Queer Studies Conference 2025

The UNC Asheville Queer Studies Conference (established in 1998) attracts a diverse audience of activists, academics, community members, and artists who showcase a range of creative and scholarly pursuits related to the study of sexuality, gender, and/or queer and trans identities.

The 2025 conference theme is “Cultivating Resilience, Centering Joy.” While queer life can be marked by oppression, it can also be defined by the joy that endures through community. The work of resisting academic and political attacks on queer lives can become daunting, isolating, and draining, which makes it all the more important to turn inward and to our allies for sustenance and renewed energy. When the world feels turbulent and impossible, what is it that brings us hope and possibility? How do we sustain momentum in the face of apathy and counter-resistance? What can we do to prepare a new generation for thriving in the work that is not easy, but must be done?

Call for presentations and more information coming soon!

Host or Publisher UNC Asheville