Gender Studies Symposium

41st Annual Gender Studies Symposium
March 9–11, 2022

Fantasy

Thank you to everyone who participated in and attended this year’s Gender Studies Symposium.

Only the keynote events were recorded. To view those recordings, please consult the event listings on the schedule. 

 

The 41st Annual Gender Studies Symposium will examine how gender and sexuality affect dynamics of fantasy, exploring transformative questions of intimacy, pleasure, and politics.

This year’s symposium asks why we fantasize and how fantasies affect our feelings of closeness to ourselves and others. How might fantasy foster intimacy in the absence of touch? Whose fantasies are attended to and whose are neglected? Where does fantasy move into fetish? How do fairy tales and other fantastic representations influence how we understand ourselves, our relationships, and our communities? What can we gain from fantasizing about desire, love, and healing? What kinds of intimacies are present within the speculative worlds we create?

We hope this year’s symposium inspires critical examination of the dichotomy between fantasy and reality. Where do the two overlap or blur into each other? In what ways does fantasy allow us to produce material change and pursue “impossible” futures?

We invite symposium participants to consider how fantasy is not only an act of personal imagination but also a powerful form of political resistance.

2021-22 student co-chairs:
Iyanah Fuller ’22, Carley LaPlaca ’22, and Hazel McGraw ’22

Learn more about this year’s schedule, keynote speakers, art show, and other details!