Over the past decades, LGBTQI rights across the globe have witnessed considerable progress, which has been achieved through both individual as well as collective struggle and an unyielding dedication to sociopolitical action. Last year marked the 50-year commemoration of the Stonewall riots, which gave birth to the concept, convention and ethos of Pride. However, to quote the words of great thinker and scholar Michel Foucault, “justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions” (Libération, 1983). As the year 2020 heralds a new decade and era, we ruminate on the great strides made by our forerunners as regards claiming civil victories and actively voicing concerns, and we turn to the future of the movement and the community by thinking our next step.
In light of EuroPride 2020 taking place in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, we will take this opportunity to evaluate the progress of the LGBTQI movement in Europe. Standing at a crossroads between East and West as well as being one of the largest socioeconomic cores of the Balkan area, Thessaloniki has for centuries been a cosmopolitan hub nuanced by all sorts of cultural expressions and notions. It is this aspect of the host city of this year’s EuroPride that inspired the title for this conference. Intersections can be thought of as meeting points of diverse elements; common points of reference; points that despite differences—or, even, because of them—cross and influence one another; ultimately, points of convergence. In a similar vein, Europe has been a terrain of social, political and economic forces that operate on different gears. Currently, with far-right politics climaxing in many European countries, Brexit triggering renegotiations among EU states, and immigrant mobility being a pressing issue, among others, the idea of Europe being (at) an intersectional ground is all the more prevalent and always debated.
With that being said, in what ways are LGBTQI rights in Europe developing? How does the notion of a unified Europe advance the rights and the objectives of the movement? How is each European state handling this advancement? What do you think are the biggest challenges the LGBTQI communities in Europe are facing right now? How can the Pride movement help combat challenges and bridge existing or potential gaps among communities or cultures in the long run?
We are thus welcoming proposals for individual or panel presentations and roundtable discussions related, but not limited to the topics of:
- LGBTQI activism
- LGBTQI legal rights
- LGBTQI and ethnicity and race
- LGBTQI and religion
- LGBTQI families (marriage, parenthood, adoption etc.)
- LGBTQI and (im)migration
- Politics and LGBTQI policy making
- Pride in the past/present/future
- Queer bodies
- Health narratives
- Trans narratives
- Intersex narratives
- Hate rhetoric and violence
- Queer trafficking
Proposed abstracts in English of no more than 300 words along with a biographical note of approximately 100 words must be submitted to ep2020conf@gmail.com, by 31 March. For further queries, you can reach the organizing committee via the said email.