Brandon University will welcome a speaker to defend the presence of queer and trans content in schools and public libraries.

Professor Melissa Adler, from the University of Western Ontario, will be at BU Thursday evening. Her talk, entitled “My Queer Manitoba, in Books” will be held in the Gathering Space of the John E. Robbins Library at BU, starting at 7 p.m. All are invited to listen, learn, and demonstrate their support for welcoming people of all sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions.

Professor Adler will talk from the perspective of a queer single mom, scholar, and former librarian on the necessity of 2SLGBTQIA+ books and their readers and why they belong in school and public libraries.

“My talk is based on a love for queer connections and perverse reading practices,” Adler said, using perverse in a way to emphasize how queer people must often forcefully insert themselves into heteronormative society, including by deliberately acting in a way that’s contrary to what others expect. “I’ll bring this set of ideas to the talk, and I’ll describe how I found Manitoba by reading this way.”

The event is hosted and supported by BU’s Gender and Women’s Studies program, by the John E. Robbins Library, by the BU Faculty Association, BU Human Resources, the BU Office of the Provost, the BU President’s Office, and Brandon University itself. Funding also comes from the Margaret Laurence Endowment Fund.

For more information, see this news post.