Max
KRAMER

PROJECT

Questioning the Global LGBTQ+ Advance

This research project approaches Northwest Africa not from the Western standpoint, but begins with a consideration of LGBTQ+ politics from a Maghrebi perspective. Contemporary Western attitudes towards the sexual politics of the Global South, or Muslim and Northwest African societies range from a summary dismissal to a patronizing view that they are trapped in a “traditional” and regressive attitude,which can only be relieved through the adoption of international standards. In themselves, they are nothing but a hurdle to be overcome on the grand march of historical progress. By contrast, this research project proposes not merely to re-evaluate Maghrebi sexual mores through historical, anthropological and literary lenses, but seeks to re-position contemporary Western debates on the subject through them. The project aims at influencing North Atlantic globalism, the way it articulates notions of individual identity and dominates institutional practices.

BIOGRAPHY

Max Kramer is Associate Professor at the City University of New York. Before, he held a tenure-track position at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. He holds a Ph.D.from Columbia University and the Sorbonne. He is a former Fellow of the Studienstiftung des deutschenVolkes and former Pensionnaire Étranger of the École Normale Supérieure at Paris.Max Kramer has an expertise both in European literature since the 19th century and the culture of the Maghreb, in combination with an international professional experience (Germany, France, U.S., Colombia, Canada, Maghreb). What unites his work is a focus on queer theory and comparative studies.