The sense of belonging is a key issue for the construction of Europe: feeling European is the result of a complex process that pertains to education, family socialization, professional choices, as well as the free movement of people. It involves popular representations of what makes a community, but also policy making and institutional reforms. The sense of being European also takes shape through the relations that people develops with other communities, whether national, religious, professional, linguistic, or sexual.

This panel will tackle the question of belonging in Europe by comparing the representations of the gay and queer communities both in Europe and the United-States. To what extent the sense of belonging to a sexual community compares to national identity? When do sexual and national communities conflict? What is the influence of experts on defining sexual communities? How gays and lesbians conceive of their own group? How communautarian theories approach sexuality in Europe and the United-States? What are the differences between gay communities within Europe? Has the queer critic of identities contributed to the birth of a transnational movement, reshaping the sense of both sexual and national belonging?

The panel will not only question the concept of community, but also the methodological approaches through which it is possible to observe and analyze “communities” and their representations.

Chair:

• Bruno Perreau, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Discussant:

• David Paternotte, Free University of Brussels

Papers:

• Camille Robcis. Cornell University. Discourses on Sexual Difference and Anticommunitarianism in France
• Konstantinos Eleftheriadis. European University Institute. Queer Movements in Europe: the Rise of a Transnational Movement
• Michael Stambolis: University of California, Los Angeles. Internal Representations of the Gay Community in France and in the US: The Impact of Legal Recognition
• Roberto Kulpa: University of London. Birkbeck College. On Attachment and Belonging: Or Why Queers Mourn Homophobic President? The Polish Case.