The 1996 convention of the Modern Language Association featured panels on "Queering the Renaissance: Comparative Continental Perspectives," "The Novel, Queer Theory, and Narrativity," and three panels on "Victorian Sexual Dissidence": "male-male sexual dissidence," "female-feminist aestheticism," and "revisionary decadence." Attendees could also learn more about "Androgyny and Absolutism: The figure of the androgyne, especially in courtly society, as well as theories of same-sex gender paradigms and their relations to forms of power."

Perhaps considering deconstructionist analysis allows critics and educators to disregard intent of a text's author, it should come as no surprise that there was also an especially candid panel called "Famous Books You Have Not Read. Famous texts you have discussed, evaluated, cited, taught, or bought but have not read. Blurb, acknowledgments, or bibliography scanning as reading. Strong versus weak not reading. General theories, dissimulation strategies, confessions."

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