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OK...so I never did blog from the symposium.
It turned out not as easy I had hoped. The easy excuse is that the room didn't have wireless capability I had hoped for. The harder reality is that it was a very intense two days of serious discussion about intersex--everything from surgery issues, comparative and analytic thought and critique about ally building, informed consent (including an amazing plenary by Julie Greenberg), the history and cultural history behind the madness and more.
The level of attention required to fully participate made any diversions such as typing nearly impossible. The good news is I did video tape the entire conference. I missed a small part when the tape ran out while I was off doing a teevee interview for one of the local NYC stations that will air at a later date but I can recover it from other tapes that were being made.
I'll edit it down and stream highlights at some point in the hopefully not too distant future.
Many folks involved with BLO...both from here in the forums (frequently and not so frequently) as well as many people that have been influencing factors in our own short history were there and presented or attended.
It was an amazing experience for me, and from initial feedback received during and afterwards, for all of those there and involved.
I'll be writing more in the next couple of day about it; I'm a bit too fried to attempt it this evening.
Congratulations!!!!!! I really hope you'll be able to tell us very soon what people said at the symposium. Groeten, Miriam
Betsy,
I had been checking for the last few days, about every 2-3 hours, for news!! Good to see you have finally surfaced!! Will there be any printed abstracts or proceedings?
(At this point, my imagination running wild, I can see the exhausted runner bringing the lastest news from the front, and upon finally reaching the camp, falling to the ground in a heap, unable to utter what we have so long wanted to hear! "Betsy . . . speak to us!!")
We'll remain, waiting patiently, for what you can report!
The proceeds of the symposium will be printed in a special issue of the Cardozo Women's Law Journal early next year. I know it seems like a million months, but it's a long process. By the way, if anyone is still interested in submitting to the journal, that call is still open. That fact kind of got lost in the excitement of planning the symposium.
More immediately, the transcript from the "activist" panel will be printed in the next issue of the journal. I'm not sure when it comes out, but I think it is later in the spring.
I'll try to get a full report published this afternoon.
Overall, it was really incredible.
We had presenters from 3 continents and 6 countries (including the Netherlands Miriam!). The presenters ranged from folks as well-known in the intersex movement as Sharon Preves, (who I had a wonderful late night walking in the Times Sq. area with on Tuesday night---wonderful after we got over seeing someone hit by a car), Morgan Holmes, Suzanne Kessler, and Julie Greenberg. The furthest a presenter came from was from Australia!
One very special highlight for me was meeting so many of these people in person--people I've only known via email for the most part.
Additionally, we had two well know authors there, and people attending from as far as Belfast.
Even more exciting was discovering the new folks that are using intersex as a scholarly path towards advanced studies---and in very good ways.
One particular highlight repeated to me bby several people and made me feel very proud was that people were really glad it was a BLO event and didn't involve ISNA. The feeling is that it is really important that the movement be more than only one organization and that there is a diversity of voices included--BLO really made that happen with a conference that included not only scholars and academicss, but also intersex people themselves.
The symposium itself was incredibly historic in that it is the first time something of this nature took place in the US, and possibly elsewhere. This fact was remarked upon by several of the participants. One of them, director of an academic institution here in the states wants to do something similar--similar in bringing scholars and intersex people together for discussion. One theme that I think was realized was that all the theory was great, but at the end of the day, what does it accomplish to make the world a better place for those born with intersex.
One thing I think is going to make an immediate (and perhaps antagonistic from some) impact is Hawk Stone practically vilifying those who wish to co-opt the intersex experience for their own, particularly within the trans community. Hawk, as many of you know, is a well known trans activist based in Albany, NY. Hawk has his fingers in lots of pots of grease and as a result, can make a difference across many communities.
I promise to sit down with the tapes and write a synopsis this afternoon. There was 10 hours of panels, so it's a lot of material to go through.
Ohhhh...we got to show the In The Life piece profiling me. It was very good and I'm very pleased with the job the producer did with it.
One thing that is worth mentioning is also that tapes of the entire symposium will be available for viewing in the Cardozo Law School library, so if you are ever in NY and wish to spend hours watching them, you can.
Betsy
Hi Betsy,
Congratulations on a wonderful couple of days..For someone new to Bodies and not a qualified academic it really was quite awesome. I felt privileged to be there, to be honest, and it was definitely well worth attending, even from the UK. It was great to meet up with others involved in the IS movement from the UK, and also to hear so many renowned panelists discuss their work. There was SO much to concentrate on (you are dead right) that it was indeed difficult to focus for long.
I look forward to receiving that list of contact details and also hearing when/if it might be possible to receive a copy of any tape/video at some point...will pay/donate to cover postage and delivery obviously, if this was possible. If not, a good excuse to revisit the US sometime soon...lol.
As I had to leave early on Wednesday, I just want to say a HUGE thankyou to you and Julie Zando-Dennis for organising such an important event, and I look forward to hearing about the 'In the Life' programme when it is televised.
It was great to meet you.
Fee
I got about half of the tapes captured on my hard-drive, and hopefully will finish that process up today. Once I get them done, I'll edit some highlights and put them online for viewing.
I'm sorry I have not yet posted a report, but there's was a lot of information to process and I've been sidetracked with a couple of other issues including a family crisis the past couple of days. It's still high on my honey-do list and hopefully I'll get to it shortly.
Betsy
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