Seminar on
'Sexuality, Migration, and the Neo-liberal Reproduction of Privilege'

Date: 18 September 2009
Time: 4pm- 5.30pm
Location: Earth Lab, Block AS2/02-03, Department of Geography, FASS, NUS.
Speaker: Dr Eithne Luibhéid, University of Arizona
Chairperson: TBC

• Jointly organized by the Department of Geography and the FASS Migration Cluster

Neo-liberalism has altered the dynamics through which international migration is being generated, and the grounds on which migrants are deemed by nation-states as legal or illegal. Yet, the importance of sexuality in shaping designations of migrant il/legality remains under-theorized. Focusing on recent controversies over childbearing asylum seekers, this talk explores how nation-state sexual regimes contribute to changing designations of migrant legality and illegality that rearticulate inequalities at multiple scales. At the same time, nation-state efforts to control against unauthorized immigration have redefined nationalist sexual norms and their role in reproducing inequalities under neo-liberalism.

About the speaker:

Eithne Luibhéid is Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies and Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona in the United States. She is the author of Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border (University of Minnesota Press, 2002); co-editor of a special issue of Women’s Studies International Forum on “Representing Migrant Women in Ireland and the E.U.” (2004); co-editor of Queer Migration: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings (University of Minnesota Press, 2005); editor of a special issue of GLQ on “Queer/Migration” (2008); and the author of various articles and book chapters that explore intersections among sexuality, migration, and inequality.

Registration and seminar reading.

Admission is free. Persons interested in attending the seminar should email their name, affiliation and email address to the following address: Ms Sharon Wok (fasswe@nus.edu.sg). There will be light refreshments at the end of the seminar.