the Mobilization, Change and Political and Civic Engagement Project. Her general field of specialization is American politics, although her research interests include African-American politics, women and politics, lesbian and gay politics, and social movements.
5:45 – 6:45pm
RECEPTION
SECOND FLOOR LOBBY, TAWES HALL
MICHELLE ROWLEY MODERATOR, Women’s Studies, University of Maryland
CO-SPONSORS UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND Departments of American Studies, English, Government and Politics, and Women’s Studies / College of Arts and Humanities / Office of Diversity & Inclusion / Office of Undergraduate Studies / Asian American Studies Program / Center for Literary and Comparative Studies / Center for Race, Gender, and Ethnicity / LGBT Equity Center / Nathan and Jeanette Miller Center for Historical Studies / Office of Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Departments of African American Studies and English For more information about the symposium, please visit wmst.umd.edu/cohen Presented by the Department of Women’s Studies and the LGBT Lecture Series Planning Committee
Department of Women’s Studies 2101 Woods Hall | College Park, MD 20742 301.405.6827 | wmst.umd.edu