The Politics of Location Revisited: Gender@2012

8^th European Feminist Research Conference

May 17 - 20, 2012 │ Budapest, Hungary

CALL FOR PAPERS

Deadline for proposals: September 15, 2011

http://www.8thfeministconference.org

Women and men in Europe in the first decades of the 21^st century are confronted with acute social, political, cultural, economic and environmental concerns, including increasingly racist politics and nationalist discourses across Europe, huge cutbacks in social services and education, strengthening conservative gender discourses, and an overall climate unfavorable if not hostile to feminist, queer, and other progressive movements. In striving to address these concerns on regional, national and international levels, feminist scholars are re-assessing their theoretical and political toolbox. The ‘politics of location’, coined by Adrienne Rich in 1976, continues to play a crucial role in these debates. Women’s and gender studies cannot do without reflecting on the politics of their locations, but how to use this tool now that locations are constantly shifting? When the locations we inhabit are perceived to be multiple, paradoxical and (in)comparable?

The 8^th European Feminist Research Conference invites scholars, students, activists and policy makers to re-visit their politics of location in the light of current crises in Europe and beyond, and to reflect upon the ways in which feminist scholarly tools can be used for understanding and for changing the world.

Reflecting the diversity of women’s and gender studies European Feminist Research Conferences represent cutting-edge scholarship. The 8^th European Feminist Research Conference is organized by the Central European University, Department of Gender Studies and AtGender, the European Association for Gender Research, Education and Documentation. The European Feminist Research Conferences usually have more than 500 participants from both inside and outside Europe. The Conferences have a track record of presenting innovative feminist scholarly work with critical perspectives on contemporary Europe and its histories. The previous European Feminist Research Conferences were held at the universities of Ålborg (1991), Graz (1994), Coimbra (1997), Bologna (2000), Lund (2003), Łódź (2006) and Utrecht (2009).

This one will be held in Budapest, Hungary, May 17 - 20, 2012.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

Hana Havelkova (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic)

Clare Hemmings (Gender Institute, The London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom)

Andrea Pető (Central European University, Budapest, Hungary)

Fatima Sadiqi (International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fez, Morocco)

Call for Papers

The 8^th European Feminist Research Conference welcomes papers that keep in focus the connections among a number of relevant axes that frame current researches in the field. We have in mind connections between disciplines and interdisciplinarity; the past, the present and the future; gender and intersectionality; activism and power; local and global; margin and center. The strands listed below indicate the main lines of inquiry around which the Conference will be structured.

Participants must indicate the strand their paper addresses; it is also possible to indicate a second strand that will be addressed in their contribution. Based on these indications the Conference Board will create intersecting panels across different strands.

Conference strands

1. Women’s and Gender Studies between Neo-discipline and Interdisciplinarity

2. Rooting and Shifting (in) Feminist Research: Assessing the ‘Turns’ in Feminist Theory

3. Teaching ‘Gender’ across the Borders of the Human, Social, Natural and Biomedical Sciences

4. Located at Crossroads of Race and Gender: Intersectional Analysis in Women’s and Gender Studies

5. Shifting Sexualities, Masculinities and Femininities: LGBTQI

6. Revisiting ‘Equality vs. Difference’: Feminism in the 21^st Century

7. Triple Helix of Social Inclusion: Connecting Activism, Policy-making and Gender Research

8. Feminist Legacies, Feminist Futures: Generating Feminisms

9. The Politics of Migration: Transnational Feminisms?

10. Re-Imagining ‘Europe’: Imperialism, Post-State Socialism and Multiculturalism in the 21^st Century

11. Violence Revisited: Security, War and Peace Narrated

12. Religion Revisited: Spirituality, Gender and the Post-Secular

13. Creativity Reconsidered: Rethinking Feminist Art, Media and Technological Practices

Abstracts should have not more than 300 words and can only be uploaded at http://www.8thfeministconference.org.

Abstracts must be submitted before September 15, 2011.

The conference organizers also welcome proposals for whole panels as well as presentations by women’s centers, libraries, documentation centers, networks or publishers.

The conference fees and other relevant information are posted on the conference website http://www.8thfeministconference.org.

Please note that AtGender members have special benefits for participation at the conference.

Please consult the website for more information.