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From: HavighurstCenter <[log in to unmask]> Havighurst Center for Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Annual Grad Student Conference PLACING GENDER IN POSTCOMMUNISM Invited speaker: Helena Goscilo, University of Pittsburgh Miami University, Oxford, OH October 18-19, 2002 The Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University invites graduate student papers reflecting on the many ways gender is implicated in postcommunist social, cultural, and political formations. By calling for papers that "place" gender in post-communism, we hope to promote two lines of inquiry: 1. What are the sites and spaces in which and through which gender is (re-)constituted in postcommunism? We point to a range of kinds and levels of place or space, from the most specific and local to the largest and/or most diffuse, from communal apartments, kiosks, and farmers' markets to medical, educational, legal, and political institutions, to nation states (and the borders between them), to the internet. Papers might consider transactions made on street corners or comparatively analyze regional differences in gender-related policies or gendered participation in parliaments or bureaucracies. They might highlight the gendered implications of postcommunist architecture or the gendered aspects in the travels of migrant laborers. Papers might also consider gender and gender studies in postcommunist academic institutions or the role of gender in civil society. 2. How can we most fruitfully place gender in terms of our own intellectual discourses? And what are the imagined geographies which undergird our thinking about gender in postcommunism? Much current work draws either implicitly or explicitly on a dichotomy between feminisms east and west or denies that such differences exist. We seek work that might point the way to new and variegated feminist topographies. For instance, how might the work on gender and postcolonial studies be brought to bear in thinking about postcommunism? What would comparisons of Polish and Pakistani feminisms look like? How might theories of intersectionality be brought to studies of Roma women? How might feminist studies of Islam make sense of Islamic postcommunist regions? Papers may hail from any discipline (anthropology, sociology, political science, literary criticism, folklore, religious studies, history, etc.) and may focus on any aspect of social and political life in which gender is at stake in any of the postcommunist countries in Central and Eastern Europe or Central Eurasia. We strongly encourage proposals from grad students who have already completed their dissertation research. The Havighurst Center will provide accommodation in Oxford, ground transportation from the airport, and partial travel funding (up to $250 for domestic travel and up to $500 for international travel). To be considered for the conference, submit an abstract of approximately 250 words and a CV to [log in to unmask] by August 1, 2002. Please type "grad student conference" as the subject of the email. We plan to get back to you by September 1, 2002. Final papers, of approximately 15-25 pages, must be submitted by October 1, 2002, when they will be posted on the Havighurst website.