Happy new year everyone!
I would like to draw attention to an upcoming event, being organised by myself and my colleague Sonja Erikainen. We are hosting an early career Postgraduate Forum, with the title ‘Moving Beyond the Binaries of Sex and Gender: Non-Binary Identities, Bodies, and Discourses’. I am excited to be able to say our keynote speaker for this event will be CN Lester!
This event is primarily aimed at academic researchers concerned with sex and gender(1) – particularly non-binary transgender and intersex(2) – and community member activists concerned with sex, gender, and the gender binary.
This will be at the University of Leeds on Tuesday 22nd March 2016, 09.00 – 17.00.
Currently, the event will take place in Room 12.25, Department of Sociology and Social Policy. This is subject to change (if registration is high, we will arrange a larger space!).
Registration to attend the event is necessary and can be done here:
http://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10491
Fees for attendance are:
BSA (British Sociological Association) Members – £10
Low/non-earners with no academic affiliation – £15
Non-member – £25
A vegetarian buffet lunch will be provided for all. Any specific dietary requirements can be indicated in the registration process.
Any questions can be directed to ssbwv@leeds.ac.uk and ssste@leeds.ac.uk
1 No implications about how sex and/or gender are defined are intended here, and it is recognised that the discussions on how these words are used can be detailed and complex. I use both the words gender and sex here due to lack of universal consensus over their definitions, and intertwined history.
2 Although not everyone will identify with these labels, I use these terms to attempt to capture the consideration of identities and bodies that can challenge or exist outside of the gender binary. Apologies to anyone for whom this language falls short for, in the interest of concision and clarity. An unpacking of these subjects is an aim of the event!
GenderBen! 
Comments on: "Activism meets academia -Moving Beyond the Binaries of Sex and Gender Conference" (5)
Hi – I’m registering now and really looking forward to this. I just wanted to alert you, though: the registration process requires an honorific/title, from a very limited and mostly-gendered list. I don’t think there’s time for me to get a PhD in the next couple of months…
Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I’ve contacted the British Sociological Association asking if this change can be made. If for whatever reason modifying the form isn’t straightforward, I’ve asked how to take it further, such that this change can be made to all drop-down title selections, in the interests of the BSA being inclusive and recognising of non-binary genders. Our apologies for this. Also, whatever title is selected will NOT be used to generate name tags – our name tags will be blank and pens provided for manual filling in (so that pronouns can also be included).
That’s great – thanks for the feedback.
I’ve now had the response from the BSA – they can’t bring a field addition of Mx in immediately, but it has been discussed with IT as something “to look into”. I’ve asked to be kept up to date with this and intend to try and push the issue to be universally included within the organisation’s drop-down forms. It is poor form if the association of sociologists isn’t capable of recognising non-binary genders properly!
Thanks again!
Regardless on non-binary issues, many people have a title that’s not on their list, so having a discrete list is a bit daft in general.