Join us for an artist talk and panel on the mythologies and realities of the 1969 Criminal Code reform and its impact on the lives of queers, sex workers, and those seeking abortions. The panel will begin with a brief talk from artist/activist Ryan Conrad on his 2019 video projection Don’t Believe The Hype! Ryan’s talk will be followed by context-setting commentary from Andil Gosine, Tom Hooper, and Emma McKenna.
Ryan Conrad is an artist, activist, and scholar based in Ottawa. He is currently a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow in the Cinema & Media Studies Program at York University, where he is working on a manuscript entitled Radical VIHsion: Canadian AIDS Film & Video. He earned a PhD from the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Society and Culture at Concordia University and an MFA in interdisciplinary studio arts from the Maine College of Art.
Andil Gosine is an Associate Professor in Cultural & Artistic Practices for Environmental Justice at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University. His research, writing and artistic practices explore imbrications of ecology, desire and power.
Tom Hooper is a historian who researches the criminalization of LGBTQ2 communities in the decades following the 1969 criminal code reform. He also works as contract faculty in the Law and Society Program at York University.
Emma McKenna, PhD, is a multidisciplinary writer, educator, and activist. She has published across a range of feminist journals and is the author of Chenille or Silk: Poems (Caitlin Press, 2019). As a scholar of intersectional critical feminist history, she is interested in the place of marginalized subjects and labour within feminism.