FEMINISM AND THE BODY:

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

London House, William Goodenough College,

Mecklenburgh Square London, WC1N

Draft Programme

THURSDAY, January 25 2006

17.00-1800

Registration

18.00-20.30:

Keynote address and reception

Cultural Geneaologies of Anovulation:

Revisiting Abortion, The Pill and Feminist Sexual politics

Professor Judith A. Allen [History, University of Indiana]

FRIDAY, January 26 2006

9.00 – 9.30:

Coffee and Welcome

9.30:

Session 1

• Photoshopping the Poetess: the Case of Letitia Landon

[Dr Julie Watt, Arts and Media, University of Edinburgh]

• ‘“Rape”, call you in’: Investigation of ‘Rape’ in Shakespearean Tragedy

[Mika Sato, Drama, Royal Holloway]

• Dissolving Bodies

[Dr Angie Voela, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, King’s College London]

Session 2

• Cosmetic Surgery and the Construction of the ‘Normal’ Female Body

[Dr Rhian Parker, Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne]

• Theorizing body/technology interaction and gender performance: A case study from men's lacrosse

[Pablo Schyfter, Science Studies, University of Edinburgh]

• Sports Illustrated: The Female Athlete as Representational Absence

[Dr Nicholas Chare, Art History, University of Reading]

11.00:

Plenary Session

Cornelie Usborne [History, University of Roehampton]

Body Biological to Body Politic: Women’s demands for reproductive self-determination in the First World War and Early Weimar Germany

11.45:

Morning Tea

12.15

Session 3

• Hen Parties, Embodiment and Public Drunkenness

[Dr Adam Eldridge, Architecture, University of Westminster]

• “Watch me where I am unwatchable”: Allegorical bodies and feminist discourse in Catherine Breillat’s ‘Anatomy of Hell’

[Ruth McPhee, Film Studies, King’s College London]

• “Meg Gets Naked!” – Exposing the Female Star in ‘In The Cut’

[Lucy Bolton, Film Studies, Queen Mary]

Session 4

• Snow White: The white ideal amongst Thai women in Pattaya, Thailand

[Krysia Sturgeon, Discipline?, University College London]

• Rape and Lynching in Interwar America

[Dr Clare Corbould, History, University of Sydney]

• Fantasies of Assimilation: Gendered Bodies, Raced Bodies and Desire

[Dr Catriona Elder, Sociology, University of Sydney]

13.45:

Lunch

14.45:

Plenary Session

Steve Wainwright and Clare Williams [Midwifery & Women’s Health, King’s College London]

Sex, syphilis and suicide: some reflections on Feminism(s), bodies, and the Romantic Ballet 'Giselle'

15.30:

Afternoon Tea

16.00:

Session 5, PANEL:

Interpreting Adult/Child Sexual Contact in a Feminist Context

• Associate Professor Kali Isreal [History, University of Michigan]

Pathology or Pathos?   Charles Dodgson and “Repression”

• Dr Lucy Robinson [History, University of Sussex]

Paedophile Information Exchange - Constructing a collective paedophile identity

• Dr Hera Cook [History, University of Birmingham]

Approaches to Accounts by Men of Childhood and Adolescent Sexual Activity

Session 6

• Title TBC

[Dr Catherine Kevin, History, King’s College London]

• Not all work out and washed up: What ageing can contribute to feminist theorizing on the body

[Claire Carter, Women’s Studies, York University Toronto]

• Ignoring the Biological Clock: The Role of Body Image and Self-Esteem in Understanding Fertility Perceptions of Women

[Jacqlyn Verry-Bake, Midwifery and Women’s Health, King’s College London]

19.30:

Conference Dinner at Turquoise, Red Lion St

SATURDAY, January 27 2006

9.30:

Plenary Panel

Feminism, Ethics and Reproductive Technologies

• Professor Sarah Franklin [Sociology, London School of Economics]
• Dr Isabel Karpin [Law, University of Sydney]
• Dr Clare Williams [Midwifery and Women’s Health, King’s College London]

11.30:

Morning Tea

12.00:

Session 7

• Sybilla’s Body in Miles Franklin’s ‘My Brilliant Career’ (1901)

[Dr Ian Henderson, Australian Literature, King’s College London]

• Embodying the Modern in Australian Literature

[Dr Anouk Lang, American and Canadian Studies, University of Birmingham]

• The Powerful Gesture of Seduction: The Explicit Female Body on the Victorian Stage

[Wenche Torrissen, Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway]

Session 8

• Penelope’s Space: Thinking Women’s Migration Through the Reproductive Body

[Dr Irene Gedalof, Women’s Studies, London Metropolitan University]

• Polish Women Talk about NHS, Pills and Everything: Looking at on-line forums of Polish immigrants to the UK

[Anna Gruszczynska, Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University]

• Contemporary Childbirth and Breastfeeding Practices in Slovenia – Contradictions in Situ. What about feminist thinking and actions

[Zalka.Drglin, Institute of Public Health, Slovenia]

13.30:

Lunch

14.30:

Session 9

• The Things Women Do!

[Dr Rose Mbololwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, King’s College London]

• The Body Speaks: Women’s embodied experiences of domestic violence during pregnancy

[Dr Gillian Aston, Midwifery and Women’s Health, King’s College London]

• A ’Snip’ in the Right Direction?: Vasectomy and Gender Equality

[Dr Pam Lowe, Sociology, Aston University]

Session 10

• Dealing with difference: responses to the legacies of sexual difference feminism in Italy

[Charlotte Ross, European Languages and Cultures, University of Birmingham]

• ‘She passed the dildo like a baton!’: a women’s movement in transition

[Dr Zora Simic, History, University of Melbourne]

• The Feminist Movement and Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women

in South Asia

[Ayesha Aftab, World Health Organisation, Islamabad Pakistan]

16.00:

Afternoon Tea

16.30

Closing Panel to reflect on the conference discussions

• TBC
• Professor Judith Allen [Gender Studies, University of Indiana]
• Professor Jane Sandall [Midwifery and Women’s Health, King’s College London]

For registration and information:                 http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/menzies/events/confs.html