Transgender Diversity Dialouge

Transgender Commission member J.B. Mayo forwards us the following
information about the upcoming Department of Curriculum & Instruction's
"Diversity Dialogue" featuring David Valentine (who was a guest at our
most recent Trans Commission General Meeting):

Transgender and the Trouble with "Diversity":
A Dialogue with David Valentine
Tuesday, February 17
Noon - 1:00 PM
Peik Hall, Room 40
http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/maps/PeikH

In his ethnographic fieldwork in NYC's transgender communities, David
Valentine discovered quickly that many of the people identified by
others as being transgender did not accept, or did not even know about,
this category of identification. Moreover, many of those same people
took on other names for themselves, most significantly, the term "gay."
However, since the early 1990s, a good deal of work has been done -- in
activist, social service, and scholarly settings -- to insist on the
differences between homosexual and transgender identification. As such,
Valentine's data raise a range of questions about the nature of this
difference, and how the claims to this distinction is complicated by
the complexity of gendered and sexual identity as it is refracted
through class, racial, and cultural differences. In this presentation,
Valentine will map out the complexities and politics of these
identifications, and explore the questions raised by them about the very
concept of "diversity" (and its sibling, "inclusion") in contemporary
activism and social service provision.

david valentine
assistant professor, department of anthropology
university of minnesota
http://www.geocities.com/davidvalentine2002

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction's Diversity Dialogues last
about an hour (noon-1pm). Invited guest presents for 20-30 minutes; the
presentation is followed by a lively conversation between the guest and
audience.

---
Ross Neely
Co-Coordinator, Transgender Commission
GLBTA Programs Office
612-626-3064
TransCom@umn.edu
http://www.glbta.umn.edu/trans