Jasbir Puar Lecture – ‘Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times’

Jasbir Puar, Associate Professor of Women & Gender Studies at Rutgers University and author of ‘Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times.’

Jasbir K. Puar argues that configurations of sexuality, race, gender, nation, class, and ethnicity are realigning in relation to contemporary forces of securitization, counterterrorism, and nationalism. She examines how liberal politics incorporate certain queer subjects into the fold of the nation-state, through developments including the legal recognition inherent in the overturning of anti-sodomy laws and the proliferation of more mainstream representation. Combining transnational feminism and queer theory, Jasbir Puar calls into question “homonationalisms”; nationalisms that rely on homonormative ideologies that replicate narrow racial, class, gender, and national ideals.