UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Department of Geography will continue its fall 2024 Coffee Hour lecture series with a talk by Natalie Oswin, associate professor in the Department of Human Geography at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Oswin’s talk, “Capital contradictions in the age of incorporation: queer and trans materialism at work," will examine the challenges that queer and trans individuals experience in the workplace.

The talk will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4, in 112 Walker Building on the University Park campus and also will be accessible via Zoom.

Based on research conducted in two mid-sized Canadian cities, Oswin’s work offers a critique of the ‘queer liberalism’ approach in LGBTQ+ work scholarship, focusing on the persistence of structural inequalities despite legislative advancements.

Her presentation will explore differing perspectives on the effectiveness of equity training and education in addressing workplace inequality. Oswin’s research emphasizes the role of structural factors in shaping workplace dynamics for LGBTQ+ individuals and considers anti-capitalist frameworks as potential responses to these issues.

Oswin is an expert in postcolonial queer geographies, particularly in the context of globalization and urbanization. She is the author of "Global City Futures: Desire and Development in Singapore" and the former managing editor of the interdisciplinary journal Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, as well as its associated online magazine.

Oswin's talk is part of the fall 2024 Coffee Hour seminar series hosted by Penn State’s Department of Geography. For more information and to access the Zoom link, visit the Coffee Hour event webpage.