The Homosexual and the Oligarch: Perverse Figurations and Social Reproduction

Book talk by Dr. Tamar Shirinian on neoliberalization's threats against social reproduction.

The Homosexual and the Oligarch: Perverse Figurations and Social Reproduction

Friday, February 13, 2026
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

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About the Talk

Based on Dr. Tamar Shirinian’s recent book, Survival of a Perverse Nation: Morality and Queer Possibility in Armenia (Duke University Press, 2024), this talk will introduce the audience to two perverse figures: the homosexual and the oligarch. Both figured prominently in national anxieties in the 2010s in Armenia as dangerous to the nation and its survival, and formed particular rhetorics of the nation’s perversion toward annihilation. Focusing on these two figures, the talk reflects upon neoliberalization’s threats against social reproduction by examining the moralization of political-economic processes and asks what a queer theory of political economy offers to the critique of late capitalism.

Date

Friday, February 13,
11 am-12:30 pm

Venue

UCLA Center for the Study of Women
Barbra Streisand Center
1500 Public Affairs Building

and

Online via Zoom (Register to Attend Virtually)