De oudejaarsconference van Claudia de Breij: Een diffractieve, interdisciplinaire discussie over (super)diversiteit, gender, seksualiteit en religie in de Lage Landen

This written version of various conversations came into being as a response to Dutch entertainer Claudia de Breij’s 2016 New Year’s Eve cabaret performance. We were enticed to write something about this performance because of the numerous ambiguities that were present in it. What was striking was the fact that we, a group of Dutch and Belgian academics and activists, working in different disciplines but united by our mutual interests in and passion for the themes of (super-)diversity, gender and sexuality, and religion and societal matters, each interpreted this performance differently. From a conciliatory, interconnecting cabaret performance in which alterity and difference were (re)presented as something positive, to a performance that confirmed already-existing stereotypes rather than subverting them: all these different interpretations and impressions are explained in detail in the following diffractive dialogue that was engendered by and through various conversations that took place in Utrecht, the Netherlands in January, May, August, and September 2017.