Mel Y. Chen of UC Berkeley to give a talk on "Queer InHumanism: Thinking with Race & Disability" on 5/7

Join Dr. Chen for a talk on queer inhumanism (as conceived with Dana Luciano) as a way to think about current national and global crises and as a way to examine questions about how perceived time plays a role in human (and inhuman) difference. Dr. Chen will also explore how these and related matters have meant that what we today know as ‘race’ and ‘disability’ have become deeply entangled.

Date: Monday, May 7, 2018

Time: 2:10-4PM

Location: Advanced Technology Lab ATL (Bldg. 7, 01)

FACEBOOK LINK: https://www.facebook.com/events/200639367213498/

Title: Queer Inhumanism: Thinking with Race and Disability 

Abstract: Join Dr. Chen for a talk on queer inhumanism (as conceived with Dana Luciano) as a way to think about current national and global crises and as a way to examine questions about how perceived time plays a role in human (and inhuman) difference. Dr. Chen will also explore how these and related matters have meant that what we today know as ‘race’ and ‘disability’ have become deeply entangled.

About Dr. Mel Y. Chen: Mel Y. Chen is Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at U.C. Berkeley and Director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture. Dr. Chen is also an affiliate of the Center for Race and Gender; the Institute for Cognitive and Behavioral Science; the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society; and the Haas Disability Studies and LGBTQ Citizenship Research Clusters at U.C. Berkeley. Their research and teaching interests include queer and gender theory, animal studies, critical race theory and Asian American studies, disability studies, science studies, and critical linguistics. Dr. Chen’s scholarly work has been published in 
journals such as Women’s Studies Quarterly, GLQ, Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, and Transgender Studies Quarterly, and their 2012 book, Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect (Duke University Press), won the Alan Bray Award from Modern Language Association’s GL/Q Caucus. Dr. Chen also produces creative work, including the 2007 short film Local Grown Corn, which explores interweavings of immigration, childhood, illness and friendship and has played in both Asian and Queer film festivals.