CFP 2013 CASCA Conference: "The Queer Normal?: Engaging the Activist Record"

We are seeking participants -- either paper presenters or discussant(s) --
for a panel we would like to organize for the upcoming CASCA Conference
this spring in Victoria. Below is a draft (subject to revision) of the
panel abstract. As we have less than a month before the deadline for
panel submissions, if interested folks could get back to us as soon as
possible, we would sincerely appreciate it. Please send abstracts or
expressions of interest to phillirf@cc.umanitoba.ca and samizdat@yorku.ca
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Proposed panel for CASCA 2013 - Victoria, BC

Panel title: The Queer Normal?: Engaging the Activist Record

Organizers: Robert Phillips, University of Manitoba and Michael Connors
Jackman, York University

The current popularity of television programs such as Modern Family and
The New Normal, which dramatize new forms of non-heterosexual families,
demonstrates the ongoing processes of normalisation of gay couples.
Despite the broad appeal of such programs, sexual minority groups continue
to face various forms of systemic persecution. As sexual orientation
becomes a protected category of human rights discrimination and as gay and
lesbian couples gain legal recognition in much of the Global North, it
might seem that the struggles of generations of activists have finally
paid off.
However, the turn towards normalisation has been met with resistance from
queer activists who oppose the adoption of marriage-like arrangements and
monogamous couplings. Critics of what scholars have called
'homonormativity' point out that this desire to mirror "normal"
heterosexual relationships has the effect of further stigmatizing those
whose sexualities do not conform to standards of normalcy.
In search of alternatives to normalisation, some activists are looking
back to records of the past, including newspapers, pamphlets, interviews,
photographs, and films. In doing so, many are rediscovering the utility of
such cultural artifacts.
It is hoped that the panel can explore the dynamic tensions, frictions,
and energies that accompany processes of normalisation. As such, we are
seeking a broad range of playful, critical, engaging, diverse, and dynamic
papers that engage issues of normalisation, activism, and the queer
record, broadly construed.