2012 CFP: Women’s and Gender Studies

20th Century Irish Women Writers: This panel will explore what Eavan Boland has termed Irish women’s ‘adventure of powerlessness’ in Irish fiction. Although many representations of women do appear to conform to Boland’s bleak assessment, papers that critique this view are especially welcome. This panel is most interested in representations of Irish womanhood by female writers from the fin de siècle to the present but will also consider papers on female characters in male-authored texts. Please send a brief abstract to Elizabeth Foley O’Connor at lizfoley@gmail.com.
Best Practices in Women’s & Gender Studies Programs (Roundtable): At the current moment, women’s studies and women’s and gender studies departments and programs are being dissolved, or subsumed into other areas. At this critical juncture in our history, we must continue to reassert our contribution to the outside world as well as our colleges, especially because key women’s programs are in danger of losing funding. We will focus on practical issues/solutions: grant writing, strategies for sustaining our identity, as we strive for leadership potential for women. 500-word abstracts <ellen.dolgin@dc.edu>
Corporeal Borderlands: Food Narratives and the Female Body: We seek papers that engage with food preparation, consumption, corporeality, and symbolism relating to gender. We welcome papers on literature, theory, film, and cultural studies. How can the kitchen function as a site of both female power and oppression? How is food tied to anxieties about female corporeality and sexuality? In what ways have food preparation in the US been tied to race and class? How have religio-cultural practices influenced views of food? Send 350 word abstracts to Kristi Castleberry at kristi.castleberry@gmail.com.
Diasporic Dreams: Women Writing Waters (Roundtable): What roles have women writers and readers played in the rebuilding and recreation of the Gulf Coast both on the ground and in the collective imagination? What new theories of race, place, memory, community, and identity can help us heal the wounds and carry on after catastrophe? What new praxes might or must be employed? Proposals to Merry Lynn Byrd mbyrd@vsu.edu and Joyce Zonana jzonana@bmcc.cuny.edu
From Xena to the Powerpuff Girls: The Gender Politics of the Female Action Hero: In roughly the past two decades, the figure of the female action hero has become increasingly popular in U.S. culture. This panel aims to contextualize, analyze, and assess the gender politics of the female action hero, as an emerging cultural archetype. Panelists are encouraged to consider the extent to which this figure promotes and/or defies feminist interests. This panel welcomes submissions dealing with a wide range of cultural texts. Send abstracts and brief biographical statements to Emily Schusterbauer (eeschust@indiana.edu).
Gender in a Postnational Context: Recent interdisciplinary scholarship has questioned the adequacy of national affiliation in the wake of globalization, mass migration and transnational networks. This WGS Caucus sponsored panel aims to discuss how authors figure gender in a postnational context and how their works undermine/redefine national space through the lens of gender. Papers might consider the global activism of Eve Ensler or Lynn Nottage, or the postcolonial feminism of Ama Ata Aidoo or Esmerelda Santiago. Other genres/writers welcome. Abstracts to jrwagnerpsu@gmail.com
International Eating: Women’s Global Food Stories: Of late, many women food writers are recording their global food stories, whether they are making sense divergent cultural identities at home or recording their culinary adventures abroad. This panel centers on women’s food writing, looking specifically at stories that emphasize women’s international food experiences. Papers should focus on women’s global food stories, and they may explore different kinds of food writing (fiction, memoir, cookbooks, etc.). Please send abstracts of 250-500 words to Caroline Smith at cjsmith7@gwu.edu.
Issues of Mobility and Confinement in Women’s Literature: This panel seeks papers dealing with issues of women’s confinement and mobility. We welcome papers from any literary genre and/or historical period. In particular, we encourage submissions addressing the following questions: In what ways do women (female authors and/or characters) work against constraints and expectations of confinement to create pathways to freedom? How are women defined by spatial divisions, and how might they counter such definitions? What does it mean for a woman to be mobile? Please email abstracts to aja205@lehigh.edu
Masculinity and Consumerism: This panel will explore the relationship between masculinity and consumerism in the United States and abroad and invites submissions that specifically explore this relationship in literature, film and advertising. Related approaches such as the relationship between masculinity and consumption in a broader sense are also invited. Please send 300-500 word abstracts and brief biographical statements to Mary Hartson (hartson@oakland.edu).
Masculinity in Superhero Comic Books and Films: With comic books becoming more mainstream thanks to numerous summer blockbuster film adaptations, this session welcomes all papers looking at ongoing portrayals of masculinity in works focused on male superheroes. Possible topics include but are not limited to adherence or subversion of masculine archetypes in superhero comic books graphic novels, and films, and the gender-bending of women taking on the names and costumes of previously male superheroes. Submit 250- to 500-word proposals to Derek McGrath (derek.mcgrath@stonybrook.edu).
Maternal Hauntings: Feminine Spectral Identities in Asian-American Literature: This panel seeks to theorize the maternal haunting, feminine spectral identities, and ghost figures in Asian American literature. Topics or critical paradigms can include, but are not limited to: memory, rape, trauma, the abject, silence, transnationalism, eroticism, materiality, femininity, miscegenation, consumption, loss, reception theory, and reader-response. Send a 1-page abstract and brief bio as a Word attachment to Jina Lee, JinaLeeCFP@gmail.com, with NEMLA in the subject line.
Middlebrow and Alternative Modernisms: This panel seeks to understand the intersection of middlebrow and alternative modernisms with more canonical, experimental modernist work. However, I am also interested in learning about work that is completely removed from what we might think of as modernism but is written during the same time period. I encourage papers that investigate genre fiction, naturalism, women’s fiction, gay and lesbian authors, and/or other popular fictions. To submit, Contact Kathryn Klein, Stony Brook University, <kathrynmklein@gmail.com>
New Approaches to Old Texts: Studying Medieval and Early Modern Women and Gender: This panel seeks to elicit new interpretations and approaches to studying women and gender in medieval and early modern Europe. Submissions on how to re-evaluate new or existing texts about/by/for medieval and early modern European women are especially welcome as are works that intend to use new technologies such as the internet. Please submit abstracts to Lyn Blanchfield, Department of History, SUNY Oswego, Oswego NY 13126 or lyn.blanchfield@oswego.edu.
No Man Left Behind: Homosocial Masculine Obligations in American War Literature: In American literature from the Revolutionary War through the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the hegemonic masculine ethos of homosocial obligation is a trope that challenges models of masculinity. This panel seeks to explore how the masculine obligation to same-sex peers figures in pivotal moments of American texts involving war and how survivor trauma shapes the masculinity of the one who wasn’t left behind. Please send 300-500 word abstracts and brief biographical statements to Lisa Day-Lindsey, Eastern Kentucky University, lisa.day@eku.edu.
‘Of Queen’s Gardens’: Victorian Ecofeminism: This panel invites ecofeminist readings of Victorian literature. Women are frequently given ‘natural’ traits or are associated with the earth. Ecofeminist interpretations may highlight this link’s damaging consequences, or celebrate women’s resulting potential to reform cultural/environmental attitudes. How does the woman/nature link function? What do these interpretations reveal about Victorian attitudes about gender and the environment, and the treatment of each? E-mail abstracts of 300-500 words to Margaret Kennedy, mskennedy@ic.sunysb.edu.
The Panic Over Motherhood: Transnational Labor Migrants: This panel addresses the moral panic over reconfigured gender roles and the domestic labor performed by a migrant underclass often denigrated as an expendable resource. The female transnational labor migrant exemplifies two added dimensions: on the one hand, her mobility and the remittances she sends back home call into question her passive victim status; on the other hand, she becomes the catalyst for normative ideas about the family, motherhood, and globalized labor. 1-page abstracts to: Helga Druxes(hdruxes@williams.edu).
The Postmodern Dandy: As recent scholarship like Monica Miller’s of the black dandy has suggested, the history of dandyism is complicated by race, class, nationalism, and sexuality. This panel requests papers which challenge the boundaries of the dandy as ‘modern’ figure. Has the dandy moved into the postmodern? How does postmodernism change representations of dandyism? Papers for this panel may analyze dandy figures from contemporary culture—literature, film, art, etc. Submit 250-500 word proposals to Kirsten Ortega at kortega@uccs.edu.
Postmodern Fiction and Gender Equality: Has literary fiction worldwide caught up with changes that lead societies to be more gender equal and is postmodern fiction particularly suited for reflecting such changes, portraying gender-equal characters, or exploring themes, such as gender-equal rights, roles, equity, or equal opportunity? Ines Shaw <is.oncloud9@gmail.com>
Re-Assessing the ‘Crisis of Masculinity’ in American Culture and in the Academy (Roundtable): In the 1990s, scholars from many disciplines asserted that American culture was experiencing a ‘crisis of masculinity.’ This crisis manifest in everything from popular film and tv to events like the Promise Keepers and the Million Man March. This roundtable seeks presentations that assess the extent to which there remains a ‘Crisis of Masculinity’ in American culture. Has the crisis been resolved, and if so how? Have we made strides toward resolution? Do academics still care? 300 word abstracts to Andrew Schopp <Andrew.Schopp@ncc.edu>
Representations of Femininities and Masculinities in Translation: This panel offers the premise that gender issues are abundant in literary texts and merit detailed examination when performing the transformation of a text from one language to another that is known as translation. Issues may include the translation of representations of masculinity or femininity, power struggles between men and women, sexism, femininity, masculinity, heterosexuality, homosexuality, homoeroticism or feminist translation. Please send all abstracts to Marko Miletich, Hunter College, <marko.miletich@hunter.cuny.edu>
Revisiting ‘The Red Record’: Black Women’s Lynching Texts (Seminar): This seminar seeks papers exploring African-American women’s lynching narratives. How have black women writers used their texts (literary, visual, performance, etc.) to protest ‘lynch law’ and record its impact on American racial and gender formations? What remains unexplored? Possible authors/artists include Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Kara Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Please send a 1-page abstract and brief bio to Courtney D. Marshall (courtney.marshall@unh.edu) with ‘NEMLA’ in subject line. DEADLINE OCT 10
Speechifying Women: Multi-Pronged Legacy from the Rochester Circle: What can we glean today in the midst of our own era’s dissolving women’s and gender studies programs, from the rhetorical and activist strategies of the groups that formed following Seneca Falls? This panel will consider the legacy of their leadership as well as the startling parallels that are unfolding at the present moment. Papers on: key figures: Stanton, Douglass, Anthony, Gage or Bloomer; platform speeches; ‘at home’ tableaux vivant productions; current issues framed by this historical context. 500-word abstracts: ellen.dolgin@dc.edu
Teaching literary Studies in the Women’s and Gender Studies Classroom (Roundtable): While many scholars in literary and cultural studies focus on feminist issues, the field of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGS) has coalesced into its own discipline, frequently oriented toward the social sciences and not the humanities. This roundtable will explore what the study of literature has to offer students in various classrooms (literary studies, WGS, and cross-listed courses) and to WGS more broadly. Please send abstracts to Deborah Uman, duman@sjfc.edu and Heather Hewett, hewetth@newpaltz.edu.
Wartime Sexual Violence in Literature, History and Film: Rape is known as one of the extreme gender-based crimes inherent in the phenomena of war. This panel will examine different forms of wartime sexual crimes: How did they manifest in literature, films and in historical research? 500 word abstract/cv 9/30: rfisher388@gmail.com">rfisher388@gmail.com
Women and Spirituality: Ministries: This session will look at literature and film to investigate women’s recovery of previously appropriated spiritual roles, including new roles, such as rabbi and Catholic priest, as well as women’s roles in childbirth and spiritual healing. It will seek a range of presentations from the following areas: women and the priesthood; women in the rabbinate; women healers; women and goddess worship; women shamans; and related topics. 500 word abstract/CV to Dolores DeLuise <deluiseny@aol.com> DEADLINE OCT 10