The conference is called "Crossing the Americas/Cruzar las Américas" and focuses on cultural contact across the Americas in the present time.  There will be a talk on Latin American cinema, on a much-debated Colombian novel about gay teenaged hit-men (made into the film Our Lady of the Assassins), a performance by a Cuban- American queer feminist artist from New York, and three workshops attached to the plenary talks that are aimed at facilitating discussion, especially for students.  

The conference takes place in Lausanne on Thursday Oct. 29 and in Geneva on Friday and Saturday the 30th and 31st.