David M. Halperin (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA)

David M. Halperin is a classicist by training; his early publications were on Hellenistic Greek poetics and ancient Greek philosophy. He currently works in the history of sexuality, lesbian and gay studies, and feminist and queer theory, and he has played a role in the institutionalization of queer studies within the academy. He is the author or editor of eight books, including One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (1989), The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader (1990), Saint Foucault (1997), How To Do the History of Homosexuality (2004), What Do Gay Men Want? (2008) and Gay Shame (2010). Among his courses is the notorious “How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation,” which examines gay male sexuality and identity from the perspective not of sex but of social practices and cultural identifications, and is the topic of his forthcoming book of the same title.

Jelisaveta Blagojević (Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia)

Jelisaveta Blagojević works at the intersections of contemporary philosophy, media studies, gender and queer studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Gender Studies from the University of Novi Sad, and since 2006 she works as Associate Professor and Dean for Academic Affairs at the Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University, in Belgrade. Since 2001 she works at the Belgrade Women’s Studies and Gender Research Center as a Coordinator and Lecturer, and since 2003 as a Visiting Lecturer at the Gender and Politics program at the Political Science Faculty, Belgrade University. She has been working as a Visiting Lecturer at different Universities in South East Europe. Among her major publications are Media/Power (editor, 2011), Kultura koja dolazi [Culture to Come] (2010), Hieroglyphs of Jealousy (2010), Zajednica onih koji nemaju zajednicu [Community without Community] (2008), Gender and Identity (co-editor, (2006).

Marina Gržinić (Slovenian Academy of Science and Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia / Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria)

Marina Gržinić is doctor of philosophy and works as researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at the ZRC SAZU (Scientific and Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Art) in Ljubljana, and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She also works as a freelance media theorist, art critic and curator. Marina Gržinić has published hundreds of articles and essays and several books. Among her latest works are Situated Contemporary Art Practices. Art and Activism from (the East) of Europe (2004), Une fiction reconstruite. Europe de l’Est, post-socialisme et rétro-avant-garde [Fiction Reconstructed. Eastern Europe, Postsocialism and Retro-avantgarde] (2005), Avant-garde and Politics: The Eastern European Paradigm and the War in the Balkasn (2005), Aesthetics of Cyberspace and the Effects of De-realisation (2005), and From Biopolitics to Necropolitics: The Metastasis of Democracy, Communications and the Mass Intellect (with Sefik Seki Tatlic, 2011). She is also editor of the journal Reartikulacija. Grzinic has been involved with video art since 1982. In collaboration with Aina Smid, Grzinic produced more than 40 video art projects, a short film, numerous video and media installations, several websites and an interactive CD-ROM (ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany)

Jamie Heckert (University of Essex, UK)

Jamie Heckert is an activist, scholar and yoga teacher living in the south of England. He intended to study chemistry and environmental studies when we went off to do his liberal arts degree at Grinnell College (USA), but found himself focusing on psychology and gender and women‟ s studies. His postgraduate studies in sociology at the University of Edinburgh combined interviews and personal insight with feminist, (post)anarchist and queer theories to rethink (sexual) politics. This scholarly work has always been intertwined with the evolution of his activism: organising Pride events with increasing ambivalence, teaching sex education with joy and exploring how it feels to put anarchy into practice. Jamie attempts to do this, in part, by weaving together personal stories and cultural analyses with academic theory and spiritual wisdom to create consciously performative lectures, participatory workshops and engaging writing. As well as contributing to numerous scholarly and movement publications, Jamie is a founding member of the Anarchist Studies Network, co-editor (with Richard Cleminson) of Anarchism & Sexuality: Ethics, Relationships and Power (2011), editor of a special issue of Sexualities, and Love Life columnist for the web magazine Bella Caledonia. He loves to garden, to dance, to listen.