Short abstract:

Facts are particularly hard to settle when they encounter the presumptive waywardness of sexuality. This paper argues this point by examining responses to the Swiss Statement (2008), which communicated working assumptions about HIV viral suppression and transmission risk to people with HIV.

Long abstract:

In 1984 Gayle Rubin observed, “sex is presumed guilty until proven innocent. Virtually all erotic behaviour is considered bad unless a specific reason to exempt it has been established”. When it comes to HIV prevention and HIV positive sexuality, the evidentiary threshold for establishing such exemptions is unusually high, keenly patrolled and borders on the phobic. Facts are particularly hard to settle when they encounter the presumptive waywardness of sexuality. This paper argues the case by examining the evolution of discourses of HIV Treatment as Prevention, in particular the Swiss Statement of 2008, which aimed to communicate the latest thinking on HIV viral suppression and transmission risk to people with HIV but encountered intense backlash from medical practitioners and public health specialists around the world. This is surprising considering the same proposition was by now routinely informing the work of modelers, population scientists and global health strategists. Though regarded as reliable enough to inform the work of modelers busy forecasting the prevention benefits of lifelong treatment regimes in whole populations — with momentous implications for global HIV policy and programming — viral suppression science was treated as too dangerous to be handled by individuals with HIV and their sexual partners, whose sexual decision-making would supposedly be compromised by the same evidence and needed no encouragement. This paper situates the backlash as a case of sexual gatekeeping on the part of HIV scientists and a crucial backstory to the sloganization of science embodied in today's U=U campaign (2016-present).

Short abstract:

This paper argues that olfaction is a queer metabolic intra-activity that transverses spacetimematter, an erotic inter and intra-species communication enables humans and more-than-humans to become sense-able to and of each other.

Long abstract:

Cell membranes have receptors that hold and sometimes consume and excrete the volatile chemicals that cause smells. The sensations experienced during this interaction is olfaction. All critters do this, including single-celled organisms. Odorants (the chemicals that produce smells) are fundamental within metabolic processes, ingested, digested, excreted through the living, the non-living and the semi-living. It is deeply exciting to consider this interaction as a sensual, tactile interspecies communication that transcends language and transforms existence, where social behaviours are mediated by intercellular chemical signaling and surface sensitivity. These are communications where contact zones are literal; vision is irrelevant, touch is all. Bodies brush against each other and their surrounds, animated by chemical transmissions and transfigured by sensation. Communications are visceral: chemical signals excreted and caressed by cell surface moieties. Matter forms and dissolves as odorants are ingested, digested and excreted. This paper weaves together Barad’s concept of queer performativity, Hauser & Strecker’s (2020) microperformativity, Landecker (2011; 2023), Hird (2012) and Bakke’s (2017) understandings of metabolism as transformative matter, and Irigaray’s eros (1993) to examine how olfaction makes bodies sense-able to and of each other, an erotic inter and intra-species communication, a queer metabolic intra-activity that transverses spacetimematter.

Short abstract:

This paper reads 20th century medical case studies undertaken in Lebanon of so-called 'disorders of sex development' against the grain to recentre the embodied subjectivity of participants and contextualise the studies within broader socio-political histories of civil war and settler colonialism.

Long abstract:

In the 1960s and 1970s recurrent exchange visits between endocrinologists, obstetricians and gynaecologists from the American University of Beirut and Johns Hopkins University prompted a flourishing of research into the genetic and endocrinological basis of so-called ‘disorders of sex development’ (DSDs) in Lebanon. These studies continued at the American University Hospital throughout the Lebanese Civil War, in the midst of a conflict that saw Beirut physically divided between the control of militias along the notorious ‘Green Line’. While most of these studies took place in Beirut, the 20th century history of DSD research in Lebanon is also notable for two case studies written up on individuals resident in the villages of South Lebanon bordering Israel, during periods of ongoing conflict between Israel and Lebanese armed groups. One of these studies was carried out in Lebanese territory by Israeli researchers from Rambam Medical Centre.

In this paper I apply a queer lens to the above body of research, reading published case studies against the grain to recentre the subjectivity of the individuals whose genetic materials, hormonal profiles and life histories constituted the raw materials for scientific knowledge production concerning biological sex in Lebanon. In so doing, I demonstrate how these studies are embedded within broader socio-political histories of conflict and settler colonialism, in which context the bodies of participants are subjected to bordering practices both at the level of binary biological sex and within the broader socio-spatial environment.

Short abstract:

I will address how carceral technologies, specifically gender recognition software and healthcare AI, are designed to capture and erase trans people. In contrast, I will stress the importance of abolitionist imaginaries to both resist capture, and grow new trans technologies of empowerment.

Long abstract:

With the relentless expansion of state surveillance, and the calculated control of fugitive bodies, spaces, and places, technologies developed, designed, and refined in the carceral, are extending their reach beyond the prison industrial complex into our everydayness. Presented to us under the guise of protection and progress, carceral technologies can be found in healthcare, education, employment, online, and in the political and media narrative. They are embedded in our imagined idea of what technology should be, while we are taught to barely know they are there.

In this paper, I will discuss how carceral technologies strategically target and erase Trans and non-binary people, and are embedded in the White supremacist framework of silencing, control, and punishment. I will use two case studies – automated gender recognition and AI data gaps in the medical metric model – to highlight how technologies of surveillance and captivity have been lifted from the prison landscape and reformatted as a wider means to govern and discipline the ‘deviant’ Trans body.

In contrast, I will champion the importance of Trans care and mutual aid. I will show that transformative practice and collective access are fundamental to dismantling carceral technology and in turn the policing that has come to dictate the supremacist norms of our society. That is, how we might, together, use liberatory imaginaries to seed new technologies grounded in abolition, accountability, and radical kindness, so as to support those that are most vulnerable now, whilst keeping our eyes on the future.

Short abstract:

Variations of sex characteristics have been enacted in two insufficient but dominant frameworks: biomedical and identity-based. This paper draws on STS, queer studies and British intersex history to think through and past the misrepresentations and epistemic injustices offered by these frameworks.

Long abstract:

Intersex activism and scholarship has, for at least three decades, been doing both queer work and STS work. Work on intersex has long been aware of the challenge to heterosexuality that intersex bodies pose, as well as the ways in which so-called “normalising” surgeries are structured by hetero- and cisnormativity. Intersex scholarship and activism contains a trenchant critique of biomedical power, directed towards improving healthcare, increasing psychosocial provisions, and ending nonconsensual surgeries. Intersex activists and advocates often have a critical (one might say queer) approach to the gender binary and biological essentialism. At the same time however, there is a similarly critical conversation about the kinds of identity politics involved in the drive to include an “I” in the LGBTQ+ acronym. In this paper I argue that moments of overlap between queer and STS studies can inform intersex activism and scholarship, but that the still-emerging field of intersex studies is already doing valid and important queer/STS work. I draw on the recent history of intersex in Britain to think through the affordances and limitations of framing intersex studies in this way. I will consider how variations of sex characteristics are enacted in clinical and LGBTQ+ spaces. These spaces represent the two dominant framings – biomedical and identity-based – which have been insufficient, and rife with misrepresentation and epistemic injustice. I argue that tools from STS and queer studies, particularly around temporalities, can help us think through and past this impasse.

Short abstract:

Queer-/feminist STS is urgently missing reflections on cripping. Applying access to technologies as a lens, we uncover shared issues, discuss theoretical connections and conclude with solidaric strategies of cripping STS.

Long abstract:

A core commitment of queer-/feminist STS is to scrutinize hegemonic norms and deconstruct power relations pertaining to science and technology. This urgently needed shift in critical discourse has pushed the agenda forward across diverse social identities. However, attention to disability within this scholarly discourse has remained rather marginal.

Both queering and cripping are practices of spinning, subverting and critiquing normative representations while generating alternative ways of knowing and being (Light, 2011; Sandahl, 2003). As queer and disabled lived experiences converge in multiple ways, they hold potential to forge solidaric alliances (Clare, 2015) and coalition among different marginalized identities (Schalk, 2013).

Access is a concern in which the commonalities of queer and disabled experiences become particularly evident. As most technologies are not made with queer/crip people in mind, the lack of access to using them (as desired) is not merely frustrating, but reinforces oppression and exclusion. While access is predominantly conceptualized as a functional criterion in the design, development and evaluation of technologies, disability studies indicate that access is a multi-faceted, situated and co-constructed experience (Kafer, 2013). Hence, we require to understand how access is prohibited not just on a technical and functional level, but also on a level addressing mismatches regarding lived, embodied experiences.

Using access as a lens we (1) discuss overlaps in queer and crip lived experiences as potentials for solidarity between those groups, (2) reflect on opportunities for allyship between queer-/feminist STS and crip/critical disability studies and (3) present (methodological) strategies for cripping STS in practice.

Short abstract:

An autoethnographic reflection on using queer/disabled/feminist perspectives to make sense of ulcerative colitis and emergency stoma surgery. I analyse discourses of normality, coming out dynamics, and the notion of queer stoma pride in response to discourses of 'returning to normal' in stoma care.

Long abstract:

An autoethnographic reflection on using queer/disabled/feminist perspectives to make sense of ulcerative colitis (a form of inflammatory bowel disease) and emergency stoma surgery. Stoma surgery involves the removal of some or all of the colon, and sometimes also the rectum (‘barbie bum’ surgery), creating a stoma - the small intestine is diverted out a hole in the abdomen where a stoma bag is attached - temporarily or permanently.

In this paper I analyse discourses of normality around stoma care, putting my own experiences of getting emergency stoma surgery and its aftermath into conversation with queer/disabled/feminist perspectives (e.g. Cvetkovich, 2003; Kafer, 2013; Wilson, 2015; Slater, Jones and Procter, 2016). I consider how ideas of normality are used in discussions around stomas - mixing queerphobic and ableist ideas in an attempt to reassure distressed patients that they can 'return to normal' - alongside examining dynamics of ‘coming out’ as queer and disabled in different contexts. I propose queer stoma pride as a critical response to discourses of returning to normal within stoma care.

References:

Cvetkovich, A. (2003) An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures. London: Duke University Press.

Kafer, A. (2013) Feminist, Queer, Crip. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Slater, J., Jones, C. and Procter, L. (2016) ‘School toilets: queer, disabled bodies and gendered lessons of embodiment’, Gender and Education, 30(8), pp. 951–965.

Wilson, E.A. (2015) Gut Feminism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Short abstract:

Drawing on feminist and queer theory, this paper offers a diffractive reading of contemporary pandemic discourses through the lens of HIV. We explore how the history and cultural imaginaries of HIV are threaded through contemporary pandemic discourses, and serve to reinforce existing inequalities.

Long abstract:

Discussions about the social impacts of COVID-19, and most recently, mpox (formerly monkeypox), have been informed by the legacy of the HIV epidemic. Yet despite awareness of the importance of avoiding exclusionary depictions of ‘at-risk’ populations, some public discourses have drawn on framings that imply certain groups are risky disease vectors who threaten the health of an imagined ‘general’ public. Drawing on feminist science studies scholar Karen Barad’s concept of diffraction and Paula Treichler’s classic work, 'How to Have Theory in an Epidemic', we offer a diffractive reading of contemporary pandemic discourses through the lens of HIV. We suggest that thinking with HIV, and the insights of queer and feminist theory provides an important analytic device for exploring how the history and cultural imaginaries of HIV are threaded through contemporary pandemic discourses, and serve to shore up normative systems of gender, sexuality, race and class, reinforcing existing inequalities. We consider how pathologising assumptions about queerness, contagion, and stigma that shaped early biomedical accounts of HIV, continue to inflect contemporary disease imaginaries. In particular, we highlight the ways in which discourses on COVID-19 and mpox function as dividing practices, arguing that they produce particular exclusions in relation to already marginalised populations, including queer communities, ethnic minorities, homeless people, and those in residential care. We conclude with reflections on the lessons of the HIV epidemic for forging more compassionate, inclusive responses to contemporary disease outbreaks.

Short abstract:

Based on ongoing ethnographic interviews with queer autistic individuals, the aim of my presentation is to interrogate the gender biases and gendered perceptions of autism and autism diagnosis as present in the current DSM-5 characterization of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Long abstract:

In this presentation, I aim to bridge the preliminary findings of my ethnographic research with queer autistic individuals and recent literature on ‘neuroqueer(ing)’. ‘Neuroqueer(ing)’ is an emerging non-normative project that foregrounds the intersections and affinities of neurodivergence and queerness. In spite of various intersections between LGBTQIA+ and autism identities, as of today, qualitative research on the lived experiences of this dual minority status is lacking. There is a significant gender imbalance in the field of autism diagnosis; in fact, ‘current perceptions and even metrics of autism are skewed towards males’ (Brickhill et al. 2023: 1). Indeed, the core traits and symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as described in the current DSM-5 (the Diagnostical and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) are based on the occurrence and behaviors of autism as it presents in young male children. Moreover, research on lived experiences with ASD is often focused on the perspectives of caregivers at the expense of insider perspectives (Tan 2018). Based on the preliminary findings of interviews with five queer autistic adults, the main aim of my presentation is to interrogate and redress some of the gaps and biases of autism diagnosis and scholarship. Looking at autism through the lens of everyday sensory experiences, my main aim is to bring into dialogue the clinical representation and symptomology of ASD of the current DSM-5 with emic and phenomenological perspectives.

Short abstract:

Recent biology literature that challenges the field's longstanding investment in cisheteronormativity, and queer/trans ecology theory and method, are brought together to fashion anti-disciplinary practices for scientific researching and teaching on nonhuman animals toward more liberatory ends.

Long abstract:

A growing body of scholarship in the natural sciences is (re)analyzing prominent data sets, deconstructing common research methods, and closely-reading canonical publications to reveal how underlying cisheteronormativity shapes foundational theories and methods in basic biological research on nonhuman animals. In animal behavior, Monk et al (2019) find that the study of sexual behavior in animals has been limited by unchecked assumptions about costs and benefits in the study of “aberrant homosexual behavior.” In evolutionary biology, Tombak et al (2023) reveal how crude definitions of “sexual dimorphism” and taxonomically-biased data has bolstered the false binaristic narrative that male mammals are generally larger than females.

This paper engages with and extends this literature in two ways: First, I position a synthesis of recent critical biology publications in direct conversation with the vocabularies and frameworks from queer/trans ecology scholarship in order to chart paths for future anti-disciplinary research. Then, I discuss pedagogical approaches demanded by such pathways through analyzing a classroom-based case study: Co-teaching, with a biologist colleague, a module on sexual selection theory using queer trans STS frameworks in an evolutionary theory course. I outline tools for building a queer approach to teaching basic biology that centers an understanding of our other-than-human relations as always embodied, affective, and emplaced (Hazard 2022; Liboiron 2021). Ultimately, I aim to generate ideas for solidarity practices between critical biology/ists and queer and trans scholarship/scholars that might transform the scientific study of nonhuman animals toward more liberatory ends.