*/Call for Papers/*


    */7^th European Feminist Research Conference /* */(/**/Utrecht/**/
    /**/June 4-7 2009/**/):/** *


    */Gendered Cultures at the Crossroads of Imagination, Knowledge and
    Politics/*

The 7^th European Feminist Research Conference is an international event
based on cutting-edge scholarship. The conference will reflect a
diversity of feminist and gender studies research incorporating
perspectives from across the broad spectrum of the humanities and social
sciences. The focus is on the way in which knowledge, politics, and the
imagination inform gendered cultures in contemporary Europe.
European Feminist Research Conferences usually have more than 500
participants from both inside and outside of Europe. The Conference has
a track record of presenting innovative feminist scholarly work with
critical perspectives on contemporary Europe.
The 7th edition of the European Feminist Research Conference will be
interdisciplinary in several ways. Firstly, it will employ the Utrecht
expertise of crossing the boundaries of the scholarly and the artistic
through a focus on, and a review of, literary, visual and artistic
representations. Secondly, it will work with a matrix of intersecting
themes rather than with singular conference strands. Thus participating
scholars, students and artists are asked to situate themselves in this
crosscutting matrix.
*
*
*Submission of abstracts and registration:*
Abstracts should have not more than 300 words and should be in English.
Abstracts and can only be submitted (uploaded) once you have registered
yourself at this page:
/http://parthen-impact.com/eventure/welcome.do?type=abstract&congress=66_730.
<http://parthen-impact.com/eventure/welcome.do?type=abstract&congress=66_730>/
/ /
*Paper proposals have to refer to two of the themes*.
Paper abstracts sent to the general conference email address
([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) will /not/ be
taken into account .
/Paper abstracts have to be submitted before //September 19, 2008//./
/ /
/Panel proposals before //July 15, 2008//, for panel proposals contact:
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
For more Information about the themes of the conference contact:
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
* *
*THEMES *
*_Paper proposals have to refer to two of the themes_*
*A. Imagination Art & Politics*
In the context of recent geopolitical transformations, Europe has become
a polycentric, dialogical and relational space of visual cultures
existing in relation to one another. The intensification and
diversification of the flows of artistic and cultural productions have
put into question many of the earlier models of understanding the
boundaries of culture, but also the notions of gender and ethnicity.
This theme interrogates the debates in the study of all domains of
cross-cultural art practices in Europe. Among the questions it addresses
are: what is the role that location and positioning play in the
artistic/cultural production? Are cultures still confined to specific
territory and canon? How do feminist art practices and feminist art
criticism embrace the issues connected with distance, proximity, and
movement? We invite papers that address the relationship between
aesthetics and politics, the structure and operation of colonial
stereotype, cultural hybridity, trans-cultural borrowing and
appropriation, and new forms of gendered identity.
*/Key words:/*/ women artists, canon, global art history, cultural
hybridity /
/ /
/ /
*B. Feminism in Post-Secular **Europe*
This central issue of this theme is a questioning of the religious and
the secular, and how such questions are posed in relation to women’s
studies and feminism. Within the context of a geo-political hegemonic
logic of a ‘clash of civilizations’ and antagonisms along cultural and
religious lines, secular contracts are increasingly challenged within
and across European nation-states. In spite of the decline in
traditional religiosity in many countries throughout Europe, various
kinds of ‘believing’ and ‘belonging’ are introduced and rearticulated.
We invite papers investigating these recent and contemporary expressions
of religious vitality and the challenges they pose to secular states and
(secular) feminist legacies. We look forward to papers inquiring into
the historical formations, and contemporary re-affirmations, of ‘the
secular’ and the ways in which such formations are gendered and
ethicized, as well as their sexual politics. We are also interested in
documenting feminist complicities with neo-imperialist civilizational
projects, as well as tracking the contours of feminisms that resist and
unpack such politics.
*/Key words: /*/religion, ‘clash of civilizations’, religious vitality,
believing and belonging, secularity/ * *
* *
* *
*C. Global Connections: Migration, Consumption & Politics *
In the context of multiple colonial legacies and the end of the Cold War
an expanded Europe has become marked by the contradictory rationalities
of globalization: on the one hand, increased migration, expanded yet
individualized consumption, and rising social liberalism, on the other,
restricted citizenship, fortified borders, ethnic polarization and
attacks upon multiculturalism. This cluster explores the connections and
disjunctions between these legacies and rationalities and how they
impact on the new world order as played out across the social, political
and cultural formations of a postcolonial and post/soviet Europe,
especially in relation to gender and ethnicity. Among the questions it
addresses are: What are the debates on gender and citizenship within the
European Union and the Europe beyond it and how do these relate to
immigration and ethnic diversity? Is the femininization of migration a
sign of increasing agency and mobility or of disenfranchisement and
immobility? How does consumerism (including consumption of sex; ethnic
exotica) help shape the individual self and is this self a ‘Western’
subject?
*/Keywords:/*/ postcolonial cultures, transnational feminism,
citizenship, commodification, migration/
* *
* *
*D. Sexuality, Public, Private & Beyond*
This theme focuses on the frictions between local sexualities and the
dislocations of a globalizing world. We are interested in two lines of
investigation: on the one hand, how sexuality is “on the move”, in
several senses of that term: the ways in which sexuality and sexual
‘identities’ change when individuals, ideologies and media move across
literal and figurative, across public and private spaces. And how do
normative and non-normative, e.g. queer, sexualities relate in
particular spaces? On the other hand, and at the same time, we would
like to see explorations of the intersecting lines between sexuality,
gender, “race”/ ethnicity, religion and nation. Central questions in
this panel include, (but are not limited to): how do (non-)normative
sexualities, e.g. through interethnic and inter‘racial’ relationships,
articulate within globalizing cultures? How do gendered and sexual
images, fears and desires help form racial, ethnic and national
stereotypes, differences and conflicts (and vice versa)? How are norms
of sexuality and gender, including masculinities, and racialized
categories co-constructed in historical and contemporary settings? We
invite contributions using different styles of inquiry and
interpretation from the humanities and the social sciences. Foci on
images, poetry, fieldwork, Internet postings, interviews, literature,
ethnographies, historical texts, archival documents, personal accounts,
journals and innovative blends between these genres are all welcomed.
*/Key words/*/: globalization, intersectionality, public and private,
queer, masculinities / * * * *
* *
* *
*E: War & Violence *
Within the theme of war and violence we invite paper proposals and
discussion panels that address the gendered (intersected with class,
ethnic, racial and religious) implications of several issues ranging
from intrastate violence to international conflicts and postcolonial
identities. We welcome papers, which may (but are not required to)
address the following questions: What are the dynamics, causes and
consequences of international and intrastate violence and armed
conflicts, the accompanying legitimizing rhetoric and their
representations in different public arenas and media? What theoretical
and political implications can be drawn from the ways of conflict
prevention and peace building? What are the differences and similarities
of memories of WWII and the legacy of fascism and Stalinist terror?
Furthermore, we welcome papers on issues like the renegotiation of
gender relations in times of military conflict, collaboration,
resistance and agency. Interesting would be contributions on
governmental violence and political rape: the fe/male (sexed) body as a
site of demarcation lines and power struggles; transnational (global)
networks of pacifism and the politics and ethics of feminist research
and activism at the crossroads of moral universalism and cultural
relativism; lastly, postcolonial identities and nationalism as imperial
legacies as represented in different national historiographies. The
theme and the issues described open up ample space for interdisciplinary
approach from disciplines such as gender and conflict studies, history,
anthropology, literature, cultural studies, and also a comparative
framework, which we would like to encourage.
*/Key words: /*/conflict studies, political rape, post-socialism,
masculinity, trauma /
*F: Media and Technology: The Politics of Representation*
Science, technology and media are crucial areas for feminist
interventions as such discursive practices both produce and maintain
representations, subjectivities - and material bodies. Donna Haraway
suggested already 1991 the fleshier notion of “apparatuses of bodily
production” to replace foucauldian "discourse" (Haraway 1991). In
similar veins have feminists of “new materialism” challenged studies of
culture where matter does not seem to matter. But scientific, physical
and media-related issues of the body has without a doubt been part of
the feminist project since the get-go. Such endeavours have also marked
Cultural Studies, Media and Communication Studies as well as Science and
Technology Studies with feminist contributions. In this cluster we would
like to invite proposals for papers that grapple with various new or old
formations of science and embodiment, media and technology, popular and
visual cultures. Questions that could be addressed are: If communicative
practices of meaning-making constitutes cultures – which makes media,
technologies and media materialities decisively important for
understanding contemporary culture – how is this played out in various
visual and digital settings? What challenges to modern divisions between
nature and culture, body and artifice, global and local can be found
within emerging biotechnologies or the life sciences and how are they
communicated, commercialized and popularized?
/*Key words:* science, technology, media, visual culture and bodies/
* *
* *
*G. Multi-Ethnic **Europe**: Identities, Boundaries & Communities*
While globalization is not entirely new, today Europe experiences an
unprecedented amount of border crossing for economic, social, and
political reasons with far-reaching consequences for identity and
belonging. 'Multi-ethnic Europe' invites papers which may (but are not
required to) address the following set of questions: Given that the
globalization of travel, communications and media now allows migrants to
remain actively engaged with 'homelands' in other parts of Europe or on
other continents, how do people imagine and experience belonging in
Europe? How do (intersections of) gender, citizenship, religion, class,
generation, sexuality and/or ethnicity configure people's mobility and
their power/status within migrant and religious communities or within
the nation? How does Europe imagines its own historical dealings with
ethnic others; and how does this past inform current debates on
multi-ethnic Europe? How have negotiations over inclusion and rights
been impacted by various political movements (human rights; feminism;
neo-conservatism; neo-fascism, religious fundamentalisms)?And finally,
what are the sites of conflict --intended as issues or social
phenomena-- that exemplify material and/or discursive struggles over
European boundaries, identity and citizenship? Do the existing feminist
theories on multi-ethnic Europe allow for an adequate articulation of
new configuration in Europe or do we require additional theoretical and
interpretative tools in order to account for the complexity of new
political subjectivities and social realities we are experiencing?
*/Key words/*/: multiculturalism, transnationalism, European-ness,
political subjectivities, in/exclusion, intersectionality /
*H. Stories to Tell: Fiction, History & Memory*
Traditionally, feminist approaches have greatly valued storytelling, as
the power of narrative provides knowledge and engenders the
configuration of selves. However, a number of feminist and other
researchers have recently started to ask new critical questions
regarding storytelling's uses. What exactly are the intersections of
narrative styles and gendered identities that are at the same time
racially, ethnically, and sexually defined? Can we really equate
storytelling with agency, or even with subversion? In addition, it needs
to be assessed how exactly (hi)stories and memories have their impact on
society and/or bring public attention to social concerns. Being
ideologically constituted, it remains questionable whether historical
and autobiographical narratives of experience can be trusted at all, and
if not, how problematic and/or relevant that is. Furthermore, a number
of academic approaches has questioned if stories can only be told with
words, or if there are other possibilities of 'telling.' What role does
the body play as an archive of memory? And how do we account for stories
that cannot be told—because they are too painful to relate, or because
their telling is suppressed by dominant forms of representation? All
these questions make it necessary to reconsider and redefine
storytelling and its uses, and to ask anew how we can explore these
questions in a feminist way.
*/Key words/*/: //feminist assessment of the powers of narrative,
intersectionality, reliability of (hi)stories and memories,
unspeakability, other modes of telling / / /
*I. Women’s Movements of Past, Present & Future: Generations in Feminism*
This theme seeks an interdisciplinary range of papers focusing on
women’s and feminist movements in past, present and future. A discussion
about the interconnectedness of these movements across different
European and global spaces and chronologies is envisioned. With this, we
wish to discuss generation in feminism, /i.e./ a discussion of
generations in feminism, the intergenerational dynamics inside women’s
movements, but also feminist generation and regeneration, or the
productivity of feminism. What is it that keeps the women’s and feminist
movement going? What are the singularly /European/ perspectives on
feminist generation, in what way do women’s movements interact with
other movements, and what are the specificities of the European women’s
and feminist movements of past, present and future, both in
epistemological and in practical terms? What are their strategies of
acting, situating and repositioning themselves in the changing,
historical or contemporary, contexts of European policies (especially
equal opportunities), cultural developments, and politics of knowledge?
*/Key words/*/: generations, new feminisms, histories of women's
movements, EU-equal opportunities/ * *
* *
*J. Cultures of Knowledge: the Sciences, Humanities & Gender *
The contributions for this theme can vary widely, from new discussions
on epistemology and science studies, via feminist theory to the position
of women in academia: We invite papers, which may (but are not required
to) address the theme from theoretical, social and cultural, and policy
oriented perspectives. The papers we are interested in can concern
developments in feminist theory and gender studies – new and changing
(epistemological) concepts and contexts as well as developments in the
gender dimension in science. How, where and by whom are gender studies
practiced nowadays, and how do they relate to other disciplines? What is
the relation between integration of the gender dimension in research and
the participation of women? How are cultures of research in
(inter)disciplines, universities, research institutions, laboratories
gendered? The more policy oriented perspective concerns issues like
valorization of knowledge, the gender and excellence debate, or the use
and the impact of EU gender and science policies. Furthermore we welcome
papers on gender and memory in the cultures of science, the uses of
scientific (auto)biography, institutional history. Cultures of knowledge
can also be studied by analyzing popular representations of sciences
(museums & mass media) and representations of sciences in film and
documentary, literary fiction, science fiction.
*/Key words/*/: knowledge, women/gender in science, epistemology,
feminist theory, representations of gender and science/
* *
*K. Social Economic **Europe*
Within the theme of ‘Social Economic Europe’, we invite paper proposals
and discussion panels that explore the dynamics of women and men’s lives
in contemporary Europe. We particularly encourage papers that
specifically address the linkages between developments at different
geographical scales, e.g. in what ways do developments at the European
level impact on the social and economics contexts of people’s local
lives. Furthermore, we would like to receive papers that address new
readings and interpretations where the individual and the social,
personal experiences and institutional practices, geographical scales
between global and local are examined together without presupposing
a-priori hierarchy. Research questions that can be addressed in this
theme are for instance: What is the influence of old and new labor
markets on the lives of men and women? What is the meaning of
globalization for women and men in different geographical spaces? We
would also like to encourage papers on issues like geographies of care,
old and new identities, post-modernity and youths, globalization and
environmental change. How is globalization interwoven within European
cities, in relation to old and new “communities”, ”nomadism” and the
hard experiences of women and men migrants?
*/Key words: /*/Labor market, geographies of care, environment,
nomadism, old and new identities / * *
*THEME COORDINATORS * * *
Theme A Imagination: dr. Marta Zarzycka
<http://www.genderstudies.nl/index.php?pageid=53>, prof.dr. Kirsi
Saarikangas
<http://www.helsinki.fi/kristiina-instituutti/english/staff/kirsi.htm>,
Domitilla Olivieri
Theme B Post Secular Europe: prof.dr. Willy Jansen
<http://www.ru.nl/genderstudies/over_het_igs/docenten_en/jansen_willy/>,
dr. Sarah Bracke
<http://www.let.uu.nl/%7ESarah.Bracke/personal/homepage%20sarah%20bracke/home.html>,
dr. Chia Longman <http://cici.ugent.be/en/researchers/chia>
Theme C Global Connections: dr. Sandra Ponzanesi
<http://www.let.uu.nl/%7ESandra.Ponzanesi/personal/>, dr. Gail Lewis,
Sabrina Marchetti, Aleksandra Sojka
Theme D Sexuality: prof.dr. Gloria Wekker
<http://www.let.uu.nl/%7EGloria.Wekker/personal/>, Lena Eckert
<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/gender-studies/about/eckert.shtml>, Malena
Gustavson
Theme E War and Violence: prof.dr. Andrea Petö
<http://www.gend.ceu.hu/habil_andrea_pet.php>, Izabella Agardi
Theme F Media & Technology: dr. Cecilia Åsberg
<http://www.genderstudies.nl/index.php?pageid=60>, prof.dr.hab. Elzbieta
Oleksy <http://www.wsmip.uni.lodz.pl/KAiMM/ASM/cv/elzbieta_oleksy.html>,
Edyta Just, prof.dr. Nina Lykke
<http://www.tema.liu.se/tema-g/medarbetare/lykke-nina?l=en>
Theme G Multi-Ethnic Europe: dr. Rutvica Andrijasevic
<[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>,
prof. Allaine Cerwonka <http://www.gend.ceu.hu/allaine_cerwonka.php>,
Maayke Botman <http://www.let.uu.nl/%7EMaayke.Botman/personal/>
Theme H Stories to Tell: Doro Wiese
<http://www.genderstudies.nl/index.php?pageid=54>, dr. Babs Boter,
prof.dr. Adelina Sanchez
Theme I Women’s Movements: prof.dr. Berteke Waaldijk
<http://www.let.uu.nl/%7EBerteke.Waaldijk/personal/>, Iris van der Tuin
<http://www.genderstudies.nl/index.php?pageid=56>, Sandra Prlenda

Theme J Cultures of Knowledge: prof.dr. Mineke Bosch
<http://www.genderdiversiteit.nl/en/cgd/cv/2/Bosch/>, prof.dr. Kaat Wils
<http://www.kuleuven.be/cv/u0009483.htm>, dr. Christine von Oertzen
<http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/staff/members/coertzen>
Theme K Social Economic Europe: dr. Bettina van Hoven
<http://www.rug.nl/staff/b.van.hoven/index>, prof. dr. Anastasia Lada