The current moment in history poses new difficulties and opportunities for LGBTI rights and activism worldwide. The theme of ILGA-Europe’s 2023 Annual Conference – Rising to the Moment – asks how to build resilience, capacity, and unity within the movement in order to confront both internal and external pressures to activism and advocacy. In this spirit, the 2024 Martine Roy Student Colloquium invites participants to consider new issues in LGBTI activism, reflect upon lessons learned and pathways forwards, and place these issues within the greater international and domestic contexts in which they take place.
The colloquium is named in honour of Martine Roy, a strong advocate of justice for LGBTI communities since 1984 when she was discharged from the Canadian Armed Forces for her sexual orientation. In 2017, she and others received an apology from the Canadian Government. Ms. Roy continues her leadership and LGBTI advocacy to this day. In conjunction with the Michelle Douglas lecture, the Colloquium aims to advance scholarship on and engagement with LGBTI issues, both domestically and internationally.
The Colloquium will take place on Friday, March 15th, 2024. Selected students will be given the chance to present their papers, and the best paper will receive a prize. All the papers presented at the Colloquium will be published in a Working Paper Series: https://www.mcgill.ca/humanrights/research/working-papers
Please include an abstract of no more than 250 words with the submission. Writers are welcome to submit papers and abstracts in either English or French.
Papers should be between 5000 and 8000 words in length, not including footnotes and bibliographies. Please use a standard 12-point font and 1-inch margins. Citations should follow either MLA, APA, or the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation 10th edition.
Participation is open to all part- and full-time students registered at McGill University at the time of submission. The colloquium encourages an interdisciplinary approach to the theme, and undergraduate and graduate students in all faculties are encouraged to submit. Essays written for classes, as well as original papers, are welcome for submission.
Please submit papers, abstracts, and all questions to the Centre at chrlp.law [at] mcgill.ca by Friday, January 26th, 2024.