January 30, 2025 – 10AM – 12PM – Virtual, on Zoom
About the Topic
This talk will offer an overview of asexuality and aromanticism as queer identities and as areas of academic study. It will cover topics such as how to understand asexuality as an orientation, differentiated attractions, marginalization, and invisibility, as well as different forms that acephobia and arophobia can take. It will also introduce the key concepts of asexuality studies (compulsory sexuality, allonormativity, amatonormativity), and discuss ways that understanding these identities filter into academic research. It will end by offering concrete tips about how to create spaces that are more inclusive of asexuals and aromantics.
About the Facilitator
Liza Blake, Associate Professor
Liza Blake is Associate Professor of English at the University of Toronto, and is currently Martha LA McCain Faculty Fellow at the Queer Trans Research Lab. She works in early modern literary studies as well as asexuality studies and aromanticism studies. She helped to create and maintains the online resource The Asexuality and Aromanticism Bibliography.