The film screening and discussion “Gender, Identity and LGBT Rights” with the guest speaker Sébastien Chauvin, associate professor at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lausanne, will be held at the French cultural center L’Espace in Hanoi on December 20.

Two participants pose for a photo at an LGBT event in Hanoi - PHOTO: VIETNAMPLUS

Sébastien Chauvin will present gender studies and discuss with participants today’s movements for diversity and the right to be different, thus together finding the answers to questions like “What is the relationship between old and new identities, between the North and the South?”, “How can we think and welcome this diversity that marks our present?”, and “How has the experience and theory of gender identity gradually become autonomous with regard to the issue of sexuality and sexual orientation, and with what consequences?”

In many countries around the world, the topic of and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) in general and gender identity in particular has undergone profound transformations in recent decades. Gender studies have provided the conceptual tools to understand the construction of male and female identities and it is increasingly recognized that gendered feelings of self may be out of step with the sex attributed at birth.

The rise of queer, trans, and intersex movements has also shed new light on a whole set of traditional identities long associated with the mix of the masculinity and femininity, particularly in countries in the South.

Sébastien Chauvin has taught in France, the U.S. and the Netherlands, where he was co-director of the Amsterdam Research Center for Gender and Sexuality. He is the author, together with Laure Bereni, Alex Jaunait and Anne Revillard of “Introduction to Gender Studies” (De Boeck, 2nd edition 2012) and with Arnaud Lerch of “Sociology of Homosexuality” (La Découverte, 2013, Italian translation 2017).

His researches focus on gender, sexuality, class inequalities, international migration, sociology of work and racism. His interested topics include contemporary transformations of sexual and gender identities in a context of social, ethnic and civic inequalities.

This free-entry event will have French – Vietnamese dual translation, starting at 6 p.m.

SGT