Announcing the 2016-17 SPAN Faculty Funding Recipient

Aymar Jean Christian
Aymar Jean Christian

Communication Studies

Open TV beta: Developing and Analyzing Queer TV Reception Online

What does an open television network look like? Launched in March 2015, the Open TV beta platform develops television from the bottom-up, using web distribution to incubate stories by emerging performance, video and community-based artists. The research project employs “networked” (digital, peer-to-peer) distribution to understand and critique heretofore hidden practices of “network” (linear, business-to-business) development, including pilot and series development, audience engagement and sponsorship. It interrogates traditional media practices through the development of noncommercial works by artists corporate cable and web TV networks marginalize, primarily queer, transgender, cis-women and people of color. The persistent inequality in creative industries results not only in stilted mainstream entertainment but also a rich, under-explored wealth of diverse artistry already moving forward in alternative spaces. By showcasing underrepresented arts and artists through more open platforms online, Open TV seeks deeper understanding of – and consistent audiences for – queer, feminist and racially sincere arts, television and film distribution.

Click here to learn more about SPAN faculty recipients.

Reading Group 2016 RECAP

Group Photo: Reading Group (2016)

“Pleasure/Danger: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Sexual Pleasure and Sexual Risk”

During the Winter quarter 2016, SPAN and the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research co-organized a successful reading group on the topic of “Pleasure/Danger: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Sexual Pleasure and Sexual Risk.” Twenty-two participants from Northwestern’s Evanston and Chicago campuses and the University of Chicago met over five separate sessions to discuss recent scholarship on sexual risk and pleasure in relation to issues such as HIV prevention, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), male and female circumcision, and sexual health more generally.

Welcome from the Co-Directors of SPAN

Greetings and welcome to the 2015-16 academic year! As SPAN enters its sixth year of operation, we want to remind everyone of opportunities that the project offers and give a heads-up concerning events planned for the coming months.

This year SPAN will continue to provide a range of funding opportunities for faculty and graduate students, including small grants for students to present sexualities-related work at academic conferences, summer research awards for graduate students, dissertation fellowships, and faculty research grants. We will also hold a faculty/graduate student reading group during the Winter quarter. Details about all of these opportunities will be posted on this website.

We are excited to announce that the keynote address for this year’s SPAN workshop will be delivered by the acclaimed sexualities scholar and anthropologist Gayle Rubin (University of Michigan). More information about the theme of the workshop and the lineup of speakers will be available soon. Please hold the dates of the workshop, which will take place on April 21 and 22.

This year SPAN is also conducting a national search for postdoctoral fellows who will take residence in September 2016. If you know of promising candidates please refer them to our website. The call for applications will be posted shortly.

Finally, we would like to welcome our new SPAN Program Assistant, Eliot Colin, who joined our team over the summer. Please stop by the GSS office to say hello and introduce yourself or look for Eliot at the GSS Start of Year Reception on October 8. Eliot can be reached by email at sexualities@northwestern.edu.

We look forward to seeing you all at events this year, and we always appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

Héctor Carrillo and Steve Epstein
Co-Directors, the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN)