Professor Ayoub of the SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Diplomacy & World Affairs (DWA) Department and Professor Kristina Stöckl of the University of Innsbruck (Austria) led an engaging two-day book workshop, bringing academics from around the world into conversation about global resistance to sexual orientation and gender identity related rights (hereafter refered to as SOGI-rights)1. Workshop attendees included Anthony Chase, Igor Logvinenko, Madeline Baer, and Jenn Piscopo of SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ as well as Gabriele Magni (Loyola Marymount University), Olga Brzezinska (Jagiellonian University - Poland), Roman Kuhar (University of Ljubljana - Slovenia), Sabine Lang (University of Washington), and Vitória Moreira (UC Santa Barbara). Student participants included Jaya Duckworth (DWA Research Assistant), Oli Vorster (Young Programming Assistant), and Julia Eubanks (DWA Class of 2022’).
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1. For more information on SOGI rights and acronyms please visit the .
(Workshop attendees provide comments to Ayoub & Stöckl on their book, bringing in their specific disciplines & academic-areas of focus to the table)
Based on the book project of seven years in the making by Ayoub and Stöckl, Global Resistances to SOGI Rights: Actors, Claims, Venues, speakers engaged in academic discourse and debate on how anti-SOGI rights movements play out in international fora, including how to trace key actors involved in anti-SOGI rights resistances (e.g. Vatican, conservative non-governmental organizations, etc), their primary strategies and claims, and the venues they use to advocate for them. Through their book, Ayoub and Stöckl aim to produce scholarship that supports SOGI rights on a global scale, fosters knowledge around transnational advocacy networks, and produces interest in queer social movements studies within academia.
Participants were also encouraged to attend local events planned by the Young Initiative to gain a better understanding of Los Angeles’ cultural and topographical offerings. These events included a morning hike to Griffith Observatory, a visit to the Broad Museum, and a comedy show to see Demetri Martin. For more information on this project please visit the Universität Innsbruck .