Back from Baltimore...

[ekaterinn]

...and I'm still grinning. I had a fantastic time at the conference - my presentation on Friday went really well and people had interesting things to say about my work. (One woman is working on how ambiguities of race and sexualities affect each other, and we talked about erasure and potential liberatory moments in A Game of You). The other people on my panel were doing really intriguing stuff as well - queer spaces and race in cyberspace, the representation of gay male bodies on television and the cultural significance of porn (as more than an outlet for sexual desire). I felt like I kind of brought a female (or at least more inclusive) presence to the panel, since the other presenters were concerned mostly with gay male culture/community and I was talking about queer communities in a wider sense that included transgender people, lesbians and heterosexual allies. I may have also turned people on to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, which is always good! (I also found two other people at the convention who were working on Gaiman, and we went a little crazy, talking about our projects and getting each other's contact information ^^;). And, um, I may have mentioned slash to my panel chair as a kind of written porn about male/male relationships by women for women, and he got all interested. ^^

Saturday was a heady rush of going to panels and talking to people. The presenters at the Medicine, Gender, Ethics and Authority panel were especially nice and interesting - I had lunch with a few of them and now I want to go back to the papers I wrote on River in Firefly and do some more research on feminist hysteria and medical discourse in the show. (Actually, someone else suggested that we brainstorm and propose a panel for next year, and I'm thinking about asking her what she thinks about queerness in and as resistant to medical and legal discourses). At another panel, someone presented on Tamora Pierce's Tortall novels, which was really fun because I loved those books as a kid. I wanted to run off and pretend to be a boy to become a knight, like Alanna does in the books. *g*

In short, I had a lot of fun, and I'm seriously considering going to this conference next year, whether I'm heading back to grad school or not just yet. And I wanted to thank y'all again for all your good wishes! I'm at bejiin's right now, and will be heading back home sometime tomorrow, so I'm going to use today to just chill out and catch up online. ^_^

Comments

[blacksheep101.livejournal.com]

Hoorah! I'm glad it went so well. :) That conference sounds pretty amazing.

[ekaterinn.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was! ^_^ Hey, do you want to get together sometime this week? I know you're pretty busy (with the boys and all *winks*) but I'll like to see you!