The Center for Global Peace & Conflict Studies Faculty Expert Series presents

"But Do Not Identify as Gay: The Lives of 'MSM'"
with Tom Boellstorff, Professor, Department of Anthropology, UC Irvine

Thursday, November 12, 2009
12:00-1:30 p.m. Social Science Tower 777

Abstract
Since it was first coined in the late 1980s, the term MSM (men who have sex with men) has enjoyed enormous success in transnational HIV/AIDS activism as a term that ostensibly separates behavior from identity and is thereby more inclusive than the term “gay.” In this talk, Boellstorff traces the history and transformations of the MSM concept for what it tells about the role of transnational organizations in shaping personal identities. This is a tale of unexpected consequences and forms of “bureaucratic globalization” with important consequences for understanding relationships between forms of state power and forms of self-understanding. He draws upon ethnographic material from Indonesia to show how the MSM concept is being transformed in differing global contexts.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Please RSVP by Monday, November 9 to Jayne Lee, jayne.lee@uci.edu or 949-824-1640.

Additional funding provided by the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) of the University of California, and the Vice Chancellor for Office of Research (OR) at UCI.