Successful OUT in Front Conference

Posted by Eileen Remley on Tuesday, February 28, 2017 in News Blurbs.

The Office of LGBTQI Life hosted its 8th annual OUT in Front LGBTQQIA+ and Ally College Conference on Saturday, February 18. We welcomed to campus 225 students, presenters, and organizers from 6 different states, 22 colleges and universities, and 12 local Nashville LGBTQ+ community organizations. The theme of this year’s conference was sh(OUT): resistance through existence, with the goal of exploring the ways in which solidarity among intersectional queer+ communities continues to be vital in today’s American society.

We were able to reach this goal through 22 intentional workshops and 6 affinity/inter-community caucus spaces. Keynote performer Kit Yan shared stories of his life as a queer, transgender, and Asian-American artist through works of theatrical slam poetry. Conference workshops, presented by students, staff, faculty, and community partners, ranged from topics such as “Flowers for my Mind: An Exploration of the Creative Expression of Queer Women of Color” to “Surviving to Thrive: A Queer-Crit Approach to Examine Academic Bullying.”

The OUT in Front conference was planned, facilitated, and maintained by an all-student planning committee, this year made up of one-half graduate students and the other half undergraduates. Jasmine James (she/hers), graduate student at Peabody and co-chair of the planning committee, believes her experience with OUT in Front to be “incredibly rewarding, especially after knowing how [the conference] deeply and positively affected those that attended.”

OUT in Front 2018 is tentatively scheduled to take place Saturday, March 24, 2018 on Vanderbilt’s campus. Join our listserv to keep up with future events, programs, and initiatives: vanderbilt.edu/lgbtqi.