Themes

Under the broad umbrella of exploring the relationship between research and promoting on-the-ground activism for human and academic rights, presentations on all the following themes will be welcome:

• Political and Social Activisms to Promote LGBTQ Rights in Asia: including the human rights of LGBTQ individuals and communities (such as decriminalisation, freedom from discrimination, freedom of opinion and expression, right to privacy) and the academic rights of those researching and teaching about LGBTQ peoples in Asia.
• Sexual Health and Sex Education: including transgender/transsexual health issues and the impact of HIV/AIDS and other STDs on LGBTQ communities.
• Representations, Aesthetics and Beauty Tips: including LGBTQ literatures, media, and cinema in Asia; maintaining poise with style in a homophobic world.
• Theories: including queer theory, feminism and cultural studies in Asian contexts.
• Critiques: of Asian heteronormative and Western (Eurocentric) discourses; indigenous vs. foreign (Western) constructions of non-heterosexual identities.
• Histories and Cultures of Asian LGBTQ peoples.
• Diasporic and International Circuits between Asian and Western LGBTQ cultures.
• Cultural Values, Religion, and Sexuality in Asia.
• Sex Education and LGBTQ communities in Asia.
• The Status of LGBTQ Studies in Asia.
• Aesthetics, Performance, and LGBTQ Creative Expression in Asia.
• Issues in Conducting Research: sensitivity to issues such as informed consent and protecting privacy and confidentiality in gathering, analysing, and disseminating data about LGBTQ communities.
• Skills Building: How to communicate issues to policy makers and the press.

A note about "queer"
The conference organisers use the word "queer" in both its current senses. "Queer" is both a shorthand for the full diversity of homoerotic, transgender, and transsexual behaviours, identities, and cultures as well as a term describing critical forms of theory that draw on poststructuralist and postcolonial analyses. In its conferences and publications the AsiaPacifiQueer Network emphasises the need to rethink queer theory in Asian contexts, simultaneously critiquing homophobic discourses and practices in Asia and questioning the eurocentrism of Western accounts of sexuality and gender.