Event at Warwick University: Thomas Glave - Scenes from a Jamaican Childhood

Jointly hosted by

Warwick University’s Hispanic Studies department and the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies

Thomas Glave - Scenes from a Jamaican Childhood
Thursday 22 November, Ramphal Building R.0.14, 5.30 pm

This presentation will journey through meditations on coming of age, social class, gender, sexuality, and relationships with the dead in Jamaica, by way of the author's personal reflections.

Thomas Glave’s most recent work appears in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, Callaloo, and in several anthologies, including Kingston Noir and Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, both published in 2012. Glave has been Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT, and is a 2012 Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

Thomas Glave is editor of the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (Lambda Literary Award, 2008).

He is the author of Whose Song? and Other Stories; Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (Lambda Literary Award, 2005), and The Torturer’s Wife (Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist, 2008). Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh is forthcoming from Akashic Books in summer 2013: http://www.akashicbooks.com/amongthebloodpeople.htm


This event is free and open to all.

For any inquiries, please contact Fabienne Viala: F.Viala@warwick.ac.uk

New podcast available: Decriminalising Homosexuality In The Caribbean: The Belize Case In Commonwealth Perspective And Beyond

http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/videos-and-podcasts/decriminalising-homosexuality-in-the-caribbean/

The link above provides access to the Caribbean Studies Seminar held on 3rd February 2012 with speaker,  Lord Goldsmith QC of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, replacing the originally intended Godfrey Smith, who unexpectedly had to return to Belize. The packed event was held late on a Friday afternoon and is now made available to anyone who was unable to attend in person.

Commonwealth Advisory Bureau

Last night I attended the UK Launch of the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau's Policy Briefing for the 2011 Commonwealth Summit and Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), to be held in Perth, Western Australia in October this year.

The Commonwealth Advisory Bureau, based at the Institute of COmmonwealth Studies is the new name for what was known as the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, and is is the independent think-tank and advisory service for the modern Commonwealth of fifty-four nations and nearly two billion citizens. The Ccommonwealth Advisory Bureau (CA/B) specialise in issues of Commonwealth policy including globalisation, democracy, civil society and human rights and runs projects in numerous countries across the Commonwealth; produces quality research-based reports and briefings to inform and influence policy makers in over a quarter of the world’s countries; and seeks to put the policy choices before the Commonwealth into sharper focus, exploring options and suggesting new directions. CA/B also offers confidential and impartial advice to countries interested in applying to join the Commonwealth, and can help existing member countries make the most of Commonwealth membership for maximum impact at home and abroad.

The CA/B Briefing for the 2011 Commonwealth Summit is available online and  presents chapters on key issues for discussion and debate within the Commonwealth meetings that will take place at and around the Commonwealth Summit. Chapters include an alternative (sustainable) vision for mining, a challenge to the economic model of consumerist culture; discussions of the situation in Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth relationship with that nation; a call for a more open, inclusive, transparent and meritocratic selection of the next Commonwealth Secretary General; and an interview with Albie Sachs on the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the South Africa experience of protection against unfair discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Albie Sachs spoke at the launch of South Africa's experiences and lessons and of the role of lesbians and gay men in the apartheid struggle, stressing the importance of debate and mutual respect in the dabates that it is hoped will continue at the Commonwealth Summit. In the chapter in the briefing is acknowledged the work of the Commonwealth Human Rights Institute and Commonwealth Lawyers' Association in highlighting the issue of LGBT rights in the Commonwealrth arena.

Birkbeck events - Gender and DIY in New Zealand and Gay Rights in Uganda

Two events at Birkbeck of interest
1. College Gender Group Seminar - Rosie Cox, Materialising Gender: Men, women and home improvement in New Zealand

2. Gay Rights in Uganda


1 .College Gender Group Seminar

Weds, 28 April 2010; 12.30-2.00, Venue: 253 Malet Street, Birkbeck

Rosie Cox (Dept of Geography, Environment and Development Studies)
Materialising Gender: Men, women and home improvement in New Zealand

DIY is a booming activity in New Zealand. Households spend over NZ$1 billion at DIY stores each year and there are thought to be more ‘DIYers’ per head of the population in NZ than there are in any other country in the Western world. But what are people doing when they do-it-themselves? This paper discusses the ways that gender and national identities are made and remade as people work (or choose not to work) on their homes. It traces the relationship between materials used for home repairs, the skills and knowledges needed to use them and the (re)production of gendered identities. It argues that by focusing on routine and mundane activities in the home, we can reveal the intertwining of social history and the material environment in the continual negotiation and contestation of gendered identities.

Contact: Heike Bauer (h.bauer@bbk.ac.uk)

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2. GAY RIGHTS IN UGANDA

A Discussion with David Kato, Advocacy/Litigation officer at Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)

7 - 9pm Thursday 18 March 2010
Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPD

Hosted by Birkbeck School of Law

In September 2009, an Anti-Homosexuality Bill was introduced in the Ugandan Parliament and is currently under debate. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which builds directly on the British colonial legacy of anti-sodomy laws, proposes to extend the criminalisation and punishment of same-sex relations and creates significant barriers for HIV/AIDS prevention and health policy. David Kato is among many activists who have been fighting against the bill since it was introduced.

Introduction by Sokari Ekine - "Criminalisation of LGBT in Sub-Saharan Africa: Cases and responses"
Lecture by David Kato - "A matter of life and death: the struggle for Ugandan gay rights"
Followed by a Q&A Session.

Spaces are limited, so please RSVP to: s.lamble@bbk.ac.uk