Javier Sáez del Álamo

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

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).

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.

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.

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.