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Thursday 10 May 2018

Official launch of the Transitional States video art exhibition at the Peltz Gallery.

Thursday 17 May 2018

Public Discussion

Pharmacosexuality: Sex and Hormones

This discussion looked at the wide range of ways people choose to enhance their sexual lives, sometimes through the use of pharmaceutical interventions. It also provided insights into the way in which people use drugs and other methods to improve their sexual lives and how different countries promote or inhibit drug use when it comes to sex and sexuality. Speakers included:

• Tania Glyde (Therapist working with gender, sexual and relationship diverse clients)
• Prof. Ericka Johnson (Linköping University, Sweden)
• Dr Alex Dymock (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)

Tuesday 5 June 2018

Public lecture by Paul B. Preciado

Testo Junkie: Hormones, Power, and Resistance in the Pharmacopornographic Regime

In this lecture, Preciado explored the invention and commercialisation of hormones, and the shift from disciplinary modes of production of sexual subjectivity towards a new regime of gender fabrication and re-organisation of the heterosexual norm.

Paul B. Preciado is a philosopher, curator, and one of the leading thinkers in the study of gender and sexual politics. An honors graduate and Fulbright Fellow, he earned a MA in Philosophy and Gender Theory at the New School for Social Research in New York, where he studied with Agnes Heller and Jacques Derrida. He holds a PhD in Philosophy and Theory of Architecture from Princeton University. Paul’s first book, Contra-Sexual Manifesto (Columbia University Press) was acclaimed by French critics as “the red book of queer theory” and became a key reference for European queer and trans activism. He is the author of Testo Junkie. Sex, Drugs and Biopolitics (The Feminist Press) and Pornotopia (Zone Books), for which he was awarded the Sade Price in France.

Paul has been Head of Research of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) and Director of the Independent Studies Program (PEI) from 2011 to 2014. He has taught Philosophy of the Body and Transfeminist Theory at Université Paris VIII-Saint Denis and at New York University. From 2014 to 2017 he was Curator of Public Programs of documenta 14 (Kassel/Athens). He is the author of a bi-weekly chronicle at Libération newspaper. He is a writer in residency at the LUMA Foundation, Arlès, France. He lives between Athens, Paris, and Barcelona.

Wednesday 6 June 2018

Public Discussion

Are Hormones a Question of Choice? Feminist, Transgender and Intersex Perspectives

Feminists and trans people have gained greater representation in the media in recent years not least because of controversies regarding debates about identity. In contrast, people with intersex variations continue to struggle for acknowledgement, visibility, and greater representation. While the coverage has certainly not all been positive, much of it has focused on women’s and trans’ rights, but intersex human rights and the struggle to gain legal protection for bodily integrity remains largely overlooked. Speakers included:

• Celia Roberts (Lancaster University, UK), sociologist and Professor of Gender and Science Studies.
• Valentino Vecchietti, intersex human rights campaigner, independent academic and writer.
• Stephen Whittle (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK), transgender activist and Professor of Equalities Law.