[ecrea] III Geographies of Sexualities Conference Crossing Boundaries: Sexualities, Media and (Urban) Spaces

Queer Safe Spaces - Call for Papers

Co-organizers: Gilly Hartal, Bar-Ilan University, Lital Pascar, 
Northwestern University, Yossi David, The Hebrew University

III Geographies of Sexualities Conference

Crossing Boundaries: Sexualities, Media and (Urban) Spaces. Rome, 16-18 
September 2015



‘Safe space’ is usually understood as a deconstruction of hegemonic 
discourses, as well as a relational production of alternative spaces 
constitutive of known logic and rules (Evans & Boyte 1992; Gamson 1996; 
Polletta 1999; The Roestone Collective 2014). Safety has long been a 
formative subject within queer communities. In feminist, LGBT and queer 
discourses, a ‘safe space’ is usually a physical/virtual space, either 
temporary or permanent in time and space, which is defined as an open 
and accepting environment, designated to allow its attendants a feeling 
of self-safety, and a space for full self-expression without the threat 
of violence.

Consequently, the concept of ‘safe space’ is an ever-changing, fluid, 
and flexible concept - dependent on time, place, participants, 
spatiality, temporality, environment and more. Moreover, since ‘safe 
space’ is rooted in a discourse of cultural diversity, it provides tools 
for dealing with the violent and oppressive sanctions used to discipline 
queer individuals in public space. Altogether, these different features 
lead us to a definition of ‘safe space’ as essentially a refuge place; a 
space intended to offer a solution, even if only a temporary and partial 
one, to an everyday lacking security.

This session will explore the politics of “safe space” in various 
scales, contexts, places and spaces.

We seek submissions that critically investigate, but are not limited to:

-        Paradoxes in the practice or discourses around ‘safe space’

-        The operation of discourses and actions within ‘safe spaces’

-        The politics of “safe space” in virtual contexts

-        Sex, intimacy, and emotional work in ‘safe spaces’

-        The boundary work and policing work around ‘safe spaces’

-        The ways in which queer ‘safe space’ is framed, produced and 
negotiated within social movements and grassroots activism groups

-        Bisexual and transgender identities and ‘safe spaces’

-        Race, class and sexuality intersections and ‘safe space’

-        The academia’s place as a ‘safe space’ for queer scholars/queer 
scholarship

-        Intersections between queer tourism, ‘safe spaces’ and virtual 
encounters

-        Schools as location of ‘safe spaces’

-        ‘Safe spaces’ in view of the rural and urban.

-        ‘Safe spaces’ in spaces of disability

-        Religious or spiritual ‘safe spaces’

-        ‘Safe space’ and diaspora



Please submit abstracts (200 words maximum) to (queersafespaces /at/ gmail.com) 
by April 15, 2015. Questions or comments about the session are also 
welcomed.



References

Collective, T.R., 2014. Safe space: Towards a reconceptualization. 
Antipode, 46(5), pp.1346–1365.

Evans, S.M. & Boyte, H.C., 1992. Free spaces: The sources of democratic 
change in America, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gamson, W.A., 1996. Safe spaces and social movements. Perspectives on 
social problems, 8, pp.27–38.

Polletta, F., 1999. “Free spaces” in collective action. Theory and 
Society, 28(1), pp.1–38.

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