the sager symposium

Sager Symposium 2009 - March 27 & 28

   This Year’s Speakers  |  Schedule of Events  |  Contact  |  History

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For the last twenty years, Swarthmore College has hosted the Sager Symposium on a current topic for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. It is supported by the Sager Fund, which was created in 1988 by Swarthmore alumnus Richard Sager ‘73. In the past few years, symposia have explored sexual politics in the bedroom, boardroom, and classroom; queer media; coalition building across queer differences; queer people of color; the intersections of race, religion, and gender; queer activism; same-sex marriage and queer families; and transgender movements.

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Statement of Purpose:

This year’s theme is Intersections of Queer: Coalition Building Across Our Communities. Amid the excitement of electing our first black president and the disappointment of the passage of Prop. 8 in California, many have seized the opportunity to reinforce the representation of “the black community” and “the queer community” as completely separate and at odds.  This is only one of many divisive tactics that serve to further isolate and marginalize our various communities, when in fact the oppressions that we face and the communities we form are overlapping and interconnected. These alienating tactics narrow the scope of issues that can be considered relevant to the queer movement, perpetuating the tendency of mainstream LG(BT) movements and campaigns to be dominated by the interests of the white, wealthy, college-educated, and able-bodied elite. In this year’s Sager Symposium, titled “Intersections of Queer: Coalition-Building Across Our Communities,” we want to expose the interconnectedness of our experiences, identities, and struggles and thwart attempts to undermine solidarity among our communities. We hope to move beyond single issue politics that address only the most privileged queer experiences by redefining “LGBT issues” to encompass inequalities in the spaces we occupy and the systems with which we engage.  This year we explore how we can build a more inclusive movement based on past and present struggles and draw on the strength found in the intersections of our identities and experiences to create queer coalitions against systemic inequalities.

For more information about this year’s symposium, including the schedule of events
and a list of this year’s speakers, please look under the Pages link at the top of this page.

All events are free and open to the public. Please see the registration section for more information on getting here, lodging, accessibility, and childcare concerns!

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The Sager Symposium is made possible by the Sager Fund. This year’s co-sponsors include the President’s Office; the Intercultural Center; Office of Multicultural Affairs; Office of Alumni Relations; Office of Gender Education; the Departments and Programs of English Literature, Film & Media Studies, Interpretation Theory, Sociology & Anthropology, Gender & Sexuality, Modern Languages and Literatures, History, Education, Political Science, Computer Science, Linguistics, and Economics; Deshi; Drama Board; Enlace; Forum for Free Speech; Swarthmore College Movie Committee; Swarthmore Asian Organization; Swarthmore Queer Union; COLORS; NOTA; Queer-Straight Alliance; and the Women’s Resource Center.