The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research is a seminar
series that has been convened by Noreen Giffney & Michael O'Rourke since 2002. The(e)ories is a multidisciplinary,
methodologically eclectic and internationally diverse forum for the theoretical examination and discussion of all (non-)
normative acts, identities, desires, perceptions, possibilities and propensities. Papers displaying the intersections between
queer theory and other emerging and/or more established lines of enquiry are especially sought after (e.g. feminism, postcolonial
theory, disability studies, race and ethnicity studies, gerontology, Marxism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, existentialism,
posthumanism).
The(e)ories has featured presenters from Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and
New Zealand. The series has included among its speakers some of the world's foremost experts in queer theory and LGBT Studies,
including Judith Butler, Tim Dean, Lee Edelman, Judith Halberstam, David M. Halperin, Sally R. Munt, Sasha Roseneil, Eve Kosofksky
Sedgwick, Nikki Sullivan, Calvin Thomas, Del LaGrace Volcano, Jeffrey Weeks and Tamsin Wilton to name but a few.
Launch of The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research
Formally launched by Ailbhe Smyth, Director of the Women's Education,
Research and Resource Centre (WERRC) in October 2002, The(e)ories began by showcasing the work of a range of scholars
based in Ireland at a symposium entitled 'Queer Studies: Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going?' Chaired
by Dr Jeanne Riou (University College Dublin, Ireland), speakers on the panel included Dr Myra J.
Hird (Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland), Dr Ger Moane (University College Dublin, Ireland),
Dr Kay Inckle (The University of Dublin, Trinity College), Sonja Tiernan (University College
Dublin, Ireland), Dr Niall Richardson (University of Ulster, Northen Ireland), Geraldine Cuddihy
(University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Tina O'Toole (University College Cork, Ireland), Michael
O'Rourke (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Susannah Bowyer (University of Manchester, UK)
and Dr Noreen Giffney (University College Dublin, Ireland).
The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research 2003
January
Dr Rob Kitchin (National
University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland) & Dr Karen Lysaght (National University of Ireland, Maynooth,
Ireland) 'Sexual Citizenship in Belfast, Northern Ireland'.
Professor Sasha Roseneil (University of Leeds, UK) 'Living and
Loving Beyond the Heteronorm: Towards a Queer Analytic for the Study of Care and Intimacy in the Twenty-First Century'.
February
Dr Annabelle Willox (Cardiff University, UK) 'Fucking Dykes: Phenomenology and Queer Carnal Knowledge(s)'.
Stephen Morris (Independent Scholar, New York, USA) 'Adelphopoiia and the Law: Same/Sex Relationships
in Byzantium'.
March
Professor Kathryn Conrad (University of Kansas, USA) 'The Road to Destruction:
Decriminalisation and the Rhetoric of Security in Great Britain and Northern Ireland'.
Dr Mair Rigby (Cardiff University, UK) '"A Strange Perversity":
Bringing out Desire Between Women in Frankenstein'.
April
Dr Peter Hegarty (University
of Surrey, UK) 'Queer Theory and the Historiography of Psychology'.
Michael O'Rourke (University College Dublin, Ireland) 'Philosophy
as Assfuck'.
May
Dr Phillip Andrew Bernhardt-House (University College
Cork, Ireland) 'Toward an Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity Amongst Celtic-Speaking Cultures, Ancient
and Medieval'.
Dr David Cregan (The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland) 'The Wilde Irishman:
Theatre Theatrical and Frank McGuinness's Gates of Gold'.
June
Professor Jonathan Alexander (University of Cincinnati, USA) &
Professor Karen Yescavage (Colorado State University, Pueblo, USA) 'InterSEXions of the Others: Bisexuality
and Transgender'.
Andrew Doyle (Wadham College, Oxford, UK) 'Outsider Epistemology: Reading Queer
Sexualities in History'.
July
Professor
Garrett P.J. Epp (University of Alberta, Canada) 'To "Play the Sodomites"'.
Dr Noreen Giffney (University College Dublin, Ireland), '"The
Absurdity of Heterosexuality": Unravelling Heteronormativity from the Inside/Out in Eyes Wide Shut'.
August
Dr Mark Casey (University of Newcastle, UK) 'Village
People: A Truly Queer Experience?'
Professor Sally O'Driscoll (Fairfield University, USA) 'The Subversive
Potential of Satire: Queerness and Narrative Form in the Eighteenth Century'.
September
Dr Katherine O'Donnell (University College
Dublin, Ireland) '"A Crime of the Most Equivocal Nature": Edmund Burke's Speech on the Commission of Sodomitical Practices'.
November
Professor Antke Engel (University of Potsdam,
Germany) 'A Queer Strategy of Equivocation: How to Counter a Rigid Binary Sex/Gender Order'.
PLENARY SESSION 1
Professor Tamsin Wilton (University of the West of England, Bristol,
UK) 'All Foucault and No Knickers? Towards a Queer-Political Erotics'.
Professor Wilton's plenary address was preceded by a symposium entitled 'Queer
Studies: Pros, Cons and "Futural Imaginings". Chaired by Dr Danielle Clarke (University
College Dublin, Ireland), speakers included Dr Katherine O'Donnell (University College Dublin, Ireland),
Dr David Cregan (The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland), Sonja Tiernan (University
College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Phillip Bernhardt-House (University College Cork, Ireland), Michael
O'Rourke (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Peter Stoneley (University of Ulster, Northern
Ireland), Suzy Byrne (The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland), Emma Bidwell (University
College Cork, Ireland) and Tam Sanger (Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland).
December
Dr Susannah Bowyer (University of Manchester, UK) 'Coming Out
to the Neighbours/Coming On to the Neighbours: Same-Sex Desire, Speaking it and Being it in Dublin 2001'.
The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research 2004
January
Dr Thomas Dowson (University of Manchester, UK) 'Queering Archaeology:
Epistemological Privilege, Heteronormativity, and the Construction of the Past'.
February
Dr Valerie Harwood (University of Wollongong, Australia) &
Dr Mary Lou Rasmussen (Deakin University, Australia) 'Problematising Gender and Sexual Identities'.
Dr
Kath Browne (University of Brighton, UK) 'The Life of Dublin/Dublin Lives: Non-Heterosexual Women/Lesbians Write
the City'.
These two seminars formed part of the conference, Lesbian Lives XI: Lesbian
Lives, Studies & Activism since The Lesbian Postmodern, convened at University College Dublin.
March
Dr Patrick Mullen (University of Pittsburgh, USA) 'Queer Affects
and National Consciousness: J.M. Synge, Daniel Corkery, and the Project of Irish Criticism'.
April
Dr Chris Woo (Murdoch University, Australia) 'Queer Ass Fuck:
Fuck Politics of the Abject Arse in Queer As Folk'.
May
TRANSGENDER SYMPOSIUM
Sally Hines (University Of Leeds, UK) 'Remembering the Subject:
Towards an Embodied Queer Approach to Transgender'.
Tam Sanger (Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland) 'Desiring
Difference: Transpeople's Intimate Relationships and Queer Theory's Expectation of Transgression'.
June
PLENARY SESSION 1
Professor Judith Halberstam (University of Southern California,
USA) 'Hidden Worlds: Photography and Subcultural Lives'
Preceded by a live performance by The Shamcocks, Dublin's drag-king
troupe.
July
Dr Alexander Kennedy (Freelance Art Historian, Glasgow, UK) 'Iconoclastic
Art History: The Hijra as Woman'.
August
Júlia Fortuny (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK) 'Longing
to be John Malkovich'.
September
Dr Roisín Ryan-Flood (University College London, UK) 'In Search
of Doctors, Donors, and Daddies: Lesbian Reproductive Decision-Making in Sweden and Ireland'.
PLENARY SESSION 2
Professor Judith Butler (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
'Undoing Gender', followed by an informal discussion with Professor Butler about her work the next day in the Central Hotel,
Dublin.
October
PLENARY SESSION 3
Professor Jeffrey Weeks (South Bank University, London UK) 'The
World We Have Gained'.
December
Dr Margrit Shildrick (Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland)
'Queering Performativity: Disability after Deleuze'.
The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research 2005
January
Dr David Coad (University of Valenciennes, France) 'The Metrosexual
Sportsman: How Queer Is That?'
February
Dr Jayne Caudwell (University of Brighton, UK) 'Queer in the Sociology
of Sport'.
Dr Sara MacBride-Stewart (Cardiff University, UK) '"Neither of Us Uses Contraception":
Heteronormative Expectations Affecting Lesbian Experiences of Cervical Screening'.
Dr Tuula Juvonen (University of Tampere, Finland) 'Longest Kiss
You Never Saw: Rummaging a Queer Feminist Archive'.
PLENARY SESSION 1
Del LaGrace Volcano (Visual Artist & Photographer, UK) 'Production,
Consumption and the Photographic Portrait: Towards a Queer Feminist Methodology'.
These four seminars formed part of the conference, Lesbian Lives XII: The Closet,
convened at University College Dublin.
March
Dr Denis Flannery (University of Leeds, UK) 'Sibling Love, Queer
Attachment, A Fear of Falling: David Fincher's The Game'.
April
Professor Sheila L. Cavanagh (York University, Canada)
Professor Heather Sykes (University of Toronto, Canada) 'Trans-forming Bodies at the Olympics: The International
Olympic Committee's Policy on Transsexual Athletes at the 2004 Summer Games'.
May
Daniel Williford (Independent Scholar, Washington, USA) 'Queer
to the Letter: Language and Subjectivity in Oscar Wilde's De Profundis'.
June
Dr Tony Purvis (University of Newcastle, UK) 'The Queer Subjects
of British Television'.
July
Aintzane Legarreta Mentxaka (University College Dublin, Ireland)
'Trekphobia: Identity Construction, Concealment, Policing, and Star Trek Fans'.
August
QUEER(ING) CINEMA SYMPOSIUM
Dr Michele Aaron (Birmingham University, UK) 'The New Queer Jew:
Queerness, the Jewish Question and Contemporary Cinema'.
Dr Kay Inckle (The University of Dublin,
Trinity College, Ireland)
'Whose Side is Jack on? Queering Gender and Ethnicity in Pirates of the Caribbean'.
September
Professor Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (CUNY Graduate Center, New York,
USA) 'Goddess Proust'.
This plenary address formed part of four intensive seminars devoted to examining
the ouevre of Professor Sedgwick in a series of one-day symposia entitled 'Reading Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick: A
Retrospective, 1980-2005'. Facilitators included Michael Cronin (National University of Ireland, Maynooth,
Ireland), Dr Anne Mulhall (University College Dublin, Ireland), Aintzane Legarreta Mentxaka (University
College Dublin, Ireland), Geraldine Cuddihy (University College Dublin, Ireland), Michael O'Rourke
(University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Noreen Giffney (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr
Kay Inckle (The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland) and Mary McDermott (The University
of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland).
October
Dr Dan Healey (University of Wales, Swansea, UK) 'Sodomy, the
Bathhouse, and the Missing Gramophone: Fragments of Queer Lives from Rural Russia after the Great Patriotic War'.
November
Dr Katrina Roen (University of Lancaster, UK) 'Reluctant Queers:
Forging of Intersex Subjectivities through Clinical Intervention'.
With Specimen, an exhibition of photographs by Katja
Hofmann on intersex bodies and subjectivities.
December
Dr Robert Mills (King's College, London, UK) 'Queer Eye for the
Saint Guy: Pelagius and his Passions'.
The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research 2006
March
Queering History: A Roundtable Discussion
Chaired by
Dr Noreen Giffney (University College Dublin, Ireland), speakers included Dr Katherine O'Donnell
(University College Dublin, Ireland), Michael O'Rourke (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr
Goran Stanivukovic (University of Sheffield, UK), Professor Michael Sibalis (Wilfrid Laurier University,
Canada) and Dr Dan Healey (University of Wales, Swansea, UK).
Followed by the launch of Queer Masculinities, 1550-1800: Siting Same-Sex Desire
in the Early Modern World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), edited by Katherine O'Donnell and Michael O'Rourke.
Gender, Sexuality & Horror Cinema
Three
day-long symposia devoted to discussing various aspects of Horror Cinema in relation to gender and sexuality. Facilitators
included Dr Darryl Jones (The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland), Dr Noreen Giffney
(University College Dublin, Ireland), Emma Radley (University College Dublin, Ireland), Michael
O'Rourke (University College Dublin, Ireland), Eve Watson (UCD School of Psychotherapy, St Vincent's
Hospital, Dublin, Ireland) and Diarmuid Hester (University of Sussex, UK). With a plenary lecture by Dr
Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK).
June
Heterosexuality After Queer Theory
Two day-long symposia devoted
to discussing how we think about heterosexuality in light of work done in feminism and LGBTQ studies. Facilitators included
Dr Katherine O'Donnell (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Kay Inckle (The University
of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland), Michael Cronin (National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland),
Dr Anne Mulhall (University College Dublin, Ireland), Michael O'Rourke (University College
Dublin, Ireland) and Dr Noreen Giffney (University College Dublin, Ireland). With a plenary lecture by Professor
Calvin Thomas (Georgia State University, USA).
July
FUTURE*QUEER Conference
Two-day international, interdisciplinary conference to celebrate the launch of
the Queer Interventions book series, edited by Noreen Giffney & Michael O'Rourke, at Ashgate Press. Speakers included
Dr Kay Inckle (The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland), Michael O'Rourke (University
College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Noreen Giffney (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Patricia MacCormack
(Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK), Dr Karen Embrechts (KU Leuven, Belgium) and Chrysanthi
Nigianni (University of East London, UK). With plenary lectures by Professor Sally R. Munt (University
of Sussex, UK), Dr Luciana Parisi (Goldsmith's College, London, UK), Professor David M. Halperin
(University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA) and Dr Nikki Sullivan (Macquarie University, Australia).
The conference also featured a roundtable discussion entitled Transgender
& Queer and speakers included Robert Allfree (Press for Change, UK), Brynn Craffey (Transgender
Equality Network Ireland), Sara Davidmann (London, UK) and Gill Dalton (Transgender Equality
Network Ireland).
With transfiguration, an exhibition of photographs by
Sara Davidmann.
The The(e)ories seminar series was sponsored by Women's Studies (WERRC) at
University College Dublin, Ireland from 2002 to 2006. Our thanks to Ailbhe Smyth and the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies.
The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research 2007
February
Subverting What? 'Perversion', 'Transgression' &
'Normalisation' in Queer Theory & Psychoanalysis
Two intensive seminars devoted to looking at four concepts as they are used in
queer theory--'subversion', 'perversion', 'transgression' and 'normalisation'--primarily through the lens of psychoanalysis.
The seminars concentrated on a range of sexual acts, the categorisation of those acts and the formation of identities
based on them. In this, these seminars provided a valuable opportunity to critically examine the intersections between psychoanalysis
and queer theory, and the potential uses and drawbacks of employing psychoanalysis off the couch. Facilitators included
Eve Watson (Psychoanalyst & UCD School of Psychotherapy, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland), Michael
O'Rourke (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Anne Mulhall (University College Dublin, Ireland),
Dr Noreen Giffney (University College Dublin, Ireland) & Graham Price (University
College Dublin, Ireland). With plenary lectures by Professor Lisa Downing (University of Exeter, UK) &
Professor Tim Dean (University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA).
This event was sponsored by Irish Studies, School of English & Drama and
the Humanities Institute of Ireland (HII) at University College Dublin, Ireland. Our thanks to Dr Anne Mulhall, Professor
Gerardine Meaney & Dr Marc Caball.
July
Sexuality
and the Death Drive: Reading Lee Edelman's No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive
A two-day intensive seminar
devoted to discussing Lee Edelman's No Future in the context of queer theory, psychoanalysis, lesbian and gay studies
and feminist theory. Like Sigmund Freud's proposal of a death drive, No
Future has been a controversial addition to queer studies, garnering both laudatory and hostile responses. The seminar was organised by Dr Noreen Giffney (Women's Studies, UCD
School of Social Justice) and Dr Anne Mulhall (Irish Studies, UCD School of English and Drama) and was
convened in assocation with Irish Studies, UCD School of English and Drama, the Humanities Institute of Ireland (HII) and
The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research. Facilitators included Eve Watson (Psychoanalyst &
UCD School of Psychotherapy, St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, Ireland), Michael O'Rourke (University College
Dublin, Ireland), Dr Anne Mulhall (University College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Noreen Giffney (University
College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Olga Cox Cameron (Psychoanalyst & UCD School of Psychotherapy, St Vincent's
Hospital & the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland), Dr Moynagh Sullivan (National University
of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland), Dr Ide Corley (The University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland), Emma
Radley (University College Dublin, Ireland), Claire Bracken (University College Dublin, Ireland)
& Michael Cronin (National University of Ireland, Maynooth). With a plenary lecture by Professor
Lee Edelman (Tufts University, USA).
This
event was sponsored by Irish Studies, the Humanities Institute of Ireland (HII) & the School of English & Drama at
University College Dublin, Ireland. Our thanks to Dr Marc Caball & Professor Gerardine Meaney.
July
Queer Theory & Deconstruction After Jacques
Derrida
These two intensive seminars were devoted to considering the influence of Jacques Derrida and deconstruction on queer
theory. As well as unpacking a number of key queer and Derridean concepts, we thought about queerness in and around Derrida's
texts and the seminars were concerned with the mutual interimplications of deconstruction and queer theory in Derrida's wake.
Facilitators included Dr Paul Bowman (Roehampton University, UK), Dr Eamonn Dunne (University
College Dublin, Ireland), Dr Noreen Giffney (University College Dublin, Ireland), Diarmuid Hester
(University of Middlesex, UK), Adam Kelly (University College Dublin, Ireland), Mark Mason
(University of Chichester, UK) & Michael O'Rourke (University College Dublin, Ireland). With
plenary lectures by Professor Nicholas Royle (University of Sussex, UK) & Professor Martin McQuillan
(University of Leeds, UK).
This
event was sponsored by Irish Studies, the Humanities Institute of Ireland (HII) & the School of English & Drama at
University College Dublin, Ireland. Our thanks to Dr Anne Mulhall, Dr Marc Caball & Professor Gerardine Meaney.
The(e)ories: Advanced Seminars for Queer Research 2008
May
Sexuality & Phenomenology: Reading Sara Ahmed's Queer Phenomenology
Two-day intensive, interdisciplinary seminar devoted to reading the renowned feminist and
postcolonial theorist Sara Ahmed's important book, Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Duke University
Press, 2006), which opens up a sustained dialogue between queer theory and phenomenology. The book engages critical questions
about orientation, materiality and temporality and draws on queer theory, postcolonial theory, Marxism, feminism, critical
race theory, psychoanalysis, as well as the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger and Frantz
Fanon to ask crucial questions about how our bodies inhabit space and time. Respondents and facilitators included Dr
Jones Irwin (St Patrick's College, Drumcond, Ireland), Dr Katherine Johnson (University of Brighton,
UK), Dr Aislinn O'Donnell (National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland), Dr Felix O Murchadha
(National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland), Eve Watson (Psychoanalyst and UCD School of Psychotherapy,
St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland), Dr Jon Mitchell (National University of Ireland, Maynooth),
Professor Eileen Joy (Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, USA), Dr Noreen Giffney (The(e)ories
Organiser), Professor Margot Backus (University of Houston, Texas, USA), Michael O'Rourke (The(e)ories
Organiser) and Dr Anne Mulhall (University College Dublin, Ireland). With a plenary lecture by Professor
Sara Ahmed (Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK).
This event was sponsored
by Irish Studies and the Humanities Institute of Ireland (HII) at University College Dublin. Our thanks to Dr Marc Caball
& Dr Anne Mulhall.
July
Gender, Sexuality & Bioethics
A 2-day international, interdisciplinary seminar on Wednesday 2
and Thursday 3 July 2008 with sessions on organ transplantation, intersex activism and studies, self-injury, reproductive
rights, animal studies and the non/human, cosmetic surgery and performance art. Speakers included Professor
Morgan Holmes (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada), Dr Kay Inckle (The University of Dublin, Trinity
College, Ireland), Dr Anat Pick (University of East London, UK), Dr Margrit Shildrick (Queen's
University, Belfast, Northern Ireland) and Ailbhe Smyth (University College Dublin, Ireland). Respondents
includesd Dr Steven Angelides (Monash University, Australia), Sorcha Ui Chonnachtaigh (National
University of Ireland, Galway), Dr Olga Cox Cameron (Psychoanalyst and University College Dublin/Trinity
College Dublin), Dr Noreen Giffney (The(e)ories Organiser), Dr Jones Irwin (St Patrick's
College, Drumcondra), Michael O'Rourke (The(e)ories Organiser) and Eve Watson (Psychoanalyst
and University College Dublin).
This
event was sponsored by Irish Studies and the Humanities Institute of Ireland (HII) at University College Dublin. Our
thanks to Dr Marc Caball & Dr Anne Mulhall.
