Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, 30 March- 1 April 2010, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.

Gender, Sexuality and Law Subject Stream Call for Papers

As in previous years, I’m circulating this first call for papers early so as to enable international speakers to finalise their travel plans.

The stream seeks to draw together socio-legal scholarship from across the globe, featuring scholars from a range of disciplines relating to the broad theme of gender, sexuality and law.

Past papers have considered sexuality and education law, queer theory, same-sex marriage, gender and parenthood, sex work, domestic violence, public sex, sexuality and the media, religion and sexuality, international comparisons, and theories of gender but papers pertaining to any area of gender, sexuality and law will be considered.

Last year the stream also benefited from a wonderful film by award winning New Zealand film maker Susan Potter. Following conference feedback, I am keen to create a space for film, poetry and the arts as part of the stream this year and would welcome proposals that address these activities in addition to the usual academic papers.

I am happy to discuss any proposals prior to submitting an abstract or activity proposal.

Abstracts and activity proposals (no more than 250 words) should be sent to chris.ashford@sunderland.ac.uk by January 29th 2010 although sooner submission is typical and preferred. This will help with conference planning and enable me to give confirmation to those speakers who need confirmation for funding and travel submissions.

The SLSA conference website is not yet active but a link will be on the main site in due course. This can be located at: http://www.slsa.ac.uk

Summer Break

Well it's that time of the year when I take a little break from this blog so I can focus on some writing projects. There's a huge amount going on with gay marriage developments in the USA and huge political changes in the UK so I'll still be tweeting and facebooking and will probably be back blogging in a month or so. Around this point in the year twelve months ago I radically re-designed this blog and whilst I've no plans to do anything similar this year, I do welcome any feedback on anything that could be changed/amended for the next academic year.

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter or Facebook by clicking the links on the right hand side of this blog. Thanks for reading and see you all soon.

Miss Gay UK 2009

I've also been amiss in reporting the final of Miss Gay UK 2009 (and of course the Newcastle Mr Gay UK winner is on Big Brother - and familiar to many of us in the NE).

Charlie Lloyd from Liverpool lifted the Crown and was "Voted Miss Gay Uk 2009". Sorry for the blurry pic but it's all I could find.

Runners up place went to Louise Lennox from Dublin.

Joint 3rd Charlene Hunter from Belfast and Sarah Bandana from Oldham.

Charlie gets a photo-shoot at leading model agency "Nemesis" in Manchester, owned by former Take That manager Nigel Martin Smith.
A photo session with G3 magazine in London.
A beauty and hair make over at Barnet and Urban Retreat in Harvey Nichols.
An IPOD from Vanilla and a meal for 2 at Taurus.

IML 2009

Earlier this week International Mr Leather 2009 took place in Chicago. The full results are:
Jeffrey Payne, Mr. Texas Leather 2009

First Runner up: Brendan McGovern, Mt. Leather Ottawa 2009

Second Runner up: Alan Penrod, Mr. Atlanta Eagle 2009

And the winner of International Mr. Bootblack 2009 is...

McG of the Black Eagle Toronto. You can see them all in the pic above and read more about the event here.