Two major fall programs at Illinois State University share a significant connection that illustrates today's cross-cultural currents and how new channels are being opened to address them.
On Oct. 8, Anahi Russo-Garrido of Denver's Metropolitan State University will present “Negotiating Marriage and Polyamory in Queer Mexico City," the first of three 2015 ISU "Queer Talks" as well as part of the university's Latino Heritage Month observation. Polyamory is the physical state of being romantically involved with multiple people and having the consent of all parties involved.
Queer Talks is a new lunchtime colloquium series dedicated to the scholarship of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/queer studies.
The talks will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in Vrooman Room 107, and will include a Q&A session. They are co-sponsored by Illinois State University’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the LGBT/Queer Studies and Services Institute, Diversity Advocacy, and Pride.
An assistant professor of women’s studies, Russo-Garrido’s work focuses on gender and sexuality in Latin America, queer and feminist theory, transnational sexualities, and social justice organizing. She has worked with women’s rights organizations in Mexico, Canada, and the United States.
She is also the co-editor of Building Feminist Movements and Organizations.
As part of Latino Heritage Month, Russo-Garrido's talk also is co-sponsored by the Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program.
On October 28, LaToya Eaves of Middle Tennessee State University will present “Place, Embodiment, and the Ethereal: On a Queer Black South.” The lecturer has taught at the University of Connecticut, where she was selected as an inaugural in-residence fellow with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. She has also worked at Florida International University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The final Queer Talks program, Nov. 6, will feature Emily Hobson of the University of Nevada/Reno, who will present “‘A More Powerful Weapon’: Lesbian Feminists and the Revolutionary Underground.” An assistant professor of history, Hobson studies sexuality, race, and radical movements in the United States since 1945.
With joint academic appointments in the departments of history and gender, race, and identity studies, she teaches courses in the history of sexuality, LGBT history, social movements, multiracial and transnational feminisms, U.S.-Latin America borderlands, and gender, queer, and critical ethnic studies.
For additional information about the Queer Talks, contact Illinois State Assistant Professor Erin Durban-Albrecht at eldurba@ilstu.edu.