The Lewis & Clark College Gender Studies Symposium began today and runs through Friday.  I was so impressed with the student panel I moderated this morning, at which students addressed the capacities (and challenges) of using personal narrative to understand gender performance.

This evening, I am looking forward to the keynote address by poet, essayist, scholar, and activist Eli Clare.  His new book, Brilliant Imperfections: Grappling with Cure, makes good on the promise to grapple with “cure” in thoughtful, provocative ways.  He  encourages us to be jostled by the tangle of contradictory positions, yearnings, and experiences.  He resists giving a single answer to questions about cure and, instead, articulates what is at stake and how we might think about multiple, interrelated facets of cure as it applies to disability and to other social justice issues.  I am excited to hear him speak in person.

Tomorrow, a performance by Brianna Barrett, a workshop with Eli Clare, and a panel on neurodiversity.   Then, Friday, we close out with author Roxanne Gay.  The best three days of the academic year at Lewis & Clark!