The idea for a Summer Institute in Sexuality Studies at York University was first proposed to the Centre for Feminist Research (CFR) in 2014 by two PhD students in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies (GFWS), Daria Davydova and Tobias B.D. Wiggins. The Institute’s Coordinating Committee is comprised of Davydova and Wiggins as the Institute’s co-Coordinators, Institute Director Dr. Amar Wahab, CFR Director Dr. Alison Crosby, CFR Coordinator Julia Pyryeskina, GFWS Director Dr. Enakshi Dua, and Sexuality Studies Coordinator Dr. Allyson Mitchell.
The Institute is generously supported by a Connection Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), as well as by York University, including: the Office of the Vice-President Academic; the Office of the Vice-President for Research and Innovation; the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; the Faculty of Graduate Studies; the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies; the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies; the Sexuality Studies Program; Institute for Feminist Legal Studies at Osgoode Hall Law School,
Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought; Department of Anthropology; Department of History; and the Centre for Feminist Research.
Institute Director Dr. Amar Wahab
Dr. Amar Wahab is Associate Professor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York University. His research interests include: sexual citizenship in liberal multicultural and postcolonial nation-state formations (mainly related to the Caribbean and Canada), race and queer transnational politics, critiques of queer liberalism, and race, gender and the politics of representation. He is the author of Colonial Inventions: Landscape, Power and Representation in Nineteenth-Century Trinidad (2010, Cambridge Scholars Publishing). His work in queer and sexuality studies is published in journals such as GLQ: Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies and the Journal of Homosexuality. His current SSHRC-funded research project, ‘Queer Diasporas in Canada: a case study of transnational activism and politics’, focuses on queer anti-racist critiques of homonationalism in Canada.
Institute co-Coordinator Daria Davydova
Daria Davydova is an international PhD student and a life-long migrant working in the fields of transnational sexualities, sexual cultures, sex work, (homo)nationalism and political regimes. She is currently conducting her research on sexuality and political protest in St. Petersburg, Russia. Daria holds a BA in Political Science from Vilnius University and an MSc in Social Sciences from University of Amsterdam. She is a co-editor of From Bleeding Hearts to Critical Thinking: Exploring the Issue of Human Trafficking, published on-line by Centre for Feminist Research.
Institute co-Coordinator Tobias B.D. Wiggins
Tobias B.D. Wiggins is a PhD candidate in Gender, Feminist, & Women’s Studies at York University in Toronto, Ontario. His areas of research include psychoanalysis, queer theory, sex acts, mental health, and visual art. Wiggins’ dissertation explores the relationship between the psychoanalytic clinic and trans people, and specifically how theories of perversion can be used to understand this conflicted history. He has been the recipient of several awards and scholarships including the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship.
Wiggins is currently co-directing the inaugural 2017 Summer Institute for Sexuality Studies at York University on the topic of “Perversion at the Crossroads of Critical Race Studies, Psychoanalysis, and Queer Theory.” His extracurricular experience includes crisis intervention work for Trans Lifeline, sitting on the board of directors of the Sex Salon at University of Toronto (2015/16), Camp Ten Oaks (LGBTQ camp) counseling, and maintaining an active membership on the CUPE Trans Fund committee. He is a teaching assistant in courses relating to sexuality and gender at York University.
His upcoming writing will be published in the anthology “Slow Burn: Patients’ Perspectives on the Political in Psychodynamic Treatment” (Routledge). You can also find his edited collection in the online journal Feral Feminisms, titled “Feminist Un/Pleasure: Reflections upon perversity, BDSM, and desire.”