CALL FOR PAPERS

CAPITALISM  AND/OR  PATRIARCHY?

Conference On Gender in Post-Soviet Space

June 22-24, 2006

Centre for Gender Studies,  European Humanities University International
Vilnius, Lithuania

Centre for Gender Studies at European Humanities University International
invites panel and paper proposals for the “Capitalism and/or Patriarchy?”
conference that is aimed at exploring issues of gender in the post-Soviet
region.

The demise of state socialism, some scholars maintain, resulted in the
reconfiguration of gender relations and the rise of a systemic privilege of
men over women in countries in transition. Other theorists argue that the
most important event of the late 20th century was the disintegration of the
Soviet Union and intensive nation-building in new independent states. Still
others are focused on economic inequality and class stratification as the
formative processes of post-communism.
Some theories interpret the emergence of post-Soviet “masculine privilege”
as patriarchal renaissance. According to another point of view, men and
women are equally marginalized by capitalism: it is class, not gender, that
matters. There is also a tradition of rethinking capitalism as just a form
(or a reincarnation) of patriarchy.
Conference organizers are hoping for an interdisciplinary academic debate of
the interception of (post-Soviet) capitalism and patriarchy within the
following topical areas:

1.      Gender and post-Soviet social stratification
Class and gender stratification in post-Soviet societies. The new rich and
the new poor. Unpaid women’s work and global capitalism. Men at the margins
of «new economy”. Market and the welfare state.

2. Gender and post-Soviet nations
The ultimate connection between constructions of and ideas about gender
relations and post-Soviet nation-building. The fraternity of the nation and
construction of patriotic manhood. Gender and citizenship. Nationalism and
motherhood. Women, the invention of tradition, and cultural reproduction of
the nation. Sexuality, demography, and nationalism. Global religions, gender
and nation-building.

3.     Gender  and social movements/collective actions
Gender and the problem of a political subject. Whom do women in political
parties and decision- making bodies represent? “Women’s issues” as a
political issue.

Women’s movement and the reasons for its weakness: structural or cultural?
Is a common ideology for postcommunist women’s groups possible?
Rethinking gender in postcommunism: post-Soviet and Western scholarship.

4.       Capitalism, lifestyles and cultural practices
Anthropological dimension of transition. Transformation of daily life: class
and gender differences in lifestyles. Post-Soviet consumption practices.
Sexuality as a commodity. Gender, mass media and popular culture.

Conference languages are the regional lingua franca of Russian and English.

Proposals for individual papers or complete panels can be sent to
[log in to unmask]  Please include your contact information, brief
CV and paper description of up to 250 words. The deadline is March 1, 2006;
acceptance notification by April 10, 2006.


Centre for Gender Studies at European Humanities University in Minsk- has
concentrated on studying gender issues since 1997, and has offered a master’
s degree in gender studies since 2000. After being forced to terminate its
operation in Belarus in the summer of 2004, European Humanities University
resumed its programs as a university-in-exile in Lithuania, with the support
of American and European foundations and governments, and the European
Commission for Democracy and Human Rights. Currently the MA program in
Gender Studies remains the only one in NIS offering a graduate degree in
Gender.
For more information about the Centre for Gender Studies, please, go to:
<www.gender-ehu.org>
For information on EHU-International programs and activities, see:
http://ehu-international.org

For further inquiries please e-mail to: Elena Gapova
<[log in to unmask]>