The South Asian Studies Program and International Programs invite you to "Future Directions in South Asian Queer & Trans Studies: A Panel Discussion with Dr. Ahmed Afzal and Dr. Aqdas Aftab," which will take place virtually from 4 to 5:15 p.m. (CDT) on Friday, April 15.
CONSTRUCTING COSMOPOLITAN QUEER SEXUALITIES: TALES FROM GRINDR IN PAKISTAN - presented by Dr. Ahmed Afzal
Drawing on participant observation, qualitative interviews, and oral life histories, this presentation explores the uses of Grindr in Pakistan. With an estimated 27 million users in 192 countries, Grindr is among the most popular social networking apps for gay and bisexual men globally, and among the most subscribed social networking apps in Pakistan. Grindr’s usage in Pakistan creates opportunities for casual sexual encounters and demonstrates the construction of a cosmopolitan queer identity that appropriates Western epistemologies of sexuality (e.g., gay, bisexual, and straight) and sex positions and roles (e.g., top, versatile, and bottom). Such appropriations notwithstanding, Grindr’s usage in Pakistan illuminates a culturally distinctive reconfiguration of non-normative queer sexuality.
READING DALIT FEMINISM AS DECOLONIAL TRANS THEORY - presented by Dr. Aqdas Aftab
How does Dalit feminism open up new avenues for decolonial trans theorizing? Using the framework of caste abolition in South Asia, Aftab’s presentation will address this question by examining how the Brahminical/colonial (cis)gender system forcibly “trans-es” oppressed-caste or Dalit people. In particular, Aftab will show how Mimi Mondal’s speculative fiction offers us ways to interpret Dalit feminism as decolonial trans theory.
Dr. Ahmed Afzal, an associate professor at the California State University in Fullerton, completed his undergraduate education at Vassar College (BA, third-world cultures), and his graduate education at the London School of Economics (MSc, cultural geography, distinction) and at Yale University (MPhil and PhD, cultural anthropology). Dr. Afzal has taught at Colgate University, State University of New York at Purchase, and California State University, Stanislaus, prior to teaching at California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Afzal is the author of Lone Star Muslims: Transnational Lives and the South Asian Experience in Texas (New York University Press, 2015).
Dr. Aqdas Aftab is an interdisciplinary scholar of trans and queer of color critique, postcolonial and decolonial theories, and South Asian and African Diasporic literatures. As an assistant professor of literature at Loyola University Chicago, they are currently working on their first book project on decolonial trans interiority. They are also a creative writer who enjoys experimenting with speculative fiction.