Kate Bornstein

UNC Asheville will host the seventh biennial Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (GLBTQ) Studies Conference on campus March 22-24. This year’s conference theme is "Queer Today, Where Tomorrow? Communal Identities and Political Entities," with papers, workshops and performances focusing on gender roles in society.

The national academic conference will feature panels and paper presentations by some 50 faculty and students from a host of universities, including Princeton University, Georgia State, Emory University, University of Chicago, Florida State University, University of Alabama, Washington State University and the University of Southern Maine.

Noted author and performer Kate Bornstein will give the keynote address, "Damned Dreams and Dangerous Desires: The Personal Politics of Queer Sex and Queer Identity," at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 23, in UNC Asheville's Humanities Lecture Hall.  She is the author of five plays and books, including the recent memoir "Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger." She speaks regularly at colleges on gender and sexuality issues. The event is open to the public; admission is $10 at the door.

GLBTQ Studies or Queer Studies, sometimes more broadly approached through Gender Studies, emerged as an academic discipline in the 1970s. Among the colleges and universities with Queer Studies programs are Yale University, Cornell University and Smith College. Scholarly work in this interdisciplinary field draws on a number of academic areas, including history, literature, art, music, social science and natural science to study the diversity of human experience.

In conjunction with the conference, a screening of "The Saint of 9/11" will be held at the Fine Arts Theatre, 36 Biltmore Ave., in downtown Asheville, at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 22. "The Saint of 9/11" recounts the story of Father Mychal Judge, chaplain of the New York City Fire Department, who was killed on September 11. The beloved Franciscan friar lived a life of service but privately was a gay man. Admission is $8.

All proceeds from the screening will benefit the QLTBQ Studies Conference, which is organized by UNC Asheville faculty and students and operates on conference-generated revenue and not state funding.  

Community members who are interested in attending the conference may do so for a reduced registration fee. For more information on registration and the complete conference schedule, click on www.unca.edu/queer.