The SHiFT Lab will be delivering a panel talk entitled Perils and possibilities: Consent, coercion and misgendering at Massey College this Tuesday!

DETAILS
Massey College, 4 Devonshire place
Tuesday, April 18th, 4-6pm
RSVP to emockler@masseycollege.ca if you’d like to attend – limited space available!

SUMMARY
This panel will address two interrelated topics that have recently received wide media coverage and have also touched the Massey community, personally and professionally. The first focuses on extending conversations about sexual harassment and sexual violence beyond the basics of current public consent messages and university policies. The second, concerns a desire to move conversations about misgendering to a deconstructive plane, where language invariably meets embodiment, identity stakes and the politics of naming and misnaming.

PANELISTS
Stephanie Cosma, MA, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate, Ryerson University
Stephanie’s research interests are in sexual scripts and the construction of gender and sexuality, specifically in the area of hegemonic masculinities. Her present work examines the sociopolitical context for men’s use of casual sex with multiple women for attaining social status. Her research focuses on conflicting, co-opted and misappropriated discourses of consent; naturalizing discourses; and neoliberal discourses that promote self-surveillance. ​

Emily J. Thomas, BA, MA Clinical Psychology Candidate, Ryerson University
Emily’s research interests are rooted in critical and feminist psychology, with a current focus on how consent and desire are negotiated in sexual relationships and accounts of negative sexual experiences.

Alex T. Vasilovsky, MA, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate, Ryerson University
Alex’s research focuses on the discursive construction of gender and sexual identities. Current work centres on: exploring non-binary subjectivity; deconstructing psychological “gaydar” research; and analyzing representations of Western male homosexuality in queer men’s magazines. Recent interests include: affect theory, intimate/sexual citizenship, and relational psychoanalysis.
NB: Additional panelists to come

MODERATOR
Maria Gurevich, PhD, Associate Professor in Psychology, Ryerson University
Dr. Gurevich’s research examines the ways that popular and scientific discourses about sexuality intersect with people’s everyday experiences, with negotiation of sexual (im)possibilities and (dis)pleasures at the core. Adopting feminist post-structuralism, this work interrogates normative assumptions about sexual health, agency, desire, and relationship conduct, based on privilege, power, and access. Current work addresses the role of sexual technologies in sexual expectations and practices, such as pornography, sexual enhancement medication, and sexual expert advice.