Please mark your calendars for the next talk of our Fall 2019 Feminist Lunch Series in the Faculty of Arts to be given on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 12:30pm in Tilley 28 (UNB Campus) by Katherine Thorsteinson (English, STU).

The talk is titled: Disrupting the Aesthetics of Neglect: AIDS, Climate Change, and Sarah Schulman’s People in Trouble”

By 1990, the American public had been forced to confront two twin crises of neglect: the AIDS epidemic and anthropogenic climate change. Environmentalists demanded a conception of responsibility that did not differentiate between doing and allowing violence. Artist-activists like Sarah Schulman embraced this new ecological imaginary to evince the similar immorality of AIDS inaction. This talk explores how— despite their frequently contentious relationship— both movements were intent upon disrupting the aesthetic distinction between foreground and background that renders people and environments equally disposable.

In 2019, Dr. Thorsteinson joined the English Department at St. Thomas University as an Assistant Professor of Media Studies. She earned her doctorate at Cornell University where she focused on American Literature, Media Studies, and Cultural Theory. Her dissertation was titled “Narratives of Disposability: Race & Ecology in Contemporary Media.” She has published on African American literature, Canadian multiculturalism, science fiction studies, pedagogical practices, and critical theory.

All are welcome…please bring your lunch!

Our last Fall 2019 Feminist Lunch Series talk on Dec. 2nd will feature Funké Aladejebi, from Gender & Women’s Studies/History at UNB. Reserve the date!

The Feminist Lunch Series is organized by the UNB Gender & Women’s Studies Program, the UNB/STU University Women’s Centre and the Office of the UNB Dean of Arts. For more information on the series, contact Sophie Lavoie (lavoie@unb.ca).