Zimmerman Library's Willard Reading Room was packed yesterday when a visiting graduate student discussed her current work regarding queer identity, focusing on her theory that reproductive time is different for gays, lesbians and heterosexuals.
The crowd, mostly women, listened attentively to Judith Halberstam's presentation, titled "Shadows on a Dime: Queer Temporality, Affect and Performance."
She said the tentative main thesis of her work is the idea that reproductive time is ruled by a biological clock for women and then by strict rules of life expectancy and scheduling for married couples. The queer temporal realities that emerge operate from a very different set of life-scheduling characteristics.
Halberstam said the goals of her project are to have people look at the way gays and lesbians think about their life narrative and scheduling that is different from "hetero time."
Halberstam, a professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of California at San Diego, spoke about her theoretical works on queer identity. She analyzed the relationships between the contemporary queer/dyke music scene, which she said is mostly punk, and earlier women's music movement, mostly folk.
She spoke of the separations between "family time" and "queer time." Halberstam said she views "family time" as referring to the scheduling of daily life, including the adage of early to bed, early to rise. She said that tends to then accompany the practice of child rearing.
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"Not feeling the pressure to get married and have children frees up a lot of time to hang out in subculture," Halberstam said. "Watch TV, every other show is a reality show organizing hetero people into marriage. There are other ways for them to live their lives."
"Queer time" finds similarities in the lifestyle of adolescent youth cultures, both gay and straight. Halberstam said these cultures tend to resist the concept of "family time" and eventually take permanent residence in queer adult sub-cultural lives.
The presentation was a part of the UNM Feminist Research Institute's visiting scholar series. Halberstam will also offer a seminar for UNM faculty and graduate students titled "A New York in Queer Cultural Studies: Theorizing Race, Space and Subcultures." The seminar is restricted to 20 participants.
