College Staff Retreat | Keynote Address: "Changing Perspectives: On Sex, Gender, Humanity, and the World" - Kand McQueen, Ph.D.
From Lindsay Valderrama
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From Lindsay Valderrama
Note: For the CART transcript, please see attachments.
Most people around the planet firmly believe there are two and only two kinds of people in the world: men and women. When we think about human beings, we assume these are the only two possibilities. Above all else, male and female are seen as separate entities, mutually exclusive, complementing but never overlapping categories. Like much of the world, Western society rests on the assumption that all persons exist unambiguously as either man or woman. Like most things, it just isn’t quite that simple.
Our society relentlessly pursues conformity, standardization, and uniformity to the extent that we continually obsess upon and harshly judge our differences and exclude those who do not fit our conventional categorizations despite our common humanity. In this presentation, Dr. Kand McQueen encourages several perspectival shifts that together formulate an option to this polarization. Imagine a world where, instead, we chose to embrace both our commonalities and our dissimilarities, and in the process, build a broader and richer conceptualization of humanity; one that has room for all persons, everywhere.
About Dr. McQueen:
Kand McQueen is a nationally-recognized keynote speaker on issues of gender identity. Beginning while still a graduate student, Dr. McQueen has been speaking on this topic for over 20 years to a variety of student, professional, and community audiences in settings ranging from academic conferences and high school, college, and university campuses to mental health centers, churches, synagogues and community forums to appearances on community radio and public television. Dr. McQueen earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a specialization in Inquiry Methodology from Indiana University’s School of Education, and formerly served as graduate faculty at two universities. Dr. McQueen is committed to educating about the existence of those who fall outside the dichotomous categories of male and female, and in the process, facilitate societal understanding and acceptance of all human beings. For more information, see www.kandmcqueen.com