The Road to a Virtual Symposium is Paved With Uncertainty
Planning a three-day, global, interdisciplinary, community-driven, and free virtual symposium was no small task. But, we knew we had to do it anyway. So many of us at Sexploration are finding our work challenged, criticized, targeted, defunded, and undermined at nearly every turn. And yet, our broader networks, communities, and partners continue to remind us that the work we do is not just necessary, but critical in this moment. We figured, if we don’t start shouting about our work, demanding it be taken seriously, and centering it on its own main stage now… then… when will we?
We began our planning in August of 2025, a full eight months in advance of the symposium taking place. It was mostly coordinated by our Acting Director, Ethan, and one of this year’s Co-Directors of Public Engagement, Zoya Khwaja. Together, they co-wrote the call for presentations, workshops, and creative endeavors; fundraised for co-sponsorships to pay for American Sign Language interpretation services; found new, cool, and innovative apps and technologies to host and market the symposium; planned the schedule; created all of the program materials and promotional images; cold emailed and posted online across four different social media platforms; registered nearly 200 people; and more! It was a labor of love, passion, and… if we’re being honest… stress! We weren’t sure if anyone would submit proposals, let alone register to attend. I mean, who do we think we are, anyway? But, to our surprise, we had far more submissions than we could consider planning for, and most of the weekend’s sessions had at least a dozen attendees in real time. What a treat!
The first symposium session happened on a Friday (morning for those in the Pacific to Eastern time zones, afternoon for those across the pond(s)). It featured team and individual presentations from scholars and community members discussing vital work in the rural areas of Far West Texas, the unceded Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ lands of so-called Duluth MN, and media landscapes of the social and news-related varieties. Attendees learned about the class-based disparities in health care resources and access for those who live outside of city centers, where everything from organic foods to ambulances are both hard to come by and expensive to pay for. We heard about the impact of recent necropolitical acts (e.g. acts in which those with social and political make decisions about who gets to live/die and what the quality of that living might be; in this case federal budget cuts) and its impact on an indigenous community housing organization. We saw in near-real-time how untrained news media voices bend scientific evidence about trans youth/adults to fit their political worldviews, or disregard the evidence altogether, which in turn confuses the general public and our legislators alike. And, we assessed how the power of virtual communities can lead to personal awareness of health-related issues and increases in self-understanding and self-diagnosis (such as with ADHD), while algorithmic inequities simultaneously platform only someforms of that supposedly collective lived experience (leaving many people out). In all of these presentations, we saw challenges to public health communication and infrastructure, and calls for more equitable and just approaches to health for all.
But, it didn’t all go as smoothly as planned…. of course. Ethan forgot to press record until halfway through the first presentation, and then the pre-recorded video presentation at the end glitched about a quarter of the way in. Luckily, everyone was kind and gracious—and, of course, they knew they’d have access to materials and recordings afterward, so that probably helped. Overall, it was a solid start to what would be an intense and immersive three days.
And, over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more of these insights and reflections with you, right here on our symposium blog. Our next post will reflect on our first workshop of the symposium, led by Dr. Vina Frick.
We hope you’ll follow along!
