Off-Script Conference
Off-Script: Technologies and Tactics of Feminist Errancy is an academic conference featuring emerging and established scholars, as well as leading artists and activists, in the fields of gender, sexuality, and feminist approaches to networks of community, digital technologies and social inclusion and exclusion.
Presented by the McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF), the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and the Digital Humanities Initiative at McGill, in collaboration with Studio XX, a bilingual, feminist artist-run centre for technological exploration, creation, and critique, founded in 1996, “Off-Script” runs in parallel with Studio XX’s biennial feminist festival of media arts + digital culture, HTMlles: Beyond the Hashtag, Failures and Becomings (Nov. 1-5, 2018). HTMlles brings together artists, scholars, and activists passionate about critically engaging new technologies from a feminist perspective and takes place biennially in Montreal. Each edition focuses on a specific theme and addresses urgent socio-political questions by pushing the boundaries of artistic and feminist practices. “Off-Script” builds on this work, aiming to expand scholarship and public dialogue on key issues in feminist media arts, social media, digital activism and advancing academic research in the field through outreach and dialogue with wider communities.
IMPACTS research assistants Ayesha Vemuri, Arianne Kent, and Sarah Lewington are participating in the conference. Ayesha will present her thoughts in a work titled, "Whose feminism is it anyway?: An analysis of Indian feminist responses to #LoSHA". Arianne will discuss a specific case study in a presentation titled, “Historicizing On-Campus Feminist Student Activism: Against Rape Culture – A Case Study of McGill University”. Sarah Lewington will present a talk titled, "“Find Out and Tell: Textual Interactions and Women’s Safety Work”. More information about the schedule, including when all three present, is available here.
