<div dir="ltr"><div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px">Hi all,</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px">Please join us<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> next Tuesday August 26th for the </span>Cultural Studies Association of Australasia's<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> monthly online seminar. This month we are featuring early career researcher Dr James Gardiner who will discuss his research on queer youth and wellbeing. </span><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">When: Tuesday August 26th, 6pm-7pm AEST</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Where: Online</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Please click this URL to start or join. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://monash.zoom.us/j/89955449004?pwd%3DD6yRPFIe7ChY8op4CAZoreZkuXl2Rd.1&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1742344634010458&usg=AOvVaw1630WGXTY0EIFpydEKqACk" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(150,96,125)">https://monash.zoom.us/j/89955449004?pwd=D6yRPFIe7ChY8op4CAZoreZkuXl2Rd.1</a> </span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Or, go to </span><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://monash.zoom.us/join&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1742344634010458&usg=AOvVaw0UPvoCPz0IXrTbvSLKJLRL" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(150,96,125);font-family:Arial,sans-serif">https://monash.zoom.us/join</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> and enter meeting ID: 899 5544 9004 and passcode: 379963</span><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,sans-serif">CSAA Online seminars</span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> run on the last Tuesday of every month, 6pm-7pm (Melbourne time) via Zoom. All are welcome - please feel free to share with your colleagues and networks.</span><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)">best wishes,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)">Whitney Monaghan (CSAA Memberships Officer)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;line-height:18.4px;font-family:Aptos,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(34,34,34)"><br></span></p><b>Theorising ‘ordinary wellbeing’ for queer youth in suffocating conditions</b></div><div><div style="line-height:1.38;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt"><font color="#000000" face="Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">‘</span></font>Wellbeing’ has become a keyword in popular and academic understandings of young people. Queer youth, in particular, have historically been narrowly represented as at-risk victims of high school bullying and mental ill-health. Whilst scholars have proposed a counterapproach to studying and representing queer youth, which I brand ‘queer thriving’, this impulse generates a troublesome victim/thriving dichotomy – a dynamic that fails to apprehend the complex political and economic conditions of the current conjuncture. This paper explores how queer youth articulate and embody wellbeing beyond a victim/thriving framework and considers what their reflections reveal about their conditions of living at the present historical conjuncture, keeping front-of-mind how these conditions shape queer young people’s political horizon.</div><div style="line-height:1.38;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt">In theorising ‘ordinary wellbeing’, I examine how queer youth employ practises of ‘everyday tending and tenderness’ in attempts to sustain life and its meaningfulness amidst large-scale crises that they have limited power as individuals, or as a social category, to transform on their own. I argue that contemporary conditions generate a suffocating atmosphere, defined by the culmination of housing, health, and environmental crises alongside neoliberal logics of individual ‘thriving’ within a cis-heteronormative world.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></div></div><div style="line-height:1.38;margin:0cm 0cm 8pt">BIO: Dr James Gardiner is an early-career researcher focusing on issues of wellbeing, youth, gender and sexuality, digital media, and participatory methods.</div></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>---<br><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif">WHITNEY MONAGHAN (she/her)</font></div><div><span style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif">Lecturer in Film, Screen and Culture</span><br></div><div><span style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif">Director, Creative Directions Festival</span><br></div><div><span style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif">School of Media, Film and Journalism</span></div><div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif">Monash University<br>900 Dandenong Road,<br>Caulfield East VIC 3145<br>Australia<br><br></font></div><div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><b>Office:</b> Caulfield, B3.24</font></div><div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><b>Phone:</b> +613 99034221</font></div><div><span style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif;text-align:center"><b>ORCID iD</b>: </span><a href="http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1348-2857" style="font-family:"arial narrow",sans-serif;text-align:center" target="_blank">http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1348-2857</a></div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.monash.edu/arts/media-film-journalism/creative-directions-2025" target="_blank"><img width="420" height="52" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4y8PlqVF-wBdCJW1WZGquGV9IhgCqUcOvCQb_2nfx8SwYWbA7egkpQwdhtUSVK_2_087SwZHddJ_6W4" alt="https://www.monash.edu/arts/media-film-journalism/creative-directions-2025"></a><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><img width="322px;" height="87px;" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/FFfoObCxcv9pol4pCWHtwGWFLgfVk83W3fpgdoptM8JCn6LYah1gcrNXiHlJ8ZMUzyLx1pFfr7jyRQriLSIGqXCHfdpFCot0nxygjoJVAzybBp-9kYxjgU5vLRMEP-FEvMwr_h1bZafyVJPcTibEw0BrLw=s2048"></span><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Find out more at </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;font-size:9pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,109,174);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a href="https://www.monash.edu/lgbtiqa" style="text-decoration:none" target="_blank">monash.edu/lgbtiqa</a></span></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></span></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></span></div></div></div><div style="font-size:12.8px;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;vertical-align:baseline">I am proud to be a member of the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Network. Find out</span><a href="https://www.monash.edu/ohs/OHS-structure-responsibilities/OHS-responsibilities" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:small;text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline"> </span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,151,167);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline">more</span></a><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:small"><br></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-size:small"><a href="https://www.monash.edu/ohs/OHS-structure-responsibilities/OHS-responsibilities" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);text-decoration:none" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial Narrow",sans-serif;color:rgb(0,151,167);text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="border:medium;display:inline-block;overflow:hidden;width:160px;height:161px"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/xYJu2UbSKMCtzzEX-ooC2ZWTAQOwfEc0STDcvkCO4gEhXmkl7rhIkO0_UdTim6N5FuyP29AV2hLklwMxv20pu_RCZrqtEDUJDSOFV5dOa9LK0ERABb-e9KSq8UB2TbQhf279n3ltPTb_eWzTKPpKbEc" width="160" height="161" style="margin-left:0px;margin-top:0px"></span></span></a></div></div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif">Festival Coordinator</font></div><div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><a href="http://mwff.org.au" target="_blank">Melbourne Women in Film Festival</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><font face="arial narrow, sans-serif"><i>We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Elders–past and present–of the lands on which Monash University operates.</i></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>