Sedgwick Memorial Lecture in Gender & Sexuality Studies: "Sex in the Event of Happiness"

Our theories of the historical event tend to take the shape of trauma and catastrophe. What if we saw in sex the kind of event that structures our relation to history, intimacy, and sociality? Reading with Last Tango in Paris (Bertolucci, 1972), thinking about sexual revolution, and contesting the desexualization of so much queer theory, this lecture poses questions about where the sexual revolution went awry and what’s left for sexual optimism. A reception will follow the lecture. Organized by the BU Faculty Gender and Sexuality Studies Group. Sponsored by The Boston University Center for the Humanities,The American and New England Studies Program,The Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, The Department of English,The Department of Sociology,The Department of Religion,The Department of Romance Studies,The School of Theology, and The Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies