[Linganth] Online Book Launch (July 30): Virtual Activism: Sexuality, the Internet, and a Social Movement in Singapore

[Adi Saleem Bharat]

Dear colleagues, please join us on July 30 for the launch of Robert
Phillips' new book *Virtual Activism: Sexuality, the Internet, and a Social
Movement in Singapore *(Toronto UP, 2020). Registered attendees will
receive 40% off the paperback price of £20.99. See below and website (
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/jmrn/book-launch-virtual-activism/) for
details. Please share widely!

*Virtual Activism: Sexuality, the Internet, and a Social Movement in
Singapore *by Robert Phillips

*In Conversation with Adi Saleem Bharat <http://adibharat.com/>*

July 30, 2020

9am (Eastern Time), 2pm (UK), 9pm (Singapore)

Register here *before July 29, 5pm (UK*) in order to receive the Zoom link
and password: https://forms.gle/7Mb1taD22tg73oCC8

** Registered attendees will receive a discount code for 40% off the
paperback price of £20.99**

In *Virtual Activism: Sexuality, the Internet, and a Social Movement in
Singapore* (Toronto UP, 2020), cultural anthropologist Robert Phillips
provides a detailed, yet accessible, ethnographic case study that looks at
the changes in LGBT activism in Singapore in the period 1993-2019. Based on
extensive fieldwork conducted with activist organizations and individuals,
Phillips illustrates key theoretical ideas—including illiberal pragmatics
and neoliberal homonormativity—that, in combination with the introduction
of the Internet, have shaped the manner by which LGBT Singaporeans are
framing and subsequently claiming rights. Phillips argues that the activism
engaged in by LGBT Singaporeans for governmental and societal recognition
is in many respects virtual. His analysis documents how the actions of
activists have resulted in some noteworthy changes in the lives of LGBT
Singaporeans, but nothing as grand as some would have hoped, thus indexing
the “not quite” aspect of the virtual. Yet, *Virtual Activism* also
demonstrates how these actions have encouraged LGBT Singaporeans to fight
even harder for their rights, signalling the “possibilities” that the
virtual holds.
Robert Phillips
<https://www.bsu.edu/academics/collegesanddepartments/anthropology/about/faculty-staff/faculty/phillipsrobert>
is
an assistant professor of anthropology at Ball State University. He
lectures on ethnographic methods and the anthropology of technology and
religion. His early fieldwork was in south India, but most of his empirical
research was conducted in Singapore, focusing on how interactions on the
Internet affect national and sexual subjectivity. More recently, Phillips
has been conducting research in Brooklyn, NY and Jerusalem, Israel,
focusing on religious subjectivity among Orthodox Jewish men.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/linganth/attachments/20200714/6247bf6e/attachment.htm>