About

Break down the role that technology has played in establishing and maintaining queer community with Zach Stafford, editor-in-chief of Grindr and INTO—the app's recent foray into publishing—and author and queer studies scholar Jack Halberstam.

January Parkos Arnall, curator of Public Programs, moderates a frank conversation between Halberstam and Stafford that considers the history and current state of cruising; the social justice intentions and ramifications of technology targeted toward a queer community; and the role that technology can play in collecting and disseminating queer narratives in a media landscape that has traditionally devalued these stories.

About the Speakers

Jack Halberstam is professor of gender studies and English at Columbia University. Halberstam is the author of six books including: Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters(Duke UP, 1995), Female Masculinity(Duke UP, 1998), n A Queer Time and Place(NYU Press, 2005), The Queer Art of Failure(Duke UP, 2011), and Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal(Beacon Press, 2012), and, most recently, a short book titled Trans: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variance (University of California Press). Halberstam is currently working on several projects including a book titled WILD THING: QUEER THEORY AFTER NATURE on queer anarchy, performance, and protest culture the intersections between animality, the human, and the environment. This talk is taken from an essay commissioned for Places Journal—the journal awarded Halberstam its Arcus/Places Prize this year for innovative public scholarship on the relationship between gender, sexuality, and the built environment.

Zach Stafford is the editor-in-chief of INTO, a new award-nominated LGBTQ digital magazine that's quickly become one of the most-read queer outlets in the world. Previously he served as the editor-at-large of OUT Magazine and was an award-winning journalist at The Guardian, where he covered justice, violence, and social issues in both his column and long-form features. Stafford regularly provides commentary on radio and podcasts and has appeared on the BBC, CNN and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He the coeditor of the bestselling book Boys, An Anthology and the executive producer/host of the recent documentary BOYSTOWN.