May 19, 2022: Stonewall Lecture by Kathryn Bond Stockton

"I Was a Queer Child and So Were You: Kissing, Queer Children, and Structural Change" 

Organized backlash against queer children demands our canniest, intimate replies—as entire systems sit upon a word ("gay," "trans," "girl," "boy"….) on and in our bodies, often not confessing their racialized histories.  Weaving memoir through cutting-edge theory, this talk stretches what we think we know about important matters surrounding genitals, clothing, and kissing—even reading—as they relate to children.  Asking how "gay" and "trans" collide, showing the deep entwining of these terms, we might consider sex with ideas.  What kinds of issues for everyone's childhood—and adulthood—turn around issues for gay and trans kids?  The answers prepare for a story that is yours.

Kathryn Bond Stockton is Distinguished Professor of English, former Associate Vice President for Equity and Diversity, and inaugural Dean of the School for Cultural & Social Transformation at the University of Utah, where she teaches queer theory, theories of race and racialized gender, and twentieth-century literature and film.  Two of her books—Beautiful Bottom, Beautiful Shame: Where "Black" Meets "Queer" and The Queer Child—were finalists for the Lambda Literary Award in LGBT Studies.  In addition, her recent book Making Out was a 2020 national finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award for memoir, and her newest book is entitled Gender(s).  Stockton has taught at Cornell University's School of Criticism and Theory and, along with her university's top teaching award, she has received the Equality Utah Allies Award for LGBT activism, the NOW Lifetime Achievement Award, the YWCA Outstanding Achievement Award in Arts and Communication, the Crompton Noll Prize for Best Essay in Gay and Lesbian Studies from the Modern Language Association, and the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the highest honor granted by the University of Utah.

This event is hosted by Professor Eng-Beng Lim (WGSS), and co-sponsored by Tuck School of Business, Thayer School of Engineering, the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and Dartmouth Athletics.