On 11-12 November, 2021 Social Justice Center organizes third Queer Forum focusing on the theme: “Crisis, Post-Crisis and Possibilities of Queer Emancipation in Georgia.”

Please consider that the queer forum on 11^th November will take place in the physical space, on 12^th of November it will take place online by ZOOM.

• Those who wish to attend Queer Forum physically, as well as online must fill out the registration form at the following address: https://forms.gle/FeKfJLsZD3fDmhDa6

Queer Forum aims to address the analysis and identification of the place of queer bodies in post-crisis Georgia, the disappearance and appearance of queer groups in public discourse and its political instrumentalization, the permanence of the trauma – how it is shaped and should be reshaped for future mobilization of queer groups.

Panel discussions will touch upon the dominated forms of the practices of queer activism, which should facilitate the development of alternative visions and strategies from dominant and disciplined activist practices. Panel discussions will separately address the raise of anti-emancipatory and violent groups locally and globally.

Queer forum represents the hybrid of academic and activist space, it aims to support the creation of alternative educational space and the mobilization of the activist groups. Consequently, the conference can be especially valuable for groups and individuals interested in queer and feminist politics, activism and the social sciences.

Queer Forum will give the flow to speakers of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Gender Studies from Georgia and Eastern European countries. English/Georgian translation will be provided during the panel discussions.

Those wishing to attend the conference in the physical space should provide the proof of vaccination with the Covid 19 vaccine or a certificate of recovery from the Covid 19 virus (in the last 3 months). On November 11^th the number of physical attendees is limited to prevent the spread of Covid 19.

Program

11 November - physical space

• Panel I: Crisis, post-crisis and possibilities of queer emancipation in Georgia

Time: 17:00-19:00

Speakers:

• Alla Parunova, Queer activist, Equality Movement
• Levan Berianidze, Researcher
• Mari Kurtanidze,
• Anna Iluridze, Gender Specialist

Moderator: Lika Jalagania, Human rights researcher and gender specialist

• Panel II: Queer Emancipation and Global Perspective

Time: 20:00-21:30

Public Lecture: “Making Books, Making Ourselves: The Pain and Pleasure of Writing Queer Lives”

Speakers: Bojan Bilic, University of Vienna and University of Bologna

• Bojan Bilić is a psychologist and political sociologist doing research on LGBTQ activisms, LGBTQ-affirmative psychotherapy, and the anthropology of non-heterosexuality and gender variance in the post-Yugoslav space. He is a Lise Meitner Fellow at the Research Unit Gender Studies, Faculty of Philosophy and Education, University of Vienna, and an adjunct professor of Gender and Social Movements in South East Europe at the School of Political Sciences, University of Bologna. Bojan is the author of We Were Gasping for Air: (Post-)Yugoslav Anti-War Activism and Its Legacy (2012) and Building Better Times: Trauma, Violence, and Lesbian Agency in Serbia and Croatia (2020), editor of LGBT Activism and Europeanisation in the (Post-)Yugoslav Space: On the Rainbow Way to Europe (2016), and co-editor of Resisting the Evil: (Post-)Yugoslav Anti-War Contention (with Vesna Janković, 2012), LGBT Activist Politics and Intersectionality: Multiple Others in Serbia and Croatia (with Sanja Kajinić, 2016), Sisterhood and Unity: Lesbian Activism in the (Post-)Yugoslav Space (with Marija Radoman, 2019), and Transgender in the Post-Yugoslav Space: Lives, Activisms, Culture (with Aleksa Milanović and Iwo Nord, forthcoming).

12 November – Online Zoom space

• Panel III: Raise of ultra-conservative groups in Georgia: forms, causes and prevention

Time: 18: 00-19:45

Speakers:

• Tamar Tskhadadze, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Ilia State University
• Tamta Gelashvili, PhD candidate at the University of Oslo and a Junior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
• Katie Sartania, Sociologist
• Ana Rekhviashvili, PhD candidate, York University, Gender, Feminist, and Women's Studies Department

Moderator: Tamta Mikeladze, Social Justice Center

• Panel IV: Raise of Ultra-Conservative Groups Globally

Time: 20:00-21:30

Public Lecture: “The root causes of anti-gender mobilisation: a global perspective”

Key-note speaker: Andrea Pető, Professor at the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University, Vienna, Austria,

• Andrea Pető is a historian and a Professor at the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University, Vienna, Austria, a Research Affiliate of the CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest, and a Doctor of Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her works on gender, politics, Holocaust, and war have been translated into 23 languages. In 2018 she was awarded the 2018 All European Academies (ALLEA) Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values. She is Doctor Honoris Causa of Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. Recent publications include: The Women of the Arrow Cross Party. Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War. Palgrave, Macmillan, 2020. And Forgotten Massacre: Budapest 1944. DeGruyter, 2021. She writes op-ed pieces for many international and national media.

Queer Forum is part of a project implemented by Social Justice Center and supported by the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU).

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