[csaa-forum] The CRISPR Sperm Bank— Deakin 'First Fridays’ Gender and Sexuality Studies Seminar Series on 7 September

Gender and Sexuality Studies gsexuality at deakin.edu.au
Fri Oct 26 07:58:05 ACST 2018


Deakin University’s next ‘First Fridays’ Gender and Sexuality Studies seminar will be held at 4pm on 2 November at Deakin Downtown<http://www.deakin.edu.au/locations/deakin-corporate-centres/deakin-downtown> (at 727 Collins St, near Southern Cross Station).



All are welcome to join us for afternoon tea before the seminar as part of a monthly GSS/LGBTQ+ Community networking event from 3pm onwards sponsored by Deakin University Equity and Diversity. The seminar commences at 4pm and will be followed by informal drinks.



The seminar series is free and open to people interested in the work, although bookings are required. For further information about the seminar series and to register see our blog<https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/gender-and-sexuality-studies-research-network/about-us/seminar-series/>.



The CRISPR Sperm Bank: Experience Trans-species Possibilities



The CRISPR Sperm Bank: Experience Trans-species Possibilities A seminar by Eben Kirksey, with Tamara Pertamina Tamara Pertamina is a transgender performance artist living in Indonesia. In June 2018 she created a new project—the CRISPR Sperm Bank—and pushed it through the streets of Yogyakarta. CRISPR-Cas9, a fast and cheap genetic engineering tool, has become a “hope technology” (cf. Franklin 1997). This molecule has become a sticky object that has collected together speculation about possible futures for the human species (see Kirksey, 2016; cf. Ahmed 2010). Tamara’s CRISPR Sperm Bank might be seen as a para-ethnographic object, a conversation piece, aimed at getting people to speak and think differently about consumer choices that could soon emerge with the field of synthetic biology. Her earlier performance art brought critical attention to synthetic chemistry and the toxic legacies of colonialism and global capitalism. Previously she played with make-up to bring attention to the use of skin-whitening products in East and Southeast Asia. Tamara Pertamina’s sperm bank opens up an opportunity to engage with a series of questions: How are political and economic forces structuring speculation about possible trans-genic futures? Whose hopes for CRISPR remain in the realm of abstract speculation and whose hopes are becoming increasingly concrete? Can queer theory guide creative ways for thinking about the potentialities of trans-biology?



About the Speakers



Eben Kirksey is perhaps best known for his work in multispecies ethnography—a field that mixes ethnographic, historical, ethological, and genetic methods to study spaces where humans and other species meet. He first entered this field as an editor and curator. “The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography,” a special issue of Cultural Anthropology co-edited with Stefan Helmreich, situates contemporary scholarship on animals, microbes, plants, and fungi within deeply rooted traditions of environmental anthropology, continental philosophy, and the sociology of science. Collaborations with bioartists, who work with living matter as their media, produced The Multispecies Salon, an edited book which brought together insights from the humanities on the microbiome, health, food, environmental justice, and synthetic biology.

Tamara Pertamina was born in Tasikmalaya in 1989. In 2008 Tamara moved to Yogyakarta and worked as a busker until 2013. In 2006 Tamara has participated in the work of the transgender community, ranging from busking to sex work projects. In 2012-2014, Tamara was involved in the art project entitled Makcik Project (Yogyakarta), curated by Grace Samboh. Tamara’s works concern gender issues and sexuality, the history of transgender in Indonesia, religion, and humanity.



For further information and to register click here.<https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/gender-and-sexuality-studies-research-network/about-us/seminar-series/>



Future Seminars

7 December—Aileen Moreton-Robinson (QUT)



The Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Network blog<https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/gender-and-sexuality-studies-research-network/> contains registration details, recordings of past seminars where available and links to other events.

You are receiving this email because you attended a Deakin Gender and Sexuality Studies seminar or have contacted us to be placed on this list. If you no longer wish to receive occasional notifications of Deakin GSS events (usually two emails per month), please contact me and I will remove you from the list.



Jack Kirne

Sessional Academic | PhD Candidate

Deakin University

School of Communication and Creative Arts, Faculty of Arts and Education, Burwood, Victoria, 3125



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