The image of the monster has been historically used to epitomise danger, abnormality, sin. Even before angels, monsters were portrayed as messengers who anticipated catastrophes, such as storms and other dramatic events which would be too strong to be explained. Only good behaviour, submission to rules or faith into another inexplicable bigger entity, such as magic, witchcraft or religion, could prevent societies from being touched by monsters.

The othering of monsters – or monsters as estranged from an imagined “us” – is part of the cultural narrative that dismisses the complexity of what we call humans, contributing to the binary division between good and bad, silencing all of which exists in-between. Indeed, monsters inhabit the spaces in-between narrow definitions and expose the failure of rigid divisions between “normal” and “abnormal”. Ultimately, the figure of monsters confronts us with the precariousness of by-default normativities, triggering the need to rethink what humanity is, and who counts as a human being, especially under the current political backlash against gender and sexual diversity.

The Monsters Summer School III embraces monstrosity in what it offers regarding the undoing of binaries and the celebration of embodied differences. We aim to trace, remember and reclaim monsters through a queer lens. We want to explore monsters as a possible theoretical figuration to escape mainstream celebrations of humanity and to embrace the vivid possibilities offered by interdisciplinary, boundary-crossing contributions from different fields of knowledge. We aim at creating spaces to discuss contributions and experiences that often fall out of the map even within critical studies.

Finally, we interrogate the possibilities of creating knowledge from places of estrangement regarding mainstream sources of knowledge production in the academic fields of LGBTQI+ and critical studies.

The week will also feature cultural events.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Daniela Perez Ferrandez (CES-UC, PT)
Eduarda Ferreira (CICS Nova, PT)
Calogero Giammetta (Univ. of Leicester, UK)
Line Hendriksen (Malmö University, SE)
Surya Monro (Univ. of Sheffield, UK)
Ana Cristina Santos (CES-UC, PT)

FEES
250€ early bird fee; 300€ registration after 1st June; 100€ for CES PhD students (up to 3)
Price includes tuition, all materials, coffee breaks and lunches during the Summer School.

LOCATION
All activities of the Summer School will be held at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra. The space is easily reached by public transport and the seminar rooms are fully accessible.

ELIGIBILITY
Applicants should be PhD students in the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities interested in exploring the issues of gender, LGBTI+, queer, disability/crip, aging and related areas. Holders of an academic, scientific, professional, activist and/or artistic curriculum that is recognized as relevant to the program by the Organizing Committee are also eligible. Topics of interest include:
- Ageing bodies
- biopolitics/necropolitics
- crip and/or disability studies
- critical (in)human rights
- decolonial and postcolonial studies
- fat studies
- LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers
mad studies
- monstrous embodiments
- queer geographies
- posthumanism and transhumanism
- trans, intersex and non-binary lives

IMPORTANT DATES
15th April 2023: Deadline for submitting your application

Until 30th April: Selection of candidates

Until 31st May: Early bird registration and payment
1-30 June 2023: Late registration and payment

September: Course takes place