457 Schermerhorn Extension
This talk explores ethnographic moments of connection, misrecognition, and slippage between the laws and policies that govern nonprofit organizations who work with queer and transgender youth of color and one of the performance categories presented in the ballroom scene: Sex Siren. It asks, what does it mean to cultivate an ethic, politics, and culture of “sex positivity” in an institutional setting where sex, gender, and sexuality are surveilled, regulated, and policed? And how does the regulation and policing of sex, gender, and sexuality change the very structure of desire and experiences of pleasure?
Emily R. Bock is a cultural anthropologist whose research and writing is situated at the intersection of black studies, queer theory, and performance studies. She is currently completing her book manuscript, Ordinary Queens: Queer Performances of the Good Life, which is an ethnography of the strange and strained relationship between LGBTQ+ nonprofit organizations and the contemporary ballroom scene in New York City – an underground, predominantly black, queer community of performers, artists, dancers, designers, and activists. She is an assistant professor of American Studies at The George Washington University.
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