The lecture is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. For more information visit: www.arcgs.uva.nl

EASTERN EUROPEAN LGBT HISTORY AND POLITICS

Dušan Maljković

Queering Marx and Marxing the Queer: Normality of the Belgrade Gay Pride

This lecture will consist of two parts: first I will try to explicate the term queer in opposition to hetero/homonormativity and offer a brief introduction to queer theory and its critique of identity politics and the present mainstream gay movement. An attempt will be made to (re)connect queer theory with Marxism and make it a tool for a wider, class struggle, "intersecting" gay oppression and workers' oppression, going back to the revolutionary 70's of the XX century when homosexual struggle was considered a part of universal human emancipation. Secondly, I will use the aforementioned theoretical tools to deconstruct the Belgrade Gay Pride as a completely non-queer manifestation, formally indifferent to class problematic while being deeply integrated into neoliberal politics, homonationalism and pinkwashing.

Dušan Maljković is a Belgrade-based journalist, publicist, translator and long-term LGBT activist. He studied Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, and worked for a variety of both radio and print media outlets. He edited the homoerotic series Kontrabunt at the Belgrade publishing house Rende and was the editor of the site gay-serbia.com. Since 2010 he has been the editor of the journal for queer theory and culture QT and the coordinator of the Belgrade Centre for Queer Studies. In 2002 he received the Heimdahl Award for his radio programme Gayming aired on Radio Beograd 202. He is also recipient of the Grizzly Bear Award given by the Lesbian and Gay Cultural Network for the organisation of the first Pride Parade in Belgrade in 2001.

Thursday, 5 November 2015, 15:00-17:00 REC C [Nieuwe Achtergracht 166], Room 3.01

The lecture is organised in the framework of Dr Bojan Bilić’s research project:

[Post-]Yugoslav LGBT Activism: Between Nationalism and Europeanisation