Seventeen years ago, the Lesbian Lives Conference began in University College Dublin as an opportunity for students of feminism and women’s issues to come together to discuss, listen and learn from internationally renowned academics. Since then, it has become a central part of the calendar of lesbians all over Ireland. Not only are there workshops and discussions on a myriad of topics, but the nightlife surrounding the conference is a blast.

This year the Lesbian Lives Conference is sub-titled In-laws, Outlaws and Other Relations and welcomes keynote speaker Sara Ahmed, Professor of Race and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College in London.

“Who’s she?” I hear you ask. Ahmed is one impressive woman. Books include The Promise of Happiness,  Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others, The Cultural Politics of Emotion and Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality. According to the University of London website:

I have begun work on a new book project on the ‘sociality of the will’ provisionally entitled, Willful Subjects: The Psychic Life of Social Dissent. In this project I begin with simple questions: What does it mean to attribute someone as willful? What are we doing if we are being willful? I aim to explore the relationship between willfulness (as an attribution and as the experience of an attribution) and social dissent.

She is also:

continuing to present findings from the research I completed on diversity in higher education, which explores the relationship between new equality regimes and institutional racism.

If attending such a conference gives you the heebee-jeebees, don’t worry, Lesbian Lives gets a great balance of intellectual academia and fun workshops. Plus, on Saturday February 20th, Aprés Lesbian Lives takes place in the Grosvenor Suite at The Berkeley Hotel on Landsdowne Road. If you plan on getting lucky, or staying over for other reasons, there is a special room-rate for the conference. Aprés Lesbian Lives starts at 8.30pm and is €15 to get in. For your money you get a room full of smart ladies, DJs Saskia nd Goldylox, as well as a performance from Glinska.

Here’s a rundown of the events taking place (thanks Emma!), click here for the link.

FRIDAY 19th
11.00-11.30 Registration, Welcome and Tea/Coffee – L532, Library Building, UCD
11.30- 1.00:
Session 1

Session 2
Lesbian Identity Bootcamp: A Writer’s Workshop
Malia (Mary) L McCarrick, Union Institute & University, USA

Session 3
(1) Megan Chawansky, University of Bath, UK
Lesbian Lives and Athletic Lives: The  case of Sheryl Swoopes
(2)Lourdes Torres, DePaul University, USA
Latina Lesbian Organizing in Chicago, USA
(3) Linda Dame, University of British Columbia, Canada
Population Politics and the ‘Senior Lesbian’; A critical Review of her creation, maintenance and governance.

1.00-1.30 – Coffee

1.30-3.00
Session 1
Literary Lesbians
(1) Kym Bird, York University,UK
Thrills, Crises and Climaxes: Melodrama and Lesbianism in Early Canadian Women’s Drama.
(2) Chris Roulston, University of Western Ontario, Canada
Interpreting lesbian Desire in the Codrington Divorce Trial of 1864
(3) Temma Berg, Gettysburg College, USA
An Im/Modest Proposal: Anne Lister, Emily Brontë and the Writing of Shirley
(4)Colette Morrow, Feminist Formations: (previously the National Women’s Studies Association Journal), USA
An Analysis of Travel Narratives about Persia (Now Iran) Written by Vita Sackville-West and Annemarie Schwarzenbach

Session 2
Irish Civil Partnership Bill
The Irish Civil Partnership Bill 2009 – Practical Implications and Proposals for Reform
Ruth Kelly, Solicitor & Justine Quinn, Attorney and Barrister, Ireland

Session 3
Sonya Kelly, Professional comic, Ireland
Writing and performing stand up comedy

Coffee 3:00- 3:30

3.30-5.00
Session 1
Young Lesbian Lives
(1) Petruta Tatulescu, Ruprecht-Karls-University, Germany
Lesbian Lives at Boarding Schools
(2)Leslie Sherlock, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
To Inclusively and Beyond! : A Sweden/Ireland Dialogue on LGBT Inclusion in Sex/uality Education
(3) Anne Rudolph, Linkoping University, Sweden
‘Can Lesbians Get Sexually Transmitted Infections’?; Unpacking the Question

Session 2
Queer Color
(1) Phyllis J. Jackson, Pomona College, USA
Daddy’s Girl/Daddies’ Girls: Blackness and Lesbian Narrative Constructs
(2) Laura Harris, Pitzer College, USA
Queer Mamas & Papas in the Mix: Black Renaissance Artists Doin’ it Like Family
(3) Ally Day, The Ohio State University, USA
Queering Bodily Boundaries: How Black Lesbian Feminists in the 1970’s Prescribed the Contemporary AIDS Narrative By Theorizing a Collective Lesbian Life

Session 3
Count Me In Too: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Lives in Brighton & Hove, UK
Leela Bakshi (Spectrum) and Kath Browne, University of Brighton, UK
A Poster display and Question & Answer Session of an innovative research project conducted by academics and community activists with the aim of promoting positive changes for LGBT people.
See www.countmeintoo.co.uk

5.00-6.00 – Keynote Session
Emma Donoghue INSEPARABLE: DESIRE BETWEEN WOMEN IN LITERATURE

6.00 – Book Launch and Wine Reception
Roisin Ryan Flood ‘Lesbian Motherhood: Gender, Families and Sexual Citizenship’ L532

SATURDAY 20th
9:00– 9.30 Registration, Welcome and Tea/Coffee

9:30–11:00
Session 1
Queer Ethnic and Cyber Identities
(1) Julianne Pidduck, Université de Montréal, Canada
The L Word as ‘Urban Tribe’: The Bonds of Lesbian Kinship
(2) Rachel Lewis, Cornell University, USA
Same-sex Immigration reform, gay rights and the problem of queer liberalism
(3)Françoise Nimal, Le Monde selon les femmes asbl, Belgium
Lesbian Visibility and New Technologies. Visibility Strategies on the Web: Facebook, a Case Study’

Session 2
Lesbians in literary and Popular Culture
(1) Naomi Moses, York University, Canada
‘Who is pure enough to shelter it?”: A celebration of forbidden love in Amy Redpath Roddick’s the “Romance of a Princess”
(2) Joanne Bishton, University of Derby, UK
Kissing Women: The Fiction of Sarah Waters
(3) Claire Jenkins, University of Warwick, UK
The invisibility of the Lesbian family in Hollywood
(4) Gabriel Dor, Northwestern University, USA
The Body Gossip: Beth Ditto’s Boisterous Voice and Image in British Music Magazines

Session 3
Activism in the Age of Social Media – Workshop
LGBT Noise (Ireland)
Eloise McInerney  & Pól Ó Cionnaith, LGBT Noise (Ireland)

11.00–11:30            Tea/Coffee Break

11:30–1.00
Session 1
Barriers to Recognising Domestic Abuse and issues in healthcare in Female LBQ Relationships
(1) Marianne Hester, University of Bristol, UK & Catherine Donovan, University of Sunderland, UK
Public Stories and Changing Lives: Defining and Acknowledging Domestic Violence in Female Same-Sex Relationships
(2) Rebecca Barnes, University of Derby, UK
Same Sex, Different Issues?: Women’s Accounts Of Seeking Support In Abusive Same-Sex Relationships
(3) Megan Todd, Robert Gordon University, UK
Uncivil Partnerships? The Role Of Civil Partnerships In Responses To Domestic Abuse
(4) Mel Duffy, Dublin City University, Ireland
Shadows in the background

Session 2
Queer Identity Formation
(1) Rhianna Humphrey, University of Stirling, UK
‘They’re Here, They’re Queer; We’re Using It’: Acting Out Queer Contexts in Activisms and Academia.’
(2) Jenny Kangasvuo, University of Oulu, Finland
‘Could You Call Yourself Lesbian Nowadays? Comparing the Experiences of Finnish Bisexual Women in 1999 and 2009’
(3) Johanne Lavoie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
‘Because the lesbians are women’: Fidelity between social construction and moral pact: Meeting with lesbians in Montreal’.

Session 3
Same Sex Marriage: Conformist or Radical?
Chair: Moninne Griffith, Director, MarriagEquality
Panel: Fergus Ryan, Law Lecturer, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), Ireland
Denise Charlton, Co-Chair, MarriagEquality; CEO Immigrant Council of Ireland
Anna McCarthy and Noelle Moran LGBT Noise (Ireland)

Lunch Break 1:00-2:00

2:00-3:30
Session 1
Marriage: The Nuclear Option?
Katherine O’Donnell, University College, Dublin, Ireland
Richard O’Leary, Queens University Belfast
“Civil Partnership legislation: Responses of the Irish Churches”
Panel TBC

Session 2
European Lesbian Lives
(1)Helen Ibry, Università di Verona, Italy
Gender, Sexuality, Identity: Practices and Theories of Desire in the Lesbian Movement in Italy

(2) Alicja Kowalska, Graduate School of Social Research, Warsaw, Poland
Polish Lesbianism: Sexual Identity Without a Lesbian Community
(3) Agnieszka Weseli, UFA, Warsaw, Poland
Activism and Presence in the Times of Transformation: Searching for LBTIQ on the Crossroads of Gender, Nationality and Religion (Poland 1989-2009)

Session 3
The Pieces of Me
A one-hour documentary by Irish film-maker Carol O’Keefe on the 3-year search to find her birth mother.
Followed by Q&A.
See: http://www.thepiecesofmedocumentary.com/

Session 4 – Workshop (2-3pm, L532)
Sonya Mullingan, NUI Maynooth, Ireland
Do we recognise ourselves? Lesbian representations on screen

3:30-4.00               Tea/Coffee Break

4.00-5.30
Session 1
Queering Maternity
(1) Joani Mortenson, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Canada
Titillating Pleasure: Queering the Politics of Maternal Erotics
(2) Róisín Ryan-Flood, University of Essex, UK
Negotiating Sexual Citizenship: Lesbians and Reproductive Health Care
(3) Yvette Taylor, Newcastle University, UK
Lesbian and Gay Parenting: Respectable Routes and ‘Active Choice’
(4) Sheila Quaid, University of Sunderland, UK
Lesbian Led Families and Kinship Connections

Session 2
Re-membering Mary Daly, – A Celebration
Ger Moane, University College Dublin, Ireland

Session 3
Coming out to your T.D. (Irish Parliamentary Representative) : Lobbying Workshop
Barry Johnson, Political Affairs Officer (Mental Health) Amnesty International (Ireland) and Moninne Griffith, Director MarriagEquality, Ireland

Session 4 Outside I’m Singing (Video showing and Q and A session)
is the culmination of a year long collaborative film project between  Mná Mná  (Ireland’s only lesbian choir, based in Cork), the film maker Lisa Fingleton and musical director Evelyn Quinlan. Through interviews and documentary footage, the work explores the process of creating the musical ‘The Farmer’s Daughter’ which was held in the Firkin Crane Theatre, Cork in May 2009.
Session facilitated by Lisa Fingleton, Filmmaker & Evelyn Quinlan, musical director

5.30-6.30 – Keynote Session
Sara Ahmed, Professor in Race and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
Wilfulness and Lesbian Politics

Registration fees are:
Full Conference Registration – €80
Student / Community Rate – €30
Day Rate – €15

Fees can be paid in cash at the registration desk

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