Introducing "In Progress: A GEM Lab periodical of new research"
A new open-access periodical, upcoming talks with Cáel Keegan, and more!
In Progress: A GEM Lab periodical of new research
We’re thrilled to announce our new project In Progress, an open-access online periodical to showcase new and developing works from GEM Lab researchers and collaborators. The platform is an extension of the GEM Lab’s Works-in-Progress workshop series, a student-led initiative that focuses on alternative and experimental research methods (and which is currently soliciting presentation proposals). We plan to publish the first installment in December 2022, and are currently welcoming submissions for our Winter/Spring 2023 lineup!
In Progress will publish shortform (~1500 words) critical essays, speculative writing, and photo/video works in ten installments each year. We welcome submissions from a wide range of fields at the intersection of global and emergent media and aim to highlight the work of both graduate students and established scholars from the Montréal community and beyond. To submit a proposal please send a short abstract and bio to our editors at: gem.lab.info@gmail.com.
My Trans Barbie Dream House: Media Fantasies of Bad Gender Play w/ Dr. Cáel M. Keegan
Join us in the GEM Lab on Thursday, October 13th @ 5:30 for an exciting lecture with Dr. Cáel M. Keegan, author of Lana and Lilly Wachowski: Sensing Transgender and incoming Associate Professor of Critical Sexuality Studies and Film/Media at Concordia. Dr. Keegan will be giving another seminar on Oct. 14th at the Feminist Media Studio from 12:00-1:30, Getting Disciplined, where he’ll be discussing his article “Getting Disciplined: What’s Trans* About Queer Studies Now?” Find out more about the FMS event here.
More about My Trans Barbie Dream House: Mattel advertises its 2022 Laverne Cox Tribute Barbie Doll as a “superhero” class toy that “amplifies the message of moving beyond societal expectations to live more authentically.” And yet, the co-existence of the Cox Barbie with an avalanche of bills seeking to prevent US children from accessing gender transition calls into question the value of such “good” representational trans objects and their imagined styles of play. This talk seizes on the gap between the trans media objects we have and the trans politics we need as a dream space (or “dream house”) that can sustain trans people’s desire for alternative fantasies of gender play. Contrasting Mattel’s Cox Barbie doll with the culture jamming and video activism of the Barbie Liberation Organization, it calls us to expand the boundaries of trans cultural production beyond the representational to include forms of play whose mediation might activate and spread resistant modes of trans desire.
More October events!
OCT. 5 @ 5:30 PM (in person): Materialising the invasion: race, borders, and the semiotic reproduction of racial capitalism w/ Dr. Gaia Giuliani (University of Coimbra, Portugal)
OCT. 6 @ 5:00 PM (Zoom): Data, Heresy, and Censorship: Artist talk w/ Elisa Giardina Papa (UC Berkeley/Tufts University)
Register to get a Zoom link on Eventbrite!
OCT. 26th @ 5PM (in person): Lynch's Daily Digits w/ Jeff Scheible (Kings College London)
What We’re Reading/Watching…
The Platform Lab’s latest report on Super Apps, edited by Jake Pitre. Read a preview or download the full report here.
Bruce LaBruce: Tender and Transgressive, the Cinematheque Quebecois’ retrospective of the Canadian filmmaker running throughout October!