We love Transparent, Amazon’s hit show contributor Tablet contributor Josh Lambert calls “an admirable fiction about the complexity of contemporary sexuality and gender, [and] maybe the most important work of Jewish culture of the century so far.” And it appears the series is ripe enough for commentary from within the academe, too, so much so that the University of Rochester has created an entire symposium dedicated to award-winning show.
On December 1, a number of the university’s departments, including the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, will discuss the show’s impact: “We anticipate conversations taking place at the nexus of sex and gender studies, Jewish studies, American studies, and media studies,” write the organizers.
The deadline for the call for papers is August 1. They can touch on, but are not limited to, the followed topics: Boundaries of identity; class, privilege, and transitioning; sexuality, selfhood, performativity; families, intimacies, aging; trauma, memory, secrets; psychoanalysis and epigenetics; secular Jewish culture off and on TV; transgression, atonement, and ritual; Queer Berlin and Queer Hollywood; the female gaze; historical and normative feminisms; the politics of “transface”; the use (and uses) of Eileen Myles’ poetry; the show’s score and soundtrack; streaming services, and changing patterns of viewing.
Get writing.
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Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.