Announcing TWO reading retreat calls for October 2020: Sex and Society Reading Retreat & Reproductive Justice Reading Retreat!

**** Sex and Society Reading Retreat ****

We hope you like reading, discussing, and thinking aloud about the Politics of Sexuality, because we're inviting you to run away with us (and other lovely participants) to a quiet place away from the city so that we revisit and rethink these tricky politics together! Interested?

Part of a series of reading retreats since 2014, the Sex and Society Retreat is a chance for open discussions and reflections not only on how theories around sexuality may guide our political practices, but also on how our political work must feed back and shape our theoretical frameworks. The Sex and Society Retreat is a space for everyone interested in unpacking, analyzing, and reconstructing the theories and practices of sexual politics in Lebanon.

Our objective is to understand sexual politics through the below themes: 1- Social Construction of Sexuality 2- Sex, Race & Class 3- Sex, War & Nation 4- Compulsory Heterosexuality 5- The Invention of Heterosexuality 6- The Invention of Homosexuality

• Retreat date: Evening of Monday 26 October - Wednesday evening 28th October 2020
• Location: We will be hosted in a hotel 30 min away from Beirut (details to be announces once you're selected).
• Costs: Free of charge - your transportation to and from the hotel, accommodation, and meals will be covered by The A Project - donations are always welcome for more retreats to happen!
• Covid19 precautions: Each participant will have their own room to minimize the sharing of spaces, masks and antiseptics will be distributed regularly, and distancing will be maintained at all time.
• Deadline to apply: End of Sunday October 11, 2020
  • Apply through filling in this form
  • You will hear back from us within 24 hours of that deadline (The sooner you apply, and are chosen, the earlier you can receive the required reading materials.)

**** Reproductive Justice Reading Retreat ****

Reproductive justice (RJ), reproductive rights, and reproductive health are often used interchangeably. While these concepts do not intentionally contradict one another, they do however hold different commitments, approaches, and actions. Throughout this reading retreat we will attempt to tackle two questions: What is Reproductive Justice? And can a Reproductive Justice analysis be a befitting framework in approaching many of our varied struggles in Lebanon?

As we get into the origin and history of this framework, and distinguish it from reproductive health and rights, we will extend it across over a dozen core economic and sociopolitical struggles and issues in Lebanon; from environmental justice, to citizenship, borders, immigration, refuge, violence, access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, sexual orientations, gender identities, and disability. We should find that the possibilities of reproductive justice are as abundant as the reproductive oppressions faced by different communities, groups, and people. Reproductive Justice may prove to be the missing framework that is desperately needed in order to forge cross-movement solidarities and oppose state tactics of divisiveness.

This is the first time we hold this reading retreat - it is a pilot to many more Reproductive Justice Reading Retreats coming ahead! We hope you take a leap of faith with us, and give us your genuine feedback throughout and after the retreat.

Our objective is to understand RJ through the below themes: 1- Home sweet home: RJ in private 2- This land is my land: geopolitical mapping of RJ 3- The body 4- The clinic: medicalizing reproduction and our bodies 5- The spaces we create within RJ movements

• Retreat date: Evening of Friday 30 October - evening of Sunday 1st November
• Location: We will be hosted in a hotel 30 min away from Beirut (details to be announced once you're selected).
• Costs: Free of charge - your transportation to and from the hotel, accommodation, and meals will be covered by The A Project - donations are always welcome for more retreats to happen!
• Covid19 precautions: Each participant will have their own room to minimize the sharing of spaces, masks and antiseptics will be distributed regularly, and distancing will be maintained at all time.
• Deadline to apply: End of Monday October 12, 2020
  • Apply through filling in this form
  • You will hear back from us within 24 hours of that deadline (The sooner you apply, and are chosen, the earlier you can receive the required reading materials.)