Javier Sáez del Álamo explained

Javier Sáez del Álamo is a Spanish sociologist, translator, and gay rights activist, specialising in queer theory and psychoanalysis.

Infancy

Born in Burgos into a family of artists (his father was the painter Luis Sáez). His brother, Luis Sáez del Álamo, is a linguist and professor at the Complutense University of Madrid and his sister, Concha Sáez del Álamo, is an artist and professor at the University of Salamanca.

Academic Training

He graduated in sociology and carried out his doctorate studies with Jesús Ibáñez Alonso. He completed his psychoanalytic studies with Jorge Alemán, specialising in the philosophies of Michel Serres, Michel Foucault and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

Queer activism and theoretical work

Over the last 30 years, Javier Sáez del Álamo has participated in diverse array of LGBT and queer organisations and has published various books about queer theory, articles about the theory of science and psychoanalysis, as well as about queer culture and politics.

Similarly, he has translated various works of key figures in the feminist and queer movement into Spanish, such as works by Judith Butler, Monique Wittig and Jack Halberstam.

He frequently participates as a speaker in courses and seminars on queer activism.

He has worked as a professor of sociology at the José Simeón Cañas Central American University in El Salvador, as well as at the Complutense University of Madrid and the National University of Distance Education. He also worked as an expert in anti-discrimination policy in the European Social Fund and as Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary General for the Rights of Romany People at the Council of Europe (Strasbourg). He was the co-founder and member of the editorial staff of the critical thought magazine Archipiélago. Since 1995 he has run the electronic magazine about queer cultures Hartza.

Between 2003 and 2005, he taught the course Introduction to Queer Theory at the National University of Distance Education alongside philosopher and gay activist Paco Vidarte.

He has run multiple HIV prevention campaigns.

The main contribution of Javier Sáez del Álamo to queer studies has been to open a dialogue between the Lacanian psychoanalytic community and the queer movements about the limitations of psychoanalysis in understanding sexual diversity from a non-heterocentric perspective and in turn, reclaim those aspects of psychoanalysis which are most subversive on the topic of sexuality. He also wrote about contemporary masculinity and about HIV prevention policies. His magazine Hartza, is an international reference point for the history of the queer movement, given that he collected the principal texts of the movement from the mid-90s onwards. The work of Javier Sáez has been influential on the work of Spanish philosopher Paco Vidarte, for contemporary feminist theorists like Judith Butler, Teresa de Lauretis and Monique Wittig, as well as for the psychoanalysts Jorge Alemán and Jean Allouch.

In his book, In the ass. Anal policies (written with Sejo Carrascosa), he analysed the discourse of hate and discrimination throughout history towards the passive position in anal sex and proposed a new model of sex and gender based on the penetrability or impenetrability of a body.

In 2015, he donated his entire inheritance (284 paintings by his father, the painter Luis Sáez) to the Romany Secretariat Foundation, in order to finance scholarships for female Romany students.

Books

Published articles

Translated works

References

External links

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