The Global Discourse on Gender and Sexuality: Where are we now?

Today, political activism and theoretical discussions about gender and sexuality are taking place in non-Western contexts with great force. These developments are also receiving international attention, and may be helping to move forward the global discourse on individual freedoms and liberties. Is the discourse on gender and sexuality in other cultures interfering with or expanding European visions of equitable gender relations and emancipated sexuality identity? Is “Third World feminism” or transnational feminism teaching us something new about sexual relations in society?

Chair:
Dr. Kris Manjapra, Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Humanities, UCLA History Department

Speakers:
Pramada Menon, Independent consultant on issues of gender, sexuality and sexual rights. She is the co-founder of CREA, a global organization working to empower women to articulate, demand and access their human rights

Prof. Afsaneh Najmabadi, Professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality, Harvard University

Prof. Ann Pellegrini, Associate Professor of Performance Studies and Religious Studies at New York University

Prof. Shu-mei Shih, Scholar of comparative literature with expertise and interest in Chinese, Sinophone, Asian American, and world literature, UCLA