For decades, queer theorists have rightly pointed out the epistemological violence and implicit heterosexism within the concept “community.” This sustained critique bolstered the validity and dominance of anti-communitarian and anti-futurity thinking within queer theory, leading to the dismissal of “community” as a political trap and a false and damaging fiction. How then do researchers examining queer peoples’ sustained networks, affective bonds, institutions, groupings and spaces understand the lives of our subjects in relation to this queer critique of community?

This panel looks to collect papers that re-consider the role of community and collectives in queer people’s lives (and cultural work) in relation to queer theory. Possible topics include: the role of ethnography, historiography, and materialism within queer theory; activism within queer collectives; issues arising from the seeming contradiction of queer and permanence, identity, or stability; queer communal labor or creativity; the role of history, kinship, and labor within queer communities; and examinations of smaller sub-groups and their political, social, and material practices.

Please submit paper abstracts (300 words) and C.V.s to Michael Lecker (mlecker@masonlive.gmu.edu) before January 15, 2013.