FRAMING THE VULVA conference in Las Vegas next month
August 19, 2010
From Leonore Tiefer, via the NYU Gender Studies listserv:
THE NEW VIEW CAMPAIGN announces its THIRD Conference, to be held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Sunday, September 26, 2010.
FRAMING THE VULVA: GENITAL COSMETIC SURGERY AND GENITAL DIVERSITY
While the vulva surgeons are holding a conference on the Las Vegas strip, the New View, in collaboration with the UNLV Women’s Studies Department and Petals, will hold a counter-symposium to examine the personal and political complexities of the new female genital cosmetic surgeries.
Our one-day conference will include a morning plenary session on the emerging issues in genital scholarship, activism, and art, and an afternoon of experiential and discussion workshops for participants to share strategies and build connections. The event will conclude with an evening reception, photography and craft exhibition, and film showing at the Erotic Heritage Museum.
Areas covered will include:
- Cosmetogynecology and the new genital perfectability industries
- The rhetoric vs. the realities of Western genital surgeries vs. “FGM”
- Collaborative models of activism
- The revival of “cunt art” in craft, film, photography and painting
- Sex education and the challenges of body anxiety
- The latest body modification trends, from Vajazzling to Vatooing
- Disease-mongering, marketing, and body surveillance
- Critical health studies perspectives on cosmetic genital surgery
Confirmed plenary speakers include:
- Virginia Braun, University of Auckland, New Zealand
- Leonore Tiefer, NYU Medical School, NYC
- Vanessa Schick, Indiana University, Bloomington
- Lynn Comella, UNLV, Las Vegas
Full registration, hotel, and contact information on http://newviewcampaign.org/conference3.asp