Sex and Sexuality in East-Central Europe, Past and Present - CEU Budapest

 An Interdisciplinary Conference at the Central European University
Budapest
October 16-17, 2015
 
Sex and sexuality in East-Central European contexts are relatively new topics of academic inquiry. While the past five years have seen a growing academic interest, from histories of queer life, prostitution and sexology to ethnographies of lgbtq movements and queer literary representations, forums for scholars working on sex and sexuality in East-Central Europe have often remained fragmented and disciplinarily bound. This conference strives to contest and bridge these boundaries by bringing together scholars from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives to ask: What are the driving questions, theoretical and conceptual issues, and social and political realities that have shaped research agendas in this area? How can we work together to expand our understandings of these issues and realities and their consequences? How can the site of East-Central Europe, past and present, challenge us to theorize and politicize sex and sexuality in new ways?
We invite proposals for papers and pre-organized panels addressing historical and contemporary aspects of sex and sexuality in the East-Central European context within the following broad themes:
·      State, trans/supra-state, and civil society institutions, discourses, and practices  
·      Political economies
·      Religion
·      Markets (i.e. commodifications, consumptions, tourisms, sex work, pornography, prostitution, trafficking)
·      Science, medicine and public health (i.e. HIV/AIDS, medical-scientific knowledge and expertise, etc.)
·      Normativities, non-normativities and queerness
·      Disabilities
·      Mainstream, marginal, and alternative social movements
·      Reflection on the above in literature and the arts as well the media (including, new media, social media)

We welcome proposals from the humanities and the social sciences including but not limited to anthropology, literary studies, history, political science, sociology, science studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
 Paper proposals should include:
·      contact information (name, email and academic affiliation of the applicant);
·      a 300 to 400-word abstract that includes the title of paper;
·      a short biographical statement.
Pre-organized panels should consist of 3-4 papers. Panel organizers are welcome to suggest a discussant for their panels. If you wish to organize a panel in a different format, please contact the conference organizers.
Panel proposals should include information about proposed papers as listed above and a 300-400-word panel description.
Please send your proposals to [log in to unmask]
The deadline is June 30, 2015
All proposals and papers must be in English
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Joanna Mizielinska, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
Josie McLellan, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
 
Organizers:
Agnieszka Koscianska, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Deputy Director
Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology
University of Warsaw
Poland
 
Anita Kurimay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Bryn Mawr College
United States
 
Kateřina Lišková, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Gender Studies Program, Department of Sociology
Office for Population Studies, Masaryk University
Czech Republic
 
Hadley Z. Renkin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Gender Studies
Central European University
Hungary
 
Eszter Timár, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Gender Studies
Central European University
Hungary