Event

Issues in Gender and Sexual Identity: What Educators Should Know

Saturday, March 19th, 2005, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Speaker: Cynthia Nelson (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)

Please note: Starting from Spring Semester of 2005 (January 10, 2005) TUJ-Osaka will operate at a new location in central Osaka. The new TUJ-Osaka will be accessible directly from Umeda Station.

What does it mean to be an educator at a time when sexual identities (straight, gay, lesbian, transgender, queer, questioning) are becoming increasingly prominent in public discourses? How do divergent local/global practices and perspectives play out in the classroom in terms of what sexual identities are understood to be, and how (or whether) they get discussed? What challenges and opportunities arise when teachers and learners do engage in class with topics about sexual identity? How can teachers frame discussions of sexual identity issues in ways that help to further the learning objectives of the class? What theories (e.g., poststructuralist, queer, postcolonialist) might be of practical use to teachers in thinking through such questions in relation to their own teaching practices?

This seminar will begin with a readers·theater performance of Queer as a Second Language, a play that has proved popular with audiences at conferences and universities in Australia and the United States (and at a conference in Sapporo, where the concept for the play was first canvassed). The playscript derives from research transcripts, so the characters are not fictional but are composites of actual EFL/ESL teachers and students who were observed and interviewed. The performance will lead to a discussion of what it might mean to teach in queer and transcultural times.

This seminar is part of TUJ's Distinguished Lecturer Series. Note that each seminar is actually 2 days long, apx. 7 hours per day. The first three hours of each seminar are free and open to the public. To attend both days of the weekend seminar costs 11,000 yen for the general public (free for M.Ed. and Ed.D. alumni of Temple University Japan). Please see the TUJ Osaka web site for full details.

Organization: Temple University Japan

Cost: TUJ Members: free for M.Ed. and Ed.D. alumni of Temple University Japan
Non-members: free (first three hours)

Venue: New Location: Osaka Ekimae Bldg. 3, 21st Floor, 1-1-3-2100 Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0001 (tel:(06) 6343-0005)

Location: Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Contact Temple University Japan

Temple University Japan

Work phone: 03-5441-9800