Conference

Queer-Class Relations Conference

Friday, April 17th to Saturday, April 18th

CUNY Graduate Center. Free and open to the public. Sliding scale general registration is open.

CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center will host a Queer-Class Relations Conference exploring the intersections of LGBTQ and class from April 17-18, 2026, in New York City.

CLAGS’ 43rd conference since its founding in 1986, QCR will feature 60 panels/roundtables and over 175 presenters, with keynotes by queer labor organizer Anne Balay, queer-caste theorist Anjali Arondekar, and genderqueer, disabled, class writer Eli Clare, whose virtual keynote will be hosted by the University of Toronto Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. QCR will also have three featured, all-conference sessions on the legacy of Amber Hollibaugh, on Black queer-class archiving, and on the future of queer-class studies.

Click here to see more about sliding scale general registration, panels, and presenters. Browse the full schedule here. CLAGS will update the schedule with add-on events and opportunities (e.g., queer-class walking tours, parties, readings) as the conference approaches.

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Anne Balay is a labor historian and an organizer with Service Employees International Union Local 509 in Boston. Balay is author of the award winning books Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers and Semi Queer: Inside the World of Gay, Trans, and Black Truck Drivers.

Dr. Anjali Arondekar is Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair and Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is Founding Director of the Center for South Asian Studies. Arondekar is author of the award-winning books For the Record: On Sexuality and the Colonial Archive in India and Abundance: Sexuality’s History.

Eli Clare is a white, disabled, and genderqueer storyteller and educator. His books include the 2025 Unfurl: Survivals, Sorrows, and Dreaming; the award-winning Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure; The Marrow’s Telling; Words in Motion; and Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. For his work on disability and queerness/transness, Clare received the 2025-26 Brudner Prize.

Conference cohosts

University of Pennsylvania: Department of English, The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, The Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies, and the Gender and Sexuality working group (Gen/Sex)
Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto

This event is made possible by generous funding from the New York City Council to the CUNY LGBTQIA+ Consortium, and supported by the LaGuardia and Wagner Archive; Mable’s Smokehouse Banquet Hall; the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies; the CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences; and the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center.