Though more than 140 students from eight different colleges attended the New England Small College Queer Summit last weekend, it was an intimate affair: The theme of this year's conference was "The 'Sex' in Sexuality."
"I really wanted this year's theme to be more personal," said senior Antonio Watson, who began organizing the conference six months ago. "And what's more personal than sex?"
First convened at Williams College in February of 2010, the annual conference was designed to foster acceptance and promote discussion of LGBTIQA issues.
In keeping with this year's theme, Conner Habib, a writer and adult film star, delivered the keynote address. Habib's talk touched on the idea of the body as an object and on the place of sex in American culture. During the question and answer session that followed, Habib fielded questions about the link between love and sex and the experience of having sex on camera.
While Watson called the decision to bring a pornographer to campus "a risk," he said that he was impressed by the campus's support of the address and summit in general.
"Kresge was really full," Watson noted. "I think over 200 people came to the keynote."
Students from the other schools arrived on buses Friday night and were housed by 30 students hosts and in Russwurm House. The majority of the programming took place on Saturday.
In addition to the keynote address, participants were invited to attend workshops on topics ranging from body image to asexuality to sex toys. Other events included a formal sex etiquette dinner and a party at Helmreich House.
The summit was sponsored by 27 student organizations, academic departments and College offices, and cost approximately $4,000.
-Compiled by Claire Aasen.