ABOUT
Queer Contexts 2024 is the first conference of the LGBTIQA+ Research Network and aims to bring together researchers across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand working within an LGBTIQA+ context. The conference aims to share leading queer research being undertaken in our region today across a range of disciplines to facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue.
OUR SPEAKERS AND EVENTS
10am Tuesday 6 November 2024
Keynote address:
Queer resistance to the colonial project
Professor Sandy O'Sullivan
Professor Sandy O’Sullivan (they/them) is a transgender Wiradjuri person. They lead the Intimacies theme of the Centre for Global Indigenous Futures and they work in the Department of Critical Indigenous Studies, both housed at Macquarie University. They are a 2020-2025 ARC Senior Future Fellow with the program titled: Saving Lives: mapping the influence of Indigenous LGBTIQ+ creative artists focusing on the colonial project of gender and sexuality. This nationally funded work follows on from another major ARC project that explored representation and engagement of Indigenous peoples and communities across national museums – a program that ran for eight years and reviewed 470 museums. Since 1991 they’ve taught and researched across gender and sexuality, education, museums, the body, creativities and First Nations’ identity. Sandy has been a musician, performer and sound artist since 1982, holding national and international residencies.
6:30pm Tuesday 6 November 2024
Film Screening:
All Shall Be Well (2024)
A special screening of Ray Yeung's latest film ahead of its commercial release in Australia.
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Angie and Pat are a well-off lesbian couple in their mid-60s. They have lived together for 30 years in the flat Pat owns in Hong Kong. Their relationship is accepted by their friends and families and they are valued and loved by those around them. After Pat unexpectedly dies one night, Angie is not only emotionally supported by her circle of friends, but also - at least at first - by Pat’s family. However, little by little, arguments about the burial and inheritance lead to an estrangement. Angie has no legal right to remain in the flat she shared with Pat and is at the mercy of the dwindling goodwill of her dead partner’s family. Even though the couple shared the financial burden equally between them, Pat was the one who took care of everything in their relationship. Supported by her chosen family, Angie embarks on a later-life emancipation journey.
As in his film Suk Suk, Ray Yeung once again takes a precise look at the often precarious everyday life of the older queer community. In the character of Angie, he creates a quiet and yet impressively resilient lesbian heroine.
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Winner of the Teddy Award, Berlin International Film Festival, 2024
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Attendance is included for conference attendees. Guests can purchase tickets here.
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View the film trailer here.
10am Thursday 7 November
Keynote address:
All Shall Be Well? Ethnographies of older lesbians and bisexual women in Hong Kong
Professor Denise Tse-Shang Tang
Traditional Chinese gender roles position women as subservient to men, and the Confucian emphasis on women’s loyalty and obedience at home can be further understood as devaluing their position in society. For young women growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, marriage was commonplace and giving birth to sons were often prioritized. Yet participation in the labour force has also increased for women with many working as factory girls or office secretaries. Interview participants for this study are older lesbians and bisexual women who were born during the late 1940s to 1950s. This presentation examines the complex negotiation processes in performing gender roles for older lesbians and bisexual women in the context of the Chinese family. By tracing the key events in their oral histories, I aim to understand how older lesbians and bisexual women came to learn of their sexual desires and make meanings out of their sexual practices. I will discuss how economic prosperity in the 1970s and increased labour participation for women facilitate the subject formation processes for Hong Kong women with lesbian desires despite traditional social attitudes. Furthermore, I will discuss my role as Co-Producer of the film All Shall Be Well, directed by Ray Yeung, and how my research informed the making of the film.
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Denise Tse-Shang Tang is Head and Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Her research specializes in gender and sexualities with specific focus on lesbian desires and transgender masculinities in an inter-Asian context. Prior to entering academia, Tang was program manager, HIV testing counsellor and treatment advocate for communities including Asian & Pacific Islander LGBTQI+, survivors of sexual violence, First Nations women, queer youth and incarcerated Asian youth in San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver B.C.
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We look forward to your participation. For queries regarding registration, schedule, or general information, feel free to get in touch with us.