Queering Family Violence:  Setting Agenda For Queer Wellbeing

The project ‘Queering Family Violence: Violence against LGBTQI+ family members in the past and present societies’ (QFV) invites scholars engaging with queer theory, gender studies, social work, law, and sociology to participate in the on-line workshop  ‘Queering Family Violence: setting agenda for queer wellbeing’ which will be held on the 23-27 November 2020. Each day we plan to spend around 2 hours in fruitful and meaningful conversations.

The workshop starts the discussion on violence against LGBTQI+ people or perpetrated by them in the private settings of the family. We invite contributions on the diverse forms violence takes, as well as on theoretical frameworks and methodologies used for studying violence, histories of queer family violence, and the ways institutions deal with it. The workshop is designed to go beyond the intimate partner violence frame and consider family violence by/against other family members such as parents, children, or others. We aim to focus on a variety of family constellations where queerness is part of the picture: whether it is a same-sex family, a family with queer children, or a heterosexual family where one of the parents comes out as gay.

The workshop will consist of the following sessions:

• • • • • • Theoretical approaches to family violence: from psychology to law to social science
          • Violence between queer intimate partners: approaches and studies
          • Violence against queer children: main issues
          • Violence against queer elderly: from families to institutions

What You Need to Do to Take Part

If you are interested to make a contribution to one of these topics, submit your proposal by 2 November 2020 here: https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/107297/lomake.html. For further information and details, contact Anna Avdeeva at queeringfamilyviolence@gmail.com or  anna.avdeeva@helsinki.fi.

Please mind that we are looking for a short online contribution (a 10-minute presentation). We will make the selection of papers by  9 November 2020. To facilitate a meaningful discussion, each participant will be asked to write an entry for our blog that will be published a week before the conference and make a short 10-minutes presentation of their key points. All blog entries will be open for public comments (with strict moderation rules).

Trigger Warning

The project QFV is dedicated to detailed analysis and discussion of violent instances in private settings. This kind of information may be upsetting and disturbing. If you believe that it can have a negative impact on your health and well-being, please abstain from taking part in this event in any role.

Funding Disclosure

The project QFV is funded by Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (NOS-HS).