As the contemporary world faces new conditions of perpetual violence and war, it is crucial for sexuality studies to think the geopolitical dimensions of intimacy. What affects, practices, and social relationships allow subjects to feel close to particular national, ethnic, territorial, and religious formations and distant from others? Join us for a rich interdisciplinary discussion of how geography relates to sexuality and intimacy across a range of archives, global "areas," and historical periods.

Featuring keynotes by USC's Nayan Shah and Duke's Rebecca L. Stein, this colloquium will critically engage the politics of intimacy under the conditions of violence and displacement that have shaped the modern world.

Colloquium organized by the 2015-2016 Penn Humanities Forum Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows, Penn Humanities Forum on Sex.

1:00 | Opening Remarks

1:15–2:45pm | Keynote Lecture
"Occupying, Intimately: Israelis, New Media, Military Rule"
Rebecca Stein (Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology & Women's Studies, Duke University)

3:00–4:15pm | Roundtable Discussion
"Geographies of Intimacy"
Katherine Brewer Ball (Visiting Assistant Professor of Performance Studies, Wesleyan University)
Amy Kaplan (Edward W. Kane Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania)
Amber Jamilla Musser (Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Washington University in St. Louis)
Jennifer E. Row (Assistant Professor of French, Boston University)
Deborah A. Thomas (Professor of Anthropology and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania)

4:30–6:00pm | Keynote Lecture
“Refugee Incarceration and the Perils of Estrangement”
Nayan Shah (Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History, University of Southern California)