The Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education hosted the inaugural Dr. Brian Pronger Lecture on November 15, 2022.
Dr. Genevieve Rail (Distinguished Professor Emerita, Simone de Beauvoir Institute & Women’s Studies, Concordia University) delivered the keynote address, titled:
'In My Queer Zone: “Vulnerable” Bodies and Carnal Knowledge in Cancer’s Margins'.
Reflecting on Pronger’s legacy and ground-breaking writings on the body, gender, sexuality, desire, health, science and technology, Dr. Genevieve Rail discussed recent research that aimed to document how sexual minoritized individuals navigate fields of knowledge inflected by dominant discourses on biomedicine, risk, neoliberalism, homophobia and stereotypical rhetorics of “women’s health” and “lesbian health", in line with Pronger’s stout resistance to patriarchal, homophobic and territorializing projects.
This lectureship honors the memory of scholar and activist Dr. Brian Pronger (1953 – 2018), an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and founding member of the University of Toronto’s Sexual Diversity Studies undergraduate program. The series aims to celebrate his legacy of teaching and social justice in critical studies of sports and physical activity.