2023: Queer Faulkner

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick once pointed out the oddly superfluous, unintentionally revealing nature of the question, “Has there ever been a gay Shakespeare?” How might reframing this question around a queer Faulkner prove similarly generative and unnecessary? Taking its title, “Queer Faulkner,” as both a description and an imperative, the forty-ninth annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha conference will explore the diverse expressions, meanings, and functions of non-normative sexuality, gender, desire, and affiliation in William Faulkner’s life and work, tapping into the disciplinary ferment of queer and trans studies scholarship and the new paradigms and reading strategies it has established. In addition to four keynote lectures, the conference program will include panel presentations, guided daylong tours of North Mississippi and the Delta, and our ever-popular sessions on “Teaching Faulkner.”

The conference will begin on Sunday, July 23, with a reception at the University Museum, after which the academic program of the conference will open with a keynote address and the program’s first scholarly panel, followed by a buffet supper on the grounds of Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oak. Over the next four days, a busy schedule of lectures and panels will also make room for teaching sessions, a picnic served at Rowan Oak, guided tours, and a closing party on Thursday afternoon, July 27. Throughout the conference, the University’s J. D. Williams Library will display Faulkner books, manuscripts, photographs, and memorabilia. The University Press of Mississippi will exhibit Faulkner books and titles of related interest published by university presses throughout the United States, and Faulkner collector Seth Berner will give a brown bag lunch presentation on “Collecting Faulkner.”

Read about the 2023 Participants.

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Schedule
2023
Sunday, July 23rd
1:00 PM

Reception

Conference Attendees

University Museums

1:00 PM

2:30 PM

Keynote Lecture. Genderqueer Faulkner: Paris, Gender Nonconformity, and Nonbinary Resistance in Mosquitoes and The Wild Palms

Jaime Harker, University of Mississippi

Nutt Auditorium

2:30 PM

4:00 PM

Panel. Almost Men

Lisa Hinrichsen, University of Arkansas
Robert Jackson, University of Tulsa
John Duvall, Purdue University

Nutt Auditorium

4:00 PM

7:30 PM

Evening Program

Rebecca Lauck Cleary, University of Mississippi
Laura Wilson, University of Mississippi
E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University

Nutt Auditorium

7:30 PM

Monday, July 24th
9:00 AM

Teaching Faulkner

Jennie Joiner, Keuka College
Brian McDonald, School District of Lancaster, Penn.

Nutt Auditorium

9:00 AM

10:30 AM

Panel. Breaking The Binaries in Faulkner’s Fiction

Astrid Maes, Université de Picardie
Solveig Dunkel, Université de Paris, Nanterre
Laura Wilson, University of Mississippi

Nutt Auditorium

10:30 AM

12:00 PM

Collecting Faulkner

Seth Berner, Berner Books

Nutt Auditorium

12:00 PM

2:00 PM

Keynote Lecture. Slapstick, S&M, and Civil Rights: Faulkner’s Queer Violence in Light in August and Intruder in the Dust

Michael Bibler, Louisiana State University

Nutt Auditorium

2:00 PM

3:30 PM

Panel. Spaces, Ecologies, Pedagogies

Amy A. Foley, Providence College
Rene Werhle, University of Michigan
Jay Ingrao, University of Texas, Dallas

Nutt Auditorium

3:30 PM

Tuesday, July 25th
8:30 AM

Workshop. Queering Faulkner: Teaching Faulkner in an Age of Censorship

Jaime Harker, University of Mississippi
Ellen Shelton, University of Mississippi

Location TBD

8:30 AM

10:30 AM

Panel. Comparatively Queer: Sexuality, Identity, and Experimentation in Faulkner and Beyond

Bernard T. Joy
Jenna Grace Sciuto, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Rebecca Nisetich, University of Southern Maine

Nutt Auditorium

10:30 AM

12:00 PM

Lunch On Your Own

Conference Attendees

12:00 PM

2:00 PM

Keynote Lecture: Black Trans Lives and the Limits of Queer Faulkner

Phillip Gordon, University of Wisconsin, Platteville

Nutt Auditorium

2:00 PM

3:30 PM

Panel: Beyond the Closet

Margarita Cepele, Louisiana State University
Kacee McKinney, University of Mississippi
Luke Anderson, Louisiana State University

Nutt Auditorium

3:30 PM

Wednesday, July 26th
9:00 AM

Teaching and Learning Faulkner in the Digital Age

Haley Albert-Tate, Cave City High School Career and Collegiate Preparatory School (Ark.)
Taylor Bryant, Cape Central High School
Jonathan Hayes, Southeast Missouri State University
Nikki Magaziner Mills, St. Albans School
Theresa Towner, University of Texas, Dallas

Nutt Auditorium

9:00 AM

10:30 AM

Panel. Eros and Intertextuality: Queering Faulkner’s Engagement with Antiquity

Michael Gleason, Millsaps College
Catherine Freis, Millsaps College
Anne MacMaster, Millsaps College

Nutt Auditorium

10:30 AM

12:30 PM

Library Lecture. Same-Sex Couples in Mississippi: The Past and Today

John Marsalek, Soouthern New Hampshire University

Faulkner Room. Archives and Special Collections. J. D. Williams Library

12:30 PM

2:00 PM

Keynote Lecture. Swamps, Monsters, and Postage Stamps: Queer Southern Spatiality After Faulkner

Heidi Siegrist, University of the South

Nutt Auditorium

2:00 PM

3:30 PM

Panel. Queer(ing) Gothic

Davina Bell, University of North Dakota
Pen-Wen Clio Kao, National Ilan University, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Nutt Auditorium

3:30 PM

5:45 PM

Walk Through Bailey Woods

Conference Attendees

University Museums

5:45 PM

6:00 PM

Picnic Supper

Conference Attendees

Rowan Oak

6:00 PM

Thursday, July 27th
9:00 AM

Guided Tours of North Mississippi

Jay Watson, University of Mississippi
Jack Elliott
Scott Barretta
Rhondalyn Peairs

Inn at Ole Miss

9:00 AM

5:30 PM

Closing Party and Signing

Conference Attendees

Off Square Books, 129 Courthouse Square, Oxford

5:30 PM