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EVENT Dec 12
ABSTRACT Nov 20
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Queer Cinema & Festivals in India: Production, Circulation & Politics

Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Organization: Jadavpur University and University of Glasgow
Categories: Gender & Sexuality, Literary Theory, Miscellaneous
Event Date: 2023-12-12 Abstract Due: 2023-11-20

Queer rights movements and queer activism are facing renewed threats, including the rolling back of previously won rights for LGBTQ+ communities in some parts of the world. We want to explore how film and film festivals, two areas of cultural and economic activity recognised as important the world over, can support queer rights and activism. The symposium will offer conceptual advances and practical insights on community organising and activism that are crucial for queer and human rights movements internationally. The radical and transgressive potential of the social spaces of the cinema and film festivals in India have not been critically investigated and especially not in the context of the LGBTQ+ rights movement. The role of cinema for social change remains an area with little to no scholarship.

This one-day symposium will attempt to explore how cinema and film festivals have become critical sites for charting the dynamics of the public sphere in contemporary India. In particular, how organising and curating film festivals, securing funding for independent queer films, and distribution, circulation and exhibition of the same, are integral to the discourses of queer cultural production, queer activism and largely the queer rights movement in India.

We welcome submissions from established academics, independent scholars and graduate students worldwide. Applicants must fill out the abstract submission form (Google Forms) which is available online at https://forms.gle/A7m7T4XeZXZj9c3L7 latest by November 20, 2023. Acceptances will be sent out by the end of November. A selection of papers will be published as a journal special issue.

The symposium is jointly organised by the Department of English, Jadavpur University & the School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow. This is funded by a Carnegie Trust Research Incentive Grant (RIG012517). The one-day symposium will be held at Jadavpur University on 12th December 2023. We will have some limited opportunity for hybrid/online presentations.

For any queries, write to us at queer.cinema.festival@gmail.com.

 

Co-Convenors
Dr Rohit K Dasgupta, University of Glasgow
Dr Kaustav Bakshi, Jadavpur University

queer.cinema.festival@gmail.com

Dr. Kaustav Bakshi