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Duke Symposium to Examine Race, Gender, Sexuality Issues

A Duke symposium will bring five noted scholars together to discuss hot-button issues

Five eminent scholars will examine issues of race, gender and sexuality at a Duke University symposium Nov. 8.

The symposium, "Everyday Racism, Everyday Homophobia: A Symposium on the Intersections of Race, Gender and Sexuality," will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. It is free and open to the public, and will be streamed live at http://hastac.org/everyday/video. A reception will follow.

Organized by the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, or HASTAC (pronounced "haystack"), the symposium will examine hot-button political issues such as public funding for Planned Parenthood, diversity programs, affirmative action and ethnic studies programs and place them in cultural and historical context.

The symposium is inspired by Duke Professor of English and African and African-American Studies Sharon Holland's new book, "The Erotic Life of Racism." Mark Anthony Neal, a Duke professor of African and African-American Studies, will moderate the event. Jack Halberstam, professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California; Marlon B. Ross, professor of English and African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia; and Kathryn Bond Stockton, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Utah, will join Holland to discuss the issues raised by her book.

"I cannot imagine five scholars more attuned to the national conversations, controversies and scholarly research on race, gender and sexuality than these," said Cathy N. Davidson, Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English at Duke. "This symposium will set the agenda for academic discourse -- and make us all think about the relationships between and among some of the most volatile and recurring issues in our society."  

The symposium is sponsored by HASTAC and the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. Duke co-sponsors include the Dean of Arts and Sciences, the Dean of Humanities, the Department of African and African American Studies, the Department of English, the Department of Women's Studies, the John Hope Franklin Center for International and Interdisciplinary Studies, the PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge, and the Program in the Study of Sexualities. 

For more information about the symposium, visit http://www.hastac.org/everyday.