The Queer Studies Research Network are delighted to welcome Sofia Ropek-Hewson (University of Cambridge) to TORCH on 19 January 2018. Sofia will be giving a lecture and leading an open seminar on Preciado’s Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era and The Contrasexual Manifesto.
Sofia Ropek-Hewson is a final-year AHRC doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge, researching ‘pharmacopornographic’ subjectivity in the work of the Spanish queer theorist Paul B. Preciado. Preciado rose to prominence with his 2008 work, Testo Junkie, which examines gender and queerness in what Preciado terms the ‘pharmacopornographic era.’ ‘Pharmacopornographic’ describes the intertwined influence and dominance of the pharmaceutical and pornographic industries. Sofia’s project examines how they produce ‘pharmacopornographic’ subjects in Preciado’s work.
Sofia’s lecture, ‘The Biodrag King: drag and testosterone in Paul B. Preciado’s Testo Junkie’ will examine the relationship between drag and testosterone in Preciado’s work, and his conception of ‘biodrag’, in relation to queer theories of vulnerability and permeability. The lecture will be held in the Colin Matthews Room, Radcliffe Humanities building on 19th January 2018 at 2pm. This event is open to all.
Following the lecture, Sofia will lead a seminar entitled ‘Paul B. Preciado’s Dildos.’ This seminar will explore the dildo’s place in Preciado’s writing: is the dildo ‘post-pornographic’, or is satiric phallocentrism still phallocentrism? Participants will examine extracts from Preciado’s The Contrasexual Manifesto and Judith Butler’s 'The Lesbian Phallus and the Morphological Imaginary’. The seminar will be held in the Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities building on 19th January 2018 3:30-4:30pm. This event is open to all.
The seminar readings are as follows and are available via the following links:
Paul B. Preciado, The Contrasexual Manifesto (English extract)
Judith Butler, ‘The Lesbian Phallus and the Morphological Imaginary’, pages 57-65.
If you don’t manage to complete all the reading, do still feel free to attend.
Undergraduate and graduate students are welcome.
Queer Studies Network
Contact name: Eleri Watson
Contact email: eleri.watson@queens.ox.ac.uk
Audience: Open to all
