With the conference only two days away, I have been excitedly going over my personal schedule and am going to give you all a sample of it here.  With so many great talks, papers, panels, and sessions, it was more of a challenge than I anticipated to set it!  However, here is a preliminary list of some events that I am going to be ending this coming week:

I am really excited for the Queer Caucus for Art session “Obsessive Occularity: Visualizing Queerness, Bodies, and Disability” chaired by independent scholar Stefanie Snider.  With papers presented by Jessica Allene Cooley, Joshua Lubin-Levy, Leah G. Sweet, and Amanda Cachia covering topics from Thomas Eakins to Comme des Garçons and queer disabled aesthetics, it promises to be a relevant and diverse session.  Attend it on Wednesday 2/12 from 9:3 to 12:00 in the Grand Ballroom on the Hilton’s 2nd Floor.  Later that day at 12:30, be sure to head to Alexander Dumbadze‘s “Society of Contemporary Art: Identity Politics Then and Now”, which features three Chicago-based speakers: Gregg Bordowitz from the School of the Art Institute, Dieter Roelstraete from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Hamza Walker from the Renaissance Society.  Don’t miss this one!

Wednesday promises to be a busy day for me, because later that afternoon, I am going to have to run to the session organized by University of Illinois at Chicago’s Esra Akcan and University of Sydney’s Mary L. Roberts entitled “Restructuring the Fields: The ‘Modern’ in ‘Islamic’ and the ‘Islamic’ in ‘Modern’ Art and Architecture” on the 3rd floor of the Hilton in the Astoria Room at 2:30. Dr. Akcan and Dr. Roberts have consented to answer a few of my questions before their session so if Islam and Modernism are your things, keep an eye on my blog for more details to come.  And even if they aren’t, broaden your horizons and learn something with Peter Hewitt Christensen, Heather E. Grossman, Wendy Miriam Kural Shaw, Nancy Demerdash, and Jessica Gerschultz.

Other sessions I will be sure to attend: “Conflict, Identity, and Protest in American Art” on Thursday (2/13) 9:30 – 12:00, Hilton, Lobby Level, Continental A; “Creating the Commons” on Thursday (2/13) 12:30 – 2:00, Columbia College Chicago, 618 South Michigan, 2nd Floor, Stage Two; “Always Causing Trouble: The ‘Lesbian’ Within Queer and Feminist Art Today” on Saturday (2/15) 12:30 – 2:00, Hilton, 2nd Floor, Grand Ballroom; “Unstable Fields: Research Practices and Political Upheaval in the Middle East” on Saturday (2/15) 12:30 – 2:00, Hilton, 8th Floor, Lake Eerie.  These among others I will be sure to attend.  I am so excited!

Stay tuned.