Everything you have always wanted to know about LGBT equality but were afraid to ask: Rights, liberation, intersectionality

Dr. Melanie Ritcher-Monpetit

Lecturer in International Security at the University of Sussex and Director of the Centre for Advanced International Theory

Abstract

This talk will question – ‘queer’ – some of the dominant assumptions about (trans)gender and (homo)sexuality. We will connect the racial-colonial origins of modern (scientific) classification systems of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ bodies with contemporary political struggles over LGBT rights and white nationalism, and reflect on the fraught relationship between science and LGBTIQ2S people. The talk will finish with some practical suggestions on how to better support LGBT colleagues in the workplace.

Biography

Dr. Melanie Richter-Montpetit is Lecturer in International Security at the University of Sussex, and the Director of the Centre for Advanced International Theory. Her research interests are in War and Security Studies, and in International Political Theory with focus on feminist, queer, and anti-colonial thought and struggles. Much of her work is concerned with the ongoing hold of racial-sexual and colonial formations of power on contemporary war and liberal security regimes.

She has received fellowships from the Leverhulme Trust and the German Academic Exchange Service. She is the recipient of the ISA’s Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section’s inaugural ‘Early Career Community Engagement Award’ for her work promoting equity and diversity inside and outside the academy.

She is currently working on three book projects. Her solo book, tentatively titled Beyond the Erotics of Orientalism: Feminist and Queer Investments in Liberal War, connects the targeting of Muslim/ified people and spaces in the so-called War on Terror to genealogies of settler colonialism and chattel slavery. Richter-Montpetit is also currently completing two co-authored books with Alison Howell (Rutgers University): Race and Security Studies (under contract with Oxford UP) and Martial Politics: Thinking Against Militarization and Securitization on Disability, Race and War.