[Linganth] Lavender Language Panel on Affect and Gender/Sexuality

Mon Oct 22 19:47:19 UTC 2018

Dear colleagues:
I'd like to draw your attention to the following panel we are organizing
for this May's Lavender Languages conference. (Conference website:
https://lavlang26.wordpress.com).
Thanks
Scott

*Affect in language and language in affect: Exploring sexualities and
desire through affective practice*
Affect has received increasing interest in a number of fields (special
issue on language/sexuality/affect in Journal of Language and Sexuality
2018; Reeser & Gottzén 2018; Massumi 2017; Zerilli 2015; Wetherell 2014;
Seigworth 2010; Blackman & Venn 2010; Henriques 2010; Manning 2010). A
central insight of affect theory is that affect and cognition “are not two
different systems, but radically entangled” (Zerilli 2015: 282), with “no
neat and easy dividing lines between physical affect and discourse”
(Wetherell 2014: 14). Further, theorists have questioned the fundamental
Cartesian postulate of a Self that is independent from an Other: Margaret
Wetherell suggests that “affect is distributed. It is an in-between,
relational phenomenon” (2014: 20, italics in original), while Brian Massumi
claims that “[e]very encounter is an affective complex, a patterning of
capacities to affect and be affected. This is not a dualism, but a
relational matrix” (2017: 49). Looking at individuals as discrete speaking
subjects misses the larger affective, relational complexes in which
individuals exist. Affects circulate, disrupting or uniting communities
(Kiesling 2018; Henriques, Tiainen, & Väliaho 2014; Stewart 2007;
O’Sullivan 2001), creating relational effects that are crucial to
marginalized communities (Allen 2012; Johnson 2001).

While some scholars have broadened their understanding of the affective,
relational constitution of the self, many of us generally operate under a
Cartesian assumption of an independent speaking subject, whose language can
be fruitfully examined in isolation. The goal of this panel is to bring
together scholars of language who are considering the circuiting of affect
in the language of sexuality and the language of sexuality in affect, or
both. Work can come from any number of fields (e.g., linguistic
anthropology, linguistics, literature, sexuality studies, film theory) as
long as affect, language, and sexuality are part of the story.

We are privileged to have as discussant Prof. Lucas Gottzén of Stockholm
University, who has written extensively about masculinities, affect, and
parenthood (see Gottzén 2017a,b and Reeser & Gottzén 2018).

If interested, please email Scott Kiesling (kiesling at pitt.edu) and/or
Christina Schoux Casey (casey at cgs.aau.dk) with your 250-word abstract
prepared using the following guidelines:
https://lavlang26.wordpress.com/abstract-submission-info-2. However, please
contact the organizers before submitting to the conference abstract system.
Abstracts are due to the organizers by November 11. If you have already
submitted an abstract that fits the description and are interested in being
part of the panel, please write and let us know.

*References*
Allen, Jafari. 2012. Black/queer/diaspora at the current conjuncture. GLQ:
A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 18(2–3), 211–248.
https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-1472872

Blackman, Lisa, & Venn, Couze. 2010. Affect. Body & Society, 16(1), 7–28.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X09354769

Gottzén, L. 2017a. Geographies of Anger and Fear: Exploring the Affective
Atmospheres of Men’s ‘Domestic’Violence. In M. Livholts & L. Bryant (Eds.),
Social Work in a Glocalised World (pp. 122-134). New York: Routledge.

Gottzén, Lucas. 2017b. Monsters in the closet: The affective spaces of
(not) coming out as a violent man. ACME: An International Journal for
Critical Geographies 16 (3), 528-47.
https://www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1370.

Reeser, Todd, & Lucas Gottzén. 2018. Masculinity and affect: New
possibilities, new agendas. NORMA, 1-13.
https://doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2018.1528722

Henriques, Julian. 2010. The vibrations of affect and their propagation on
a night out on Kingston’s dancehall scene. Body & Society, 16(1), 57–89.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X09354768

Henriques, Julian, Milla Tiainen, & Pasi Väliaho. 2014. Rhythm returns:
movement and cultural theory. Body & Society, 20(3–4), 3–29.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X14547393

Johnson, E. Patrick. 2001. “Quare” studies, or (almost) everything I know
about queer studies I learned from my grandmother. Text and Performance
Quarterly, 21(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462930128119

Kiesling, Scott F. 2018. Masculine stancetaking and the linguistics of
affect: On masculine ease. NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity
Studies. Special Issue: Masculinity and Affect.
https://doi.org/10.1080/18902138.2018.1431756

Manning, Erin. 2010. Always more than one: the collectivity of a Life. Body
& Society, 16(1), 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X09354128

Massumi, Brian. 2017. The Principle of unrest. Open Humanities Press.

Seigworth, Greg. 2010. An inventory of shimmers. In M. Gregg & G. J.
Seigworth (Eds.), The affect theory reader (pp. 1–28). Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.

Wetherell, Margaret. 2015. Trends in the turn to affect: A social
psychological critique. Body & Society, 21(2), 139–166.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X14539020

Zerilli, Linda. 2015. The turn to affect and the problem of judgment. New
Literary History, 46(2), 261–286. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2015.0019

-- 
Scott F. Kiesling, PhD
Professor
Department Chair (as of Sept.1)

*Office*: 2828 CL
*Mailing Address*:
Department of Linguistics
University of Pittsburgh, 2816 CL
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
*Email: *kiesling at pitt.edu
*Web*:
http://sfkiesling.com
http://www.linguistics.pitt.edu
*Twitter*: @pittprofdude
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