About Upsetting Binaries & Hierarchies 2022

UBH is an interdisciplinary conference organized at Leiden University, the Netherlands, whose primary goal is to offer a space for intellectual exchange to scholars working on different areas of inquiry in which Queer Theories and Epistemologies are a common element. The conference welcomes researchers from various disciplines to share innovative insights on theoretical and methodological aspects of Queer Studies, offering a place to strengthen inter and cross-disciplinary dialogue.
UBH gives visibility to Queer Studies in the Netherlands and brings together an (inter)national audience of academics researching and teaching a range of subjects where challenging (cis)hetero and homonormativity is vital for developing a more inclusive society. Likewise, UBH acts in response to a widely recognized need for an interdisciplinary knowledge base and methodological strategies to understand how institutions, markets and/or communities (adversely) include or exclude dissident sexualities and non-hegemonic gender identities in different aspects of social life.
The intellectual exchange and outcomes of the conference will suggest ways in which interdisciplinarity within Queer Studies can help us tackle intersecting forms of oppression that are not distributed evenly across all individuals and groups but have become an unavoidable part of the daily life of dissident sexualities and non-hegemonic gender identities. Likewise, the conference aims to provide a place where the participants can establish and strengthen networks of scholars interested in advancing these lines of inquiry and willing to upset binaries and hierarchies along with other systems of classification that perpetuate oppression in an inter/transdisciplinary way.
The 2022 UBH edition will take place at Leiden University on September 22-23 and receive scholars based in the Netherlands and abroad. The conference program will include keynote presentations by colleagues from different fields of inquiry: Economics, Linguistics, Geography, History, Governance and Global Affairs, amongst others. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the event, each keynote speaker will examine theoretical and methodological aspects of their field of expertise, applying them to context-specific case studies to exemplify how Queer Theories and those disciplines intertwine. In this first edition, there will be no call for abstracts and no parallel sessions to encourage cross-fertilization across disciplinary fields this year. At the end of the conference, there will be a roundtable discussion, including all the invited speakers, on the relevance of interdisciplinary approaches to the advancement of Queer Studies and discussion of future collaboration opportunities.
The conference is open for everyone who wants to understand how power can be challenged and changed on the journey toward social justice. All attendees are welcome to join the conference where respect, no attitudes, and collective thinking are fundamental. UBH departs from a synergetic standpoint, opening its doors to those interested in learning and sharing professional and personal experiences with Queer Theories, aware that the most transformative aspect of knowledge exchange comes from synthesizing plural perspectives, with priority given to localized and situated ways of knowing. Additionally, we have chosen to collaborate with student organizations and collectives close to issues central to this academic and societal project.