I’m wrapping up my last semester as Chair of the Sexuality Studies Association where I’m busily working on co-organizing the last annual conference under my leadership. The call for proposals is out and available, with a deadline of January 15, 2023.
This winter I will continue teaching on contract at Carleton where I’m scheduled to teach the second half of Intro to LGBT Studies to first year students and a course on sex work titled Sex for Sale to second and third year students. I’m excited to be back in the classroom and I have a great combination of guest speakers and archival field trips planned for this semester!
Emma McKenna and I have been invited to share the results of our study on sex workers’ tax filing habits and access to social safety nets in Ottawa-Gatineau at Carleton as part of an international roundtable: Sex Work and COVID-19 in Global Perspective. This online event will take place on zoom at 5pm EST on January 19th.
The article I’ve been working on for the past five years with my colleague Gary Lee Pelletier titled “Here, Queer, and Paranoid! On Acrid Sociality and Collaborating Otherwise” is now published in QED Journal (Vol 9 No 2). The article theorizes a particular form of destructive queer sociality we name as “acrid sociality,” trying to figure out why queers treat each other so poorly in activist spaces. This has been a long time coming, but we are happy that it is finally in print!
Lastly, I continue my work with the part-time faculty union at Carleton, CUPE 4600. In addition to sitting on the Executive Board as the Recording Secretary, I am also on the negotiating team fighting for an improved collective agreement and fair deal for part-time faculty. Carleton remains the third worst employer in Ontario in terms of wage competitiveness for part-time faculty and we are fighting to change that among other priorities this round of bargaining.