Sick Theories is a two-day trans-disciplinary conference by and for those who identify as sick, disabled, and mad happening at the University of Toronto on November 8th and 9th, 2018. Organizers Margeaux Feldman and Lauren Fournier have put together forty activists, academics, writers, artists, and educators who will discuss the relationship between sickness and sexuality through panels, workshops, a keynote, an art exhibition, and artist roundtable.
Feldman, a writer, educator, activist, and English Literature and Sexual Diversity Studies PhD student at the University of Toronto, conceptualized Sick Theories after her fibromyalgia diagnosis and subsequent focus on books about chronic illness. Seeking community beyond the written word, she found a collaborator in Fournier, a writer, curator, and artist.
With focuses on performance and embodied art practices, sick representations, matters of care, and sick pleasures/sick futures, the conference covers a wide array of presentations and discussions. The conference’s keynote is a discussion with contemporary artist and author of Sick Woman Theory Johanna Hedva on their new book On Hell. Panel and workshop topics include: Renee Dumaresque’s “Queering Chronic Vulvar Pain: Erotic Potentialities Cited in Suffering”, “Calling in Sick” with Taraneh Fazeli, and Clementine Morrigan’s “Fucking Crazy: On Complex Trauma, Surviving Sexual Violence, and Living My Best Slut Life”. In addition to two days of panels and workshops, there will be an artist roundtable, screenings, performances, including works such as Gloria Swain’s Madness & Black Lives Matter, Kristel Jax’s Drone Therapy, and Lynx Sainte-Marie’s Children of O. There will also be a closing reception at historic queer book store and community event venue Glad Day Bookshop.
Sick Theories is unlike many other conferences not only in its content, but also in its approaches. As finances are often a barrier to access, admission is free. With all tickets sold out and eighty people (and counting) on the waiting list, conference organizers are seeking a larger space. The cost of a larger venue, as well as the costs of other important accessibility considerations, require additional funds which are outside of the scope of a free event. Margeaux Feldman explains: “Unfortunately, the world we live in is deeply inaccessible. As a student-led initiative, Sick Theories has been dependent on grants from the University of Toronto. But the grants that we’ve successfully applied for do not begin to cover the costs of providing adequate ASL [American Sign Language] interpretation or the costs of CART (Communications Access Realtime Translation) — well exceeding what we’d budgeted for.”
To raise the necessary funds, Feldman and Fournier have put together a GoFundMe. With a flexible goal of $5000, the page offers gifts to donors, including Sick Theories tote bags with illustrations by Sabrina Scott, a “Sick Babe” necklace made especially for Sick Theories by Fierce Deer (made with a 14k gold-filled chain), and book bundles, which includes a signed copy of Johanna Hedva’s On Hell, Hana Shafi’s poetry collection It Begins With the Body, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s book of essays, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice.
Feldman adds: “With this GoFundMe, we want to ensure that everyone in the disabled and sick community can be present and comfortable throughout Sick Theories.”
Find out more information about Sick Theories