Intimate Subjects: Gender and Race in Theory and Practice

On Friday, Feb. 26, a number of leading scholars will gather at Bryn Mawr for the Tri-Co symposium “Intimate Subjects: Gender and Race in Theory and Practice.” This symposium takes place in Carpenter Library, B21, begins at noon, and is open to the Tri-Co community. Attendees are encouraged to take in whatever portions of the program they are able to.

“This symposium, reflecting the variety of critical work done in areas of visual studies, race, labor, gender, migration and animality, will facilitate Tri-Co conversations across these seemingly disparate yet intimately related issues,” says Bryn Mawr Associate Professor of English Hoang Tan Nguyen, who organized the event along with Associate Professor of Philosophy at Haverford Jerry Miller and Associate Professor of English Literature at Swarthmore Bakirathi Mani.

An extraordinary event that brings together three leading women of color scholars in the humanities and social sciences, Intimate Subjects showcases a new wave of interdisciplinary research emerging out of the productive intersections of race and sexuality, human and animal, and gender and labor.

Featuring panels on topics as diverse as the tropes of slavery and human trafficking that circumscribe the lives of Filipino migrant domestic workers in Dubai; the passionate representations of legendary actor Bruce Lee, created by his wife and his mistress; and orangutan-human interdependency in Malaysian Borneo, this one-day symposium spans geographic and disciplinary topographies. Engaging contemporary debates in critical race studies, transnational feminism, affect theory, and theories of globalization, Intimate Subjects highlights the power of innovative scholarship and thinking in the liberal arts.

Speakers:

Celine Parreñas Shimizu (San Francisco State University) 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Claiming Bruce Lee’s Sex: Memoirs of the Wholesome Wife, Memories of the Salubrious Mistress

Rhacel Salazar Parreñas (University of Southern California) 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Mobilizing Morality: The Labor Conditions of Migrant Domestic Workers in Dubai

Juno Salazar Parreñas (Ohio State University) 3-4 p.m.
Life After Extinction in the Wild: Orangutan-Human Futures of Interdependency in Malaysian Borneo

Roundtable with all three speakers from 4-5 p.m.

Reception, 5–6 p.m., Quita Woodward Room.

Sponsors:

BMC

• Class of 1902 Lecture Fund
• The President’s Office
• The Provost’s Office
• Film Studies
• History of Art
• Anthropology
• English
• Growth and Structure of Cities
• Center for Social Sciences
• East Asian Languages & Cultures
• Pensby Center
• Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program
• Center for Visual Culture

Swarthmore

• English
• Film & Media Studies
• Sociology & Anthropology
• Asian Studies
• Gender & Sexuality Studies

Haverford

• Distinguished Visitor’s Fund
• Philosophy

Tri-College Mellon Seed Grant (Queer of Color Studies)