The St. Jerome's University Department of Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies (SMF) is preparing for its 9^th Annual SMF Research Symposium taking place on Saturday, April 6, 2019. The annual event is a one-day interdisciplinary academic conference that highlights student and faculty research dealing with relationships, families, and human sexualities. The Research Symposium was first launched in 2009 to bring together an academic community of shared interests in scholarship and research.

“Each year we receive a wide variety of really impressive proposals to present at the annual Symposium,” notes Department of Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies Chair, Toni Serafini.  “It’s wonderful to see how different disciplines address SMF topics in different ways, opening up the learning landscape for students, researchers, and community members who attend. Intentional opportunities for critical discussion have been key to the success of this conference!”

The SMF Department is pleased to welcome Dr. Karen Blair, Assistant Professor of Psychology at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, as the 2019 keynote speaker. Dr. Blair (www.DrKarenBlair.com) studies the role that social support for relationships plays in the development, maintenance and dissolution of relationships, LGBTQ Psychology, and the connections between relationships, social prejudices, and health. In her talk, “Why we Need More Research at the Nexus of Sexualities, Relationships, and Families,” Dr. Blair challenges the paucity (and often absence of) attention to sexual diversity or even sexual activity at relationships conferences, non-sexual relationship dynamics at sexuality conferences, and non-traditional relationships and sexualities at nearly all conferences.  Dr. Blair explores some of the ways that her research has examined how sexualities, relationships, and families interconnect with each other (for better, or for worse) to produce the reality of our day-to-day experiences in any one of these domains.

In addition to the keynote, the conference features a variety of research presentations and a Critical Close-up on “Femme Theory”. For more information, the conference agenda, abstracts, and conference archives, please go to the Symposium page using this link. 

Online registration is now open, with tickets for students $10.00 and non-students $30.00. Lunch, refreshments and participation in the Social Hour are included with registration fees.