Upcoming Conference: Off-Script: Tactics and Techniques of Feminist Errancy

Where: McGill University

When: November 4-6

About the Conference

Everywhere we turn, feminist activism is targeting bad behavior and creating new networks of community through digital technology. Campaigns and hashtags such as #MeToo, #TimesUp, #SayHerName and #NiUnaMenos, campus protests, live feeds, subvoting, and spreadsheets of predators have demonstrated the power of technology to support signals, knowledge exchange, and warnings into new spheres. The consequences of this scalar shift are still unfolding; We must go beyond the determinative dynamic of action / reaction to the broader potential for reshaping social norms in the name of equity, justice, and representation. How do different techniques and technologies of digital resistance and mutate as intersectional feminist praxis? How can technology be used at the time of writing and hacking? How does digital networking emerge as a shifting tactical tool in local and transnational protests and systems of queer and feminist solidarity?

“Off-Script: Technologies and Tactics of Feminist Errancy” (Nov. 4-6, 2018) is an academic conference featuring emerging and established scholars, as well as leading artists and activists, in the fields of gender, sexuality, and feminist approaches. to networks of community, digital technologies and social inclusion and exclusion. Presented by the McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF), Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and the Digital Humanities Initiative at McGill, in collaboration with Studio XX, a bilingual, feminist artist-run center for mining exploration , creation, and criticism, founded in 1996, “Off-Script” runs in parallel with Studio XX’s biennial feminist festival of media arts + digital culture, HTMlles: Beyond the Hashtag, Failures and Becomings(Nov. 1-5, 2018). HTMlles brings together artists, scholars, and activists passionate about new technologies from a feminist perspective and takes place well in Montreal. Each edition focuses on a specific theme and addresses urgent socio-political issues by pushing the boundaries of artistic and feminist practices. “Off-Script” builds on this work, in the context of feminist media arts, social media, digital activism and advancing academic research in the field through outreach and dialogue with wider communities.

Keynotes

Marta Dillon, Argentine journalist, activist, and co-founder of #niunamenos

“The Ni Una Menos Feminist Tide”

Jasmeen Patheja, Indian Artist/ Activist and founder of Blank Noise

“Action Sheroes Walk Alone Together”

Rebecca Harrison, University of Glasgow

“Doing Feminism in a Man’s World (Wide Web): Getting On, Switching Off and Keeping Safe Online”

+ workshop with Jasmeen Patheja on Nov. 6

For more information and full schedule, visit the conference’s website.