-----Original Message-----

Please find below the Call for Applications for the upcoming Feminist
Critical Analysis course, which will take place in Dubrovnik (Croatia)
from May 28 to June 1. Note that the extended deadline is April 28, but we
urge you to apply as soon as possible.

We would also like to draw your attention to the stipends offered to
doctoral/PhD students by the Inter-University Center in Dubrovnik. You can
find more information here: http://www.iuc.hr/hesp-osi.php.

Sincerely yours,

Center for Gender Studies
Jove Ilića 165
11000 Belgrade

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Feminist Critical Analysis
Inter-University Center (IUC), Dubrovnik
May 28th to June 1st, 2012

The Center for Gender and Politics of the Belgrade University (Political
Science Department), Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers of the State
University of New Jersey, and the Department of Gender Studies of the
Central European University (CEU) in Budapest are pleased to announce the
next annual postgraduate course in

“Feminist Critical Analysis: Science, Bodies and the New Materialism.”

The course will be held at the Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik
(www.iuc.hr<http://www.iuc.hr/>) from May 28 to June 1 (2012).

The course is co-directed by Dasa Duhacek, Center for Gender and Politics,
University of Belgrade, Ethel Brooks, Women’s and Gender Studies
Department, Rutgers University and Anna Loutfi, Gender Studies Department,
Central European University (CEU).

The course is built on the intellectual dialogue among a diverse body of
scholars from different geographical locations and the participating
faculty is drawn from different universities.

Topic

The seminar invites discussion of a key issue currently bringing together
disciplines from across the humanities, social, physical and life
sciences: the nature of materiality. What are the significant
philosophical and theoretical contributions to materialism – past and
present? Why does it become necessary for political or social theory to
engage with particular ideas of materialism or materiality at certain
historical junctures? What does it mean to speak of the social, cultural,
political and historical meanings of natural or material concepts? How
might the ‘natural sciences’ incorporate social theories of ontology and
agency, and how might the ‘social sciences’ incorporate issues around
materiality as they surface in, say, neurobiology or physics? How can
knowledge help situate and make sense of embodiment and lived experience?

We encourage explorations of ecological frameworks that challenge
reductionist, mechanistic, and exclusively molecular approaches to life
and living systems. We encourage reading and debate around the work of
contemporary thinkers in the fields of biopolitics who interrogate ‘the
politics of life itself’ (e.g.Giorgio Agamben). We also invite discussion
around the work of ‘the new materialists’. This is a rich field that takes
on a wide range of modern philosophical traditions. These include, but are
not confined to, ‘vitalistic’ theories (e.g.Henri Bergson, Gilles
Deleuze), neo-Marxian materialisms (Bourdieu, Balibar), phenomenological
accounts of agency and materiality (Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger), theories of
psychic power as a materialist force in the world (Nietzsche, Freud),
feminist re-engagements with materiality, lived experience and biology
(Moira Gatens, Elizabeth Wilson, Coole and Frost, Elizabeth Grosz), as
well as social scientific investigations of problems in the neurosciences,
such as the problem of consciousness or the mind-brain relation (Fernando
Vidal).


ELIGIBILITY

IUC courses are conducted at a postgraduate level. All postgraduate
students interested in the topic may apply for participation. Participants
should seek funds from their own institutions to cover travel and
accommodation costs. Limited financial support is available for
participants from Central and Eastern Europe. All meetings are conducted
in English.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

A short narrative (up to 250 words) explaining your interest in the topic
and your C.V. with your current complete contact information should be
submitted by e-mail;

Final deadline for applications is April 28, 2012

Please send your applications to the Center for Gender and Politics
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Political Sciences, at
[log in to unmask] with Dubrovnik 2012 in the subject heading.