What ‘state’ are we in? Re-visiting the problem of the state in gender and sexuality thinking and politics
The lecture will chart past and present debates around engaging the state, through the revisiting of authors within and outside gender and sexuality field. In doing so it will recapture and highlight streams of Latin American theorizing on the ‘the state as a problem” that have not travelled much, particularly in what concerns the religious imprints in the tutelary features of state formation. While mapping the theoretical underpinnings of the debate it will also bring to the discussion empirical illustrations of the multilayered angles of gender and sexuality claims of juridical belonging and social inclusion, including the contentions with the religious and some of their paradoxical effects. These excursions do not ambition to exhaust the questions previously raised, but they might add new interrogations to this area of inquiry.
Presenter : In celebration of her Leverhulme Professorship at the Department of Gender Studies, Sonia Corrêa explores some of the debates at the centre of sexual rights, gender and the state, raising questions about if and how transformative politics of genders and sexualities can or not engage ‘the state’. Since the late 1970´s Sonia Corrêa has been involved in research and advocacy activities related to gender equality, health and sexuality. Sonia co-chairs Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW), a global forum comprised of researchers and activists engaged in the analyses of global trends in sexuality related policy and politics.
Chair: Clare Hemmings is Head of the Department of Gender Studies and Professor of Feminist Theory