AsiaPacifiQueer at QUEER MATTERS, London, May 2004.

From Friday 28 May to Sunday 30 May 2004, King's College, London, in association with New York University's Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality is holding an interdisciplinary QUEER MATTERS conference. This will be a major queer studies conference focusing on queer theories, queer histories and queer cultures in the global context. AsiaPacifiQueer (APQ) http://apq.anu.edu.au, an Australia-based group of academics and students researching queer peoples and cultures in the Asia-Pacific region, would like to encourage scholars working on queer topics and issues in the Asian region to participate in this event. In particular, the APQ team is interested in helping organize a stream of queer-themed panels within the QUEER MATTERS conference. APQ believes that a series of themed panels looking at queer theory in Asian contexts will help to challenge the ethnocentrism of some Anglo-American paradigms and raise the profile of Asian approaches within the field of Queer theory. We also think that a dedicated stream of Asian-themed panel presentations, as well as having Asian papers dispersed throughout the conference program, will contribute to building networks of Asian queer studies scholars and help alert colleagues working on European and American queer cultures to the existence of dynamic Asian appropriations of queer theory.

If you are interested in presenting on Asian queer theories, histories or cultures at QUEER MATTERS and would like to participate in a panel with other scholars working on queer Asian topics, please contact Mark McLelland and Peter Jackson with a title and a 250-word abstract by 25 May 2003. (Please note that APQ is unfortunately unable to offer financial assistance for conference attendance.)