Speaker: João Manuel de Oliveira, Federal University of Santa Catarina

In this talk, I explore some of the currents in queer studies in Brazil, using the idea of eccentric genealogies. Taking the Foucauldian concept of subjugated knowledges and locating it in the peripheries of knowledge production, I will explore the relation between centers and peripheries in terms of the production of queer theories. In most accounts of queer theory, a sort of agnatology, a socially produced ignorance, seems to be at work. Centers in knowledge production share an explicit lack of attention to other queer theories and practices, making them unaware of the intense operations of production and circulation of queer knowledges and practices in the peripheries. This peripheral queer is in a position of “outside in” regarding queer theory produced in the centers. In Latin America, a certain idea of decoloniality is inseparable from queer, hence the name kuir. This process of kuiring queer theory creates new resonances and new implications. In the case of Brazil there are lots of designations and possible translations of queer-now-kuir. This decolonial kuir has implications for political thought and action, ranging from a commitment to micropolitics to broader coalitions. It articulates decolonial perspectives, produces a necessary attention to racialization, capitalism, local knowledges and seeks to produce de-subjugated knowledges.

João Manuel de Oliveira is a gender studies and feminist theory scholar currently based in the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, as a visiting associate professor. Current research interests are: geopolitics of knowledges, especially local and subjugated knowledges, trans and queer studies, contemporary dance and theories of gender; sexual citizenship and the dynamics of homonormativity.