Led by Eric Keenaghan, assistant professor, Department of English at SUNY-Albany

The concept of "security" has been important to queer politics insofar as it is central to human rights discourses. Recently, though, ideas of "security" and even of "the human" have been perverted. With the establishment of Homeland Security state, they now read as concepts supporting nationalism and a fear of difference. Just how much has our activism and theory become reproductive of conservative nation-state ideologies, then? Can we take a different approach to security so as to disentangle it from a dangerous nationalism? Can we find value in its opposite, the citizen's vulnerability? These questions will be the core for this seminar's discussions. Before the first meeting, participants are asked to read Judith Butler's "Precarious Life" (Verso, 2004), and examine the following documents (available online): the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the U.S. government's National Strategy for Homeland Security (2002).

To register for the Seminar, which will meet Thursdays, February 8, March 8, April 12, and May 10, 6-8pm each night at the LGBT Community Center, please contact the CLAGS office at 212-817-1955. You may also email your registration request, along with any special needs you may have, to clags@gc.cuny.edu.

This event is made possible, in part, by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

History of Seminars in the City
As part of its burgeoning advocacy efforts, CLAGS initiated the Seminars in the City program in July 1998. The series reflects CLAGS’s commitment to providing a public forum for intellectual discussion and debate on and off the college campus. Seminars in the City also connects academics, activists, and the larger community. As Alisa Solomon, CLAGS’s former Executive Director, points out, "Seminars in the City is one of the many ways in which CLAGS continues its commitment to bridging the academy and the community to share knowledge about gay and lesbian lives."

In a partnership with The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, the monthly series offers an informal but intellectually charged environment for addressing major works of LGTBQ studies. The aim is to make complex and often abstruse ideas engaging for nonacademic readers. Previous Seminars leaders, themselves CLAGS board members, have found the Seminars experience "a delight." Anne Pellegrini, who taught "Introduction to Queer Theory" in the fall of 1998 recalls that, "the experience was a powerful and pleasurable reminder of the vital links possible between the academy and the streets, theory and living."

Elizabeth Freeman, who is a former CLAGS Board Member and the first organizer of the series, is proud of its success so far. Freeman says that the many semesters have generated a great deal of excitement, and the conversations in the seminars have been provocative, spirited, and insightful. "The success has already given us a sense of the intellectual, political, and artistic energy that thinkers outside the academy contribute to our shared inquiry," says Freeman. Each semester centers around a particular theme and is led by a CLAGS Board member with an expertise in the field. Previous topics have included:
     

• Fall 2006: SICK: A Seminar on the Relationships Between Society, Sexuality and Disease. Facilitated by Ananya Mukherjea.
• Spring 2006: Queers: Revisiting Latin(o) American Sexualities. Facilitated by Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel and Ben. Sifuentes-Jáuregui.
• Summer 2005: Documenting Queer Community Histories. Facilitated by David Serlin.
• Spring 2005 Semester: Sexuality, Performance and the Law Facilitated by Sonia Katyal and Carmen Malalis
• Fall 2004 Semester: Reading the Technological Queer Body. Facilitated by CLAGS's Lisa Jean Moore.
• Spring 2004 Semester: Histories of Activism, Facilitated by CLAGS's Jasbir Puar and Sonia Katyal, and ALP's Rosamund S. King.
• Fall 2003 Semester: "Queering the Crip/Cripping the Queer: Introduction to Queer and Disability Studies," Facilitated by Sarah E. Chinn, Hunter College, CUNY; Kim Christensen, Purchase College, SUNY; Simi Linton, Hunter College, CUNY; and Peter Penrose, Graduate Center, CUNY.
• Fall 2002 Semester: "Online Introduction to Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Studies," Facilitated by Esther Newton and Deb Amory, Lesbian/Gay Studies Program, SUNY Purchase
• Spring 2002 Semester: "Sodomy and Matzoh: How Queer and Jewish Cultures Radicalized the 1950s," led by Michael Bronski, Visiting Scholar in Jewish and Women's Studies at Dartmouth College
• Fall 2001 Semester: "Queer Plays and Queer Places: LGTB Territory in the Theatre," led by Jordan Schildcrout, Graduate Center, CUNY
• Summer 2001 Semester: "Black Feminisms and LGTBQ Studies," led by Professor E. Frances White, New York University.
• Spring 2001 Semester: "Patos, Tortilleras y Locas: Queer Latino/a Culture" led by Professor Larry LaFountain-Stokes of Rutgers University.
• Fall 2000 Semester: "Gay Economics," led by attorney and activist Kay Diaz and writer Jeffrey Escoffier.
• Spring 2000 Semester: "Queer Latino/a Identities and Sexualities," led by Professor José Muñoz of NYU and Professor Licia Fiol-Matta of Barnard College.
• Fall 1999 Semester: "Transgender Politics," led by Professor Paisley Currah of Brooklyn College.
• Summer 1999 Semester: "Lesbian and Gay Poetry," led by Professor Douglas Mao of Princeton University.

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies is one of very few university-based research centers in the United States dedicated to the study of historical, cultural, and political issues of vital concern to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. By sponsoring public programs and conferences, offering fellowships to individual scholars, and functioning as an indispensable conduit of information, CLAGS serves as a national center for the promotion of scholarship that fosters social change.

The City University of New York’s (CUNY) Graduate Center (GC) is the doctorate-granting institution of the largest urban university in the United States. The only consortium of its kind in the nation, the Graduate Center draws its 1,600-member faculty mainly from the CUNY senior colleges and cultural and scientific institutions throughout New York City. Established in 1961, the Graduate Center has grown to an enrollment of nearly 4,000 students in 31 doctoral programs, and seven master’s programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The Graduate Center also houses 28 research centers and institutes, and administers the CUNY Baccalaureate Program.