Sexuality meetings & conferences

5th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights

September 19-22, 2012 Windhoek, Namibia

The 5th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights is being hosted by the Namibia Planned Parenthood Association (NAPPA), an affiliate member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) under the auspices of the African Federation for Sexual Health and Rights. The conference theme is “Sexual Health and Rights in Africa: Where are We?”

This conference will interrogate the status of sexual health and rights in Africa and in particular focus on women, girls, adolescents and youth. Efforts will be made to ensure that many constituent groups and stakeholders engage in learning exchange around policy and programme management including financing for sexual health.

Objectives
- To take stock of responses to sexual health and rights on the continent since ICPD
- To explore sexual health and rights of women, girls, adolescents and youth in Africa

The conference presentations, papers and posters will explore the conference theme and the sub-themes “Sexual and Reproductive Rights-Legal, Policy and Programme Issues (including financing sexual and reproductive health)” and “Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Adolescents and Youth” through the following thematic areas:

- Adolescent and Youth Sexuality

- Women’s and Girls Sexuality

- Disabilities and Sexual Rights

- Sexual Rights and Sex Work

- HIV/AIDS and Sexuality

- Sexuality, Culture and Religion

- Sexual and Reproductive Rights (Legal, Policy and Programme Issues- financing, equity, access, implementation, enforcement and redress)

- Sexual Orientation, Sexual/Gender Identity and Sexual and Reproductive Rights

- Capacity building and Knowledge Management

Desired Outcomes
- Alliance building, capacity enhancement and learning exchange for improved Policy, Legal and Programme management on sexual and reproductive rights.
- To disseminate relevant international declarations, charters and guidelines to civil society organizations to enhance their role in promoting sexual and reproductive rights.
- To plan and conduct a communications strategy, around the conference in order to produce dialogue on issues of sexuality, sexual health and sexual rights.
- To produce a conference technical report/publication that can be publicized for use by various institutions working in the field of sexual and reproductive rights.

Expected Participants
The conference is expected to be attended by policy makers, civil society organisations, academia, educationists, media, development activists, sexual health and rights advocates, women, girls, adolescents and youth. The conference offers a unique opportunity to further seek ways of mobilizing actions for improved understanding of sexuality and promotion of sexual health and well-being of all peoples on the African continent.

Conference Host
Namibia Planned Parenthood Association
P.O. Box 10936
Windhoek, Namibia
Tel: +264 61 230250
Fax: +264 61 230251
Email: conference@africasexuality.org
www.nappa.com.na

Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health 2012 National Conference

“Creating a Culture of Healthy Sexuality: Shaping the Future”

Featuring a Track on Diagnosing and Treating Women and Sex Addiction

September 19-22, 2012 San Antonio, Texas

Advancing Excellence in Gender, Sex and Health Research

Montréal, Canada on October 29-31, 2012

The conference will explore advances in our understandings of how sex and gender influence the health of women, men, and people of diverse gender identities over the lifespan. It will showcase excellence across the full scope of health research, from cell to society, offering a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary learning and exchange. The conference will feature dynamic presentations on new discoveries and innovative interventions, interactive poster sessions, lively discussions and valuable networking opportunities with leaders in the field.

The conference is open to all researchers, policy-makers, health care providers, non-governmental organizations, students and others with a shared interest in gender, sex and health. While there are no single agreed-upon definitions of “gender” or “sex,” it is fairly common to associate gender with socially constructed roles, relationships, behaviours, relative power, and other traits that societies ascribe to women, men and people of diverse gender identities. Gender has multiple dimensions, including but not limited to gender roles, gender identities, gender relations and institutionalized gender. We tend to think of gender in binary terms (e.g., masculine/feminine) but it is more appropriate to think of gender as existing on a spectrum because of the broad range of gender identities and expressions.

Sex is typically understood to refer to the biological and physiological characteristics that distinguish females from males. Like gender, it is a multi-dimensional construct that encompasses characteristics such as hormones, genes, anatomy and physiology. We also tend to think of sex in binary terms (e.g., male/female) yet considerable diversity exists in sex (e.g., variation in hormone levels, chromosomal differences, etc.).

While gender and sex are interrelated sex does not determine gender, nor does gender determine sex. For example, someone born female might have a masculine gender identity. Together gender and sex play an important role in determining health experiences, access to care, and treatment outcomes.

Conference streams will include:

Theoretical and methodological innovations
Promising interventions
Emerging areas
Integrating both gender and sex in health research
Health and social inequities
The biology of sex and health

Who should attend:

The conference will be ideal for: all researchers, policy-makers, health care providers, non-governmental organizations, students, and other stakeholders and individuals who share an interest in how gender and sex influence health.

Conference venue:

Hilton Montréal Bonaventure
900 de la Gauchetière Street West
Montréal, Québec, Canada

For further information, please contact:

Louisa Davis
Advancing Excellence in Gender, Sex and Health Research Conference
c/o PRIME
475 – 425 Carrall Street
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6B 6E3
Telephone: +1 604 689 3446 ext 456
Email: Louisa.Davis@pr1me.ca

www.genderandhealthconference.com

13th International Fragile X Conference

July 25-29, 2012 Miami, Florida

The National Fragile X Foundation’s biennial international conference is highly regarded and well-known for bringing together families, researchers, doctors, therapists and educators in a setting that is specifically designed to optimize interaction among families and professionals. Increased collaboration between researchers, improved treatment skills of professionals, optimized development of individuals affected by Fragile X and increased understanding and well-being of those impacted by the disorders are the most significant outcomes often sited by previous conference attendees.

The first International Fragile X Conference was a two day event in 1987 held in Denver Colorado with about 150 attendees. Since then it has passed through cities including Albuquerque, Portland, Asheville, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Atlanta and Detroit with growing attendance numbers. 2012 will bring the 13th International Fragile X Conference to Miami, FL where we expect over 1,000 attendees.

We present a unique opportunity where researchers and parents can interact throughout the conference. Many a researcher have commented on the experience of socializing with the parents of children with Fragile X, and how the experience has motivated them or reinvigorated their enthusiasm to make a difference in the lives of persons with this disability. The majority of the conference sessions are “Family-Friendly” and cover all three Fragile X conditions (FXS, FXTAS, FXPOI), with the greatest number of sessions focusing on FXS. In addition to the family-friendly sessions there are many scientific and technical sessions. Some of the benefits from attending include:

Discover the latest research by some of the world’s leading Fragile X experts.
Learn new techniques, behavioral interventions and coping strategies.
Connect with researchers clinicians, educators, psychologists and parents.
Get the support you need.
Start a new lifelong friendship and reconnect with old friends.

The objectives of the conference are:

To provide a forum in which professionals from the Fragile X and intellectual disabilities fields can present their scientific, clinical or scholarly work;
To present a general program that will be informative and of interest to all conference participants;
To facilitate the exchange of research, intervention strategies and information relating to all Fragile X-associated Disorders (FXD) including fragile X syndrome (FXS), fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) and fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency (FXPOI).

Presentation topics will include medical treatments, speech, language and occupational therapies, educational techniques, opportunities for self-determination and independence, genetic counseling strategies and mental health interventions throughout the lifespan.

Based on the ongoing development of new therapies, the conference will include a focus on:

Both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions (current and anticipated)
Evaluation tools
Evolving screening and diagnostic technologies

The conference will also highlight basic science presentations on:

The functions of FMRP
The molecular and cellular mechanisms in FXS, FXTAS, and FXPOI
Studies in animal models of FXD

The conference will include a wide variety of other subjects including:

Alternative interventions
Public policy and legislative advocacy
Legal and ethical issues
Sibling issues
Parent to parent support

In addition to presentations from the professional community, parent-led workshops and discussions will also be conducted.

Abstract Topics include:

Academic and Behavioral Interventions and Strategies
ADHD & Disorders of Attention and Impulse Control
Adult Issues and Aging in FXS
Advocacy, Policy Issues: Public and Private Partnerships
Assistive & Augmentative Technology/Computer Enhanced Learning
Autism and FX Studies/Issues/Diagnosis
Clinical Trials of Targeted Treatments
Early Intervention: 0-5 years
Family Dynamics
Financial Planning/Insurance/Grants
FMRP & Molecular/Cellular Studies/Animal Models
FXPOI Clinical Issues
FXTAS: Neuropathology/Non-CNS pathology
FXTAS Caregiving and Clinical Issues
FXTAS/FXPOI Molecular and Cellular Research/Animal Models
Genetic Counseling Issues
Inclusion/Mainstreaming
Molecular Clinical Correlations
Neuroimaging Studies
Neurological and Medical Issues in the Premutation
Neurological and Medical Issues in FXS
Non-traditional Interventions
Occupational Therapy/Sensory Integration
Psychological Therapies and Non-pharmacological Treatment (Behavioral, Cognitive Treatment Trials, etc)
Psychotherapeutic Interventions
Premutation Carrier Studies/Issues and Premutation Clinical Involvement (non-FXTAS)
Prevalence, Screening, Early Diagnosis Strategies & New Testing Technologies
Psychological, Behavioral and Social Studies and Testing in FXS
Psychopharmacologic Treatment of Behavior and Co-morbid Conditions in FXS
Reproductive Options
Self Help Skills: Dental, Eating, Toileting, Other
Service Delivery: Clinic & Non-Clinic based/Rural Outreach/Underserved Populations
Sexuality: Lifespan issues
Special/Unusual/Challenging Cases and Families (lessons learned from these cases)
Speech & Language Studies/Intervention
Targeted Molecular/Cellular Interventions in FXS Models
Treatment Efficacy: Biomarkers/Translational Outcome Measures in FXS
Transitions throughout the Lifespan

Framing Lives, the 8th Biennial Conference of the International Auto/Biography Association

17-20 July 2012, Canberra, Australia

The Humanities Research Centre and National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University, in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, present Framing Lives, the 8th Biennial Conference of the International Auto/Biography Association.

The field of auto/biography and life narrative studies is dynamic and interdisciplinary. Founded in 1999, the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA) is the leading international forum for scholars, critics and practitioners. The Framing Lives conference will feature distinguished international speakers and events at the National Portrait Gallery and other national collecting institutions.

Framing Lives draws attention to the extraordinary turn to the visual in contemporary life narrative: to graphics and animations, photographs and portraits, installations and performances, avatars and characters, that come alive on screens, stages, pages, and canvas, through digital and analogue technologies. At the same time, framing suggests the ways that lives are lived, recorded and viewed through multiple frames including those of language, politics, place, gender, history and culture. It draws attention to the multiple ‘I’s of auto/biographical representations now, and the various fields of vision, lines of sight, and points of focus for critics, artists, writers, historians and curators in the life worlds of auto/biography. Conference themes include depiction and display, ethics and rights, living archives, place and displacement, media and celebrity, digital identity and social media, and creative life narrative.

Convenors

Paul Arthur (Deputy Director, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University)
Rosanne Kennedy (Associate Professor and Head of Discipline, Gender Sexuality & Culture, Australian National University)
Gillian Whitlock (ARC Professorial Fellow, School of English, Media Studies & Art History, University of Queensland)

Conference Themes

1. Depiction and display

Histories and analyses of visual representations of lives
Lives as art, including portraiture, sculpture, photography, film and new media
The life of objects and things in storytelling
Curating online collections
Adaptation and remediation
Eavesdropping and voyeurism
Framing, filtering, capturing, exposing, colouring lives
Digitisation, simulation, authenticity

2. Ethics and rights

Human rights, privacy, advocacy, law
Rights of biographical subjects
Trauma, grief and testimony
Editing and ethics
Disability, illness, therapy and recovery in life narrative
Environmental biography
Posthuman lives
Gender and sexuality
Secrets and lies

3. Living archives

The archive within: genetics, genomics, neurology, emotions
Archival legacies: remembering and forgetting
Managing archival material: methodologies, policies, selection, metadata
Oral history theory and practice
Life story consent, copyright, constraints
Preserving ephemera
Institutional partnerships
Transnational archives
Transgenerational archives

4. Place and displacement

Translating ‘life’ and lives across cultures and languages
Indigenous lives
Diasporic lives
Immigrant lives
Transnational lives
Minoritarian life narrative
Genealogies
Witnessing publics

5. Media and celebrity

Press, radio, television, film and music biographies
The media as biographer
Creating notoriety
The changing nature of fame
Collective memory and biography
Refashioning identity: bodies in the media
Confessional modes in public life
Obituaries

6. Digital identity and social media

Cyberlives
Auto/graphics
Social media audiences
Digital relationships, communities, intimacy
Epistolarity before and after email
Avatars, animation, machinima
Transfigured bodies
Pocket lives: iPhone, iPad, Android, apps

7. Creative life narrative

New hybrid forms of life narrative
Approaches to constructing the autobiographical self
Memoirs, journals, diaries, reflections
Autoethnography
Scholarship versus creative practice
Fantasy lives
Personal journeys
Digital storytelling