Sibeal Newsletter September 2010

Sibeal Newsletter September 2010

Our newsletter appears monthly during the academic terms and is circulated to all our members. If you wish to have any information included in our next newsletter please send notices to info@sibeal.ie

PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES

(1) Religion and Gender:

Online Journal for the Systematic Study of Religion and Gender in an Interdisciplinary Perspective
http://www.religionandgender.org

Call for Papers | Forthcoming Issue: Gender and Religiosity in Multicultural Societies

Editors: Chia Longman (Ghent University), Eva Midden (Utrecht University)
Guest Editor: Anne Sofie Roald (Chr. Michelsen Institute)

For a forthcoming issue of the newly launched journal Religion and Gender we invite contributions, either theoretically or empirically oriented, and from various disciplinary perspectives that address the complex and dynamic relationship between religion and gender in contexts of increased cultural diversity that characterize contemporary societies throughout the world today. We wish to bring together articles offering insights from recent developments and new research at the intersection of gender, religion and ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘multiculturality’ of which the results are hereto often published quite independently due to disciplinary divides.

Whereas the term ‘multiculturalism’ can denote many meanings, here it is envisaged in a general and descriptive sense for the empirical reality of ethnical, cultural and religious diversity of individual identities, groups and communities within and across locations and geographical and political boundaries such as urban/rural, nation-state, North-South/East-West, etc.

We wish to question what impact the fact of culturally diverse people either living together in close proximity or in interaction with each other through transnational mobility and virtual communication has on constructions, expressions and experiences of religion from a gendered perspective. Which are the tensions, yet also the forms of agency and creativity, that can be ascertained and imagined in the relationship between gender differences and (in)equalities and religious orthodoxies and their reinterpretation? And, can new modes of religiosity and spirituality arise from the meeting of people from different cultural backgrounds?

We propose that contributions may wish to address the following questions but are by no means limited to them:

• How does migration, cultural and/or geographic dislocation and/or majority/minority experience differentially impact the religious lives of women and men? What are the conditions under which patterns of gender traditionalism and conservatism arise and how can these be assessed from a non-racist gender critical perspective? Where is there space for reinterpretations of religious tradition in more gender progressive modes, or how can religious ‘agency’ for women, men, and other gender and sexual identities be identified and theorized?
• How are religious and spiritual ideologies and imaginaries sustained, challenged or transformed in the face of globalization and increased intercultural and transcultural interaction and exchange?
• How do both authoritative and alternative forms of religious practice and expression that emanate from ‘global flows’ and cross-cultural travelling influence the power relations between women and men in relation to non-religious dominant and alternative ideologies of gender?
• What is the role of gender in contemporary theories and practices of interreligious dialogue and communication, including secular  qvoices, at both local grassroots levels and at representative institutional fora?
• How does diversity within the gendered individual impact religious experience and identity, such as in new forms of hybrid identity and transreligiosity?
• What are the consequences and challenges of the new ‘postsecular turn in feminism’ for reconceptualizing the relationship between gender and religion in multicultural contexts?

Papers are welcome of 6-8000 words (excluding footnotes and references) and shorter papers of 3-4000 words in which the authors present their views on one specific issue.

Enquiries: Eva Midden: E.Midden@uu.nl and Chia Longman: chia.longman@ugent.be

Papers should be submitted by 1st February 2011 and emailed in Word attachment to:

Nella van den Brandt: hendrikapetronella.vandenbrandt@ugent.be and Eva Midden: E.Midden@uu.nl

The Scope and Focus of Religion and Gender

Religion and Gender is the first online international journal for the systematic study of gender and religion in an interdisciplinary perspective. The journal explores the relation, confrontation and intersection of gender and religion, taking into account the multiple and changing manifestations of religion in diverse social and cultural contexts. It analyses and reflects critically on gender in its interpretative and imaginative dimensions and as a fundamental principle of social ordering. It seeks to investigate gender at the intersection of feminist, sexuality, queer, masculinity and diversity studies. As an academic journal, Religion and Gender aims to publish high level contributions from the humanities and from qualitative and conceptual studies in the social sciences. It wants to focus in particular on contemporary debates and topics of emerging interest.

Albeit international in scope, the journal takes seriously that it is situated in contemporary Europe. It seeks to reflect on this position, particularly from postmodern, postcolonial, and post secular perspectives.

See http://www.religionandgender.org

–
Dr. Chia Longman
Lecturer in Gender and Diversity Studies
Ghent University
Rozier 44, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
chia.longman@UGent.be
http://cici.ugent.be/en/researchers/chia
Tel. +32 (0)9 264 38 18
Fax: +32 (0)9 264 41 80

(2) Sexuality and Contemporary Literature

Sexuality has emerged as a term that points to both internal and external phenomena, to both the realm of the psyche and the material world. It is a source of moral panic, arousing intimate questions about both personal identity and social boundaries. The erotic intersects a number of tensions whose origins are elsewhere: in class and gender, racial and intergenerational conflict, changes in moral codes of conduct and medical evaluation. Sexuality is a site of ethical and political concern, and in the 21st century we have begun to witness discourses of sexology entering the mainstream, with authors of contemporary guides on sex often focusing on developing techniques that enhance sexual pleasure.

Yet, no matter how public and non-judgemental current sexological research might have become, the span of works that fall within its range rarely do more than quantify forms of sexual stimulation and classify modes of sexual desire. Despite its pursuit to expand our knowledge of eroticism, sexology unfortunately has limited explanatory power when investigating all the sexual identities and behaviours it seeks to evaluate. As such, it remains difficult for readers of sexological research to gain insights into the cultural conditions and ideological pressures that give rise to ideas surrounding sexuality, especially in relation to seismic political shifts such as the advent of second wave feminism. In Promiscuities: A Secret History of Female Desire (1997), Naomi Wolf comments that her interest in the private lives of women derived from a sensation that there was ‘something missing from our psychological understanding of how girls became women today that only first person accounts can fill’. In the 21st century, publishing industries have witnessed an antidote to this problem through an explosion in the prolificacy of open sexual dialogue in contemporary literature, in the genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Now, more so than ever before, private discourses of sexuality have begun entering the public sphere, and critical attention needs to be paid to the position of sexuality in contemporary culture.

For this book, we are seeking submissions that seek to explore how representations of sexuality in contemporary literature fluctuate between positions of sexual absolutism (situating sexuality as dangerous and in need of social control), libertarianism (situating sexuality as benign, life enhancing and liberating) and liberal-pluralism (situating sexuality as tentatively positioned between the realms of moral authoritarianism and hedonistic excess). We welcome submissions that integrate both feminist studies and sexuality studies, and consider how contemporary literature implicates gender identity in prescriptive and subordinating power relations, and how sexuality and sexual identities are complicit in this construction.

Possible themes for consideration within these wide discursive parameters are: 


The negotiation of sexual boundaries, freedom of choice and coercion
Postfeminism as sexual liberation 
Male sexual objectification and anatomical focalisation 
Female self-objectification
Women and pornography, including women as creators and consumers
The relationship between sexual and emotional intimacy 
The role of internet and mobile technology in sexual relations 
Sexual minority practices (S/M etc) 
Imagination and fantasy in the construction of desire
Sexuality as destructive/redemptive
Religion and sexuality
Class and sexuality
Postcolonialism and sexuality
Transnational sexuality
 
Abstracts of 300 words for essays of 5,000 -7,000 words should be received by November 1st 2010, with a final completion date of March 1st 2011. Please email abstracts and queries to the editors, Dr Angelia Poon (angelia.poon@nie.edu.sg) and Dr Joel Gwynne (joel.gwynne@nie.edu.sg).

Dr Claire Nally and Dr Angela Smith have been asked by I.B. Tauris to commission a series of monographs under the provisional title of ’Gender: Fact and Fiction’ which will look at currently under-explored
areas of gender. We are seeking initial proposals for monographs to complement those already in hand, but in particular in the area of how single women are represented in film, tv or society in general.

We would welcome proposals for other monographs, but at present would like to receive abstracts of 200-300 words, plus chapter headings and brief chapter outlines. If you would like to propose a monograph for this series, please send details to angela.smith@sunderland.ac.uk and claire.nally@sunderland.ac.uk to reach us by 30 September, 2010.

(3) African Journal of Political Science and International Relations

AJPSIR is currently accepting manuscripts for publication. AJPSIR publishes rigorous theoretical reasoning and advanced empirical research in all areas of the subjects. We welcome articles or proposals from all perspectives and on all subjects pertaining to Africa, Africa’s relationship to the world, public policy, international relations, comparative politics, political methodology, political theory, political history and culture, global political economy, strategy and environment. The journal will also address developments within the discipline. Each issue will normally contain a mixture of peer-reviewed research articles, reviews or essays using a variety of methodologies and approaches.

Manuscripts must be sent as e-mail attachment to ajpsir.acadjourn@gmail.com AJPSIR editorial board makes an objective and quick decision on each manuscript and informs the corresponding author within four weeks of submission. If accepted, the article is published online in the next issue.

AJPSIR is an open access journal and all articles published are available online without restriction to scientific researchers in the public and private sectors, government agencies, educators and the general public. The journal also provides a medium for documentation and archiving of research articles. AJPSIR papers are exposed to the widest possible readership.

Our objective is to inform authors of the decision on their manuscript within four weeks of submission. Following acceptance, a paper will normally be published in the next available issue.
Please visit http://www.academicjournals.org/AJPSIR to view our current issue.

Best regards,

Dr. John Mylonakis

Editor,
African Journal of Political Science and International Relations
E-mail: ajpsir.acadjourn@gmail.com
http://www.academicjournals.org/AJPSIR,
From: Feminist and Women’s Studies Association (UK and Ireland) [FWSA@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] on behalf of S J Gillis [stacy.gillis@NEWCASTLE.AC.UK]
Sent: 09 August 2010 16:12
To: FWSA@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

(4) Translating Queers/Queering Translations

We welcome article submissions on any aspect of ‘Translating Queers/Queering Translations’, which can include but is not limited to:

• Whether LGBTQ writers/subjects ought to be translated differently than other texts and, if so, how
• How queer theory influences translation and translation theory
• Whether a queer form of translation should be developed
• What it means to queer translation or translators

Articles should be a maximum of 4000 words; style guidelines are provided in the back of each issue of In Other Words.

Further queries should be addressed to the guest editor at: b.epstein@uea.ac.uk.
Deadline for submissions is 1 October 2010.

Dr. B.J. Epstein
Lecturer in Literature and Translation
Department of Literature and Creative Writing
University of East Anglia
Norwich, England
NR4 7TJ
Office: Arts 0.74
B.Epstein@uea.ac.uk
+44 (0)1603 591349

Dr Stacy Gillis
Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
T. +44 (0)191 222 7360
F. +44 (0)191 222 8708
E. stacy.gillis@ncl.ac.uk
W. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/elll/staff/profile/stacy.gillis

INVITATIONS TO CONFERENCES

(1) Moving in from the Margins: Women’s political representation in Ireland

Saturday, 18th September 2010
Cavanagh Pharmacy Building Room LG51
University College Cork

The Women’s Studies in University College Cork (UCC)in conjunction with the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) Gender Politics Specialist Group presents this one-day conference.

Recent Oireachtas reports have recommended the introduction of a variety of measures to increase the number of women in Irish politics. Proposals ranging from legislative quotas to state funding for women political candidates have been suggested. It is hoped that these recommendations, if introduced, will tackle the current low levels of women’s representation in Irish politics.

On Saturday 18th September, Women’s Studies (UCC), in conjunction with the PSAI Gender Politics specialist group, will host a one-day conference to discuss issues arising from the under-representation of women in Ireland. The conference will involve politicians, academics and representatives of women’s and community organisations. Issues discussed will include the impact of under-representation on policy-making; the structural reasons why few women reach decision-making positions; and possible strategies for increasing the numbers of women candidates. A number of women politicians will share their views on these issues and delegates will have an opportunity to participate in a plenary/round table session.

Confirmed speakers: Senator Ivana Bacik, Prof. Yvonne Galligan (Queen’s University Belfast), Susan McKay (National Women’s Council of Ireland), Joanne Vance (National Women’s Council of Ireland), Dr. Eileen Connolly (Dublin City University), Cathleen O’Neill (Kilbarrack CDP), Dr Margaret O’Keeffe (Cork Institute of Technology), and Kathleen Lynch, TD

Conference rate (to cover teas, coffees and buffet lunch): EUR15
(Unwaged and seniors: EUR5; Students: free of charge).
For further information please contact: Sandra McAvoy: sandra.mcavoy@ucc.ie or + 353 21 4903654 or + 353 87 238 1183 and Fiona Buckley: f.buckley@ucc.ie or + 353 21 4903237

(2) Feminism in London 2010

Registration for Feminism in London 2010 (which is on Saturday 23 October) is racing ahead and several of the workshops are now full. Don’t despair though because not all are full and we have a fantastic programme going on in the main hall alongside the workshops, so there will be plenty for all.

Go straight to the registration site: http://www.filbookings.co.uk

Go to the website to find out more about the day: http://www.feminisminlondon.org.uk

(3) Re-imagining Gender and Politics: Transnational Feminist Interventions

27. ­- 28. November 2010 at Goethe-University Frankfurt

Working Group “Gender and Politics” in co-operation with the Frankfurt Research Center for Postcolonial Studies,
Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”

Keynote: Malathi de Alwis (Colombo) “The ‘Apparition of Rape’ and the ‘Sisterhood’ of International Feminists”

Since its inception in the 1980s, the feminist perspective has increasingly established itself within Political Science. Research, located in the various sub-disciplines and research fields – be it in International Relations, in Political Theory and the History of Ideas or policy analysis – have challenged the respective dominant paradigms and concepts from a feminist perspective.

The analyses, which have emerged from this context, on the one hand investigate the differential impact of political regimes on men and women, and supplement these on the other hand by examining gender dynamics as well as the production and stabilization of gender(ed) norms and orders in their studies. Moreover, in adopting a transnational perspective on the interplay between gender and politics, established assumptions and standards are being challenged. As a result nationally confined models of analysis are increasingly being replaced by transnational framings, which simultaneously pursue comprehensive and differentiated analyses of global relations of power and domination. While doing this, the interplay and mutual entanglements of local, national and transnational levels are focused upon.

We propose to encourage re-visions of the relation between gender and politics from a transnational perspective: For one, we aim to take stock of existing research on inter- and transnational politics from a feminist perspective. Amongst other things, the interaction between the categories race, class, gender, religion, sexuality and caste, as informed by colonialism are to be analyzed for their current relevance on the constitution of global politics. On which conceptions of transnationalism do feminist analyses fall back on? Which theoretical-conceptual extensions have these undertaken in the research fields of International Relations, International Political Economics or comparative research on the welfare-state?

For another, the goal is to carve out, which theoretical but also methodological demands emerge when a transnational perspective is applied to political and interdisciplinary research on gender relations. The conference further aims to consider and evaluate transnational feminist politics within and around institutions, which have moved away from the idea of a ‘Global Sisterhood’ or a ‘universal patriarchy’, towards a position that regards the interplay of gender and power as being context-specific and simultaneously acknowledges the complex nature of global politics.

We invite paper proposals that adopt a feminist perspective on the following topics:

• Migration and Citizenship
• Multiculturalism, Nationalism und Cosmopolitanism
• Religion and Secularism
• Transnational Justice and Human Rights
• Transnational Social Movements, in particular Women’s Movements and Queer Activism
• (Post-)Development, Democracy und Decolonization
• Peacekeeping and Conflict Transformation
• Transnational Labor and Reproductive Work
• Transnational Production, International Trade and Local Economies

Conference languages are German and English.

Registration fees: 25 Euros/ reduced 15 Euro (on the spot registration is possible).

We kindly request registrations until 15th November 2010: [politik-geschlecht@gmx.net] Please state ‘registration’ in

the subject heading.

Please submit abstracts (max. 350 words) and a short bio-note (max. 100 words) by 30. September 2010 to: [politik-geschlecht@gmx.net]

(4) Picturing Women’s Health 1750-1910

A One-Day Postgraduate Interdisciplinary Conference

University of Warwick, Saturday 22nd January, 2011

“One hears sometimes of a child being ‘the picture of health;’ now Emma always gives me the idea of being the complete picture of grown-up health. She is loveliness itself. Mr. Knightley, is not she?”
Jane Austen, Emma, chapter 5


Confirmed plenary speakers:
Professor Hilary Marland (University of Warwick) and Dr Claire Brock (University of Leicester)


The conference Picturing Women’s Health 1750-1910 will explore the interface of diverse discourses that constructed ideas about women’s health in Britain during the Romantic and Victorian periods. In these years, writers and artists documented extraordinary discoveries and advancements in science, anatomy, and medicine. This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference will examine the vicissitudes of attitudes towards women’s ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ bodies over the one-hundred-and-sixty year period.

In particular, conference papers will consider representations of the female body in fictional/non-fictional literature, fine arts, and visual media and how they reflected or influenced women’s understandings and experiences of their own health and bodies.


Possible approaches could include:
How did different women’s testimonies or documentations of health relate to each other? How accurately or inaccurately did men and women artistically portray the female body in health and illness? How were scientific and artistic ideas about women’s health in dialogue? What is the relationship between the representation of woman’s body and her (in)ability to perform certain familial and social roles? How are contemporary critical debates on Romantic and Victorian public and private spheres complicated by the periods’ representations of women’s health?

Key topics could include (but are not limited to):

• Madness and hysteria
• Prostitution
Virginity
Sexuality
Motherhood and wifehood
• Birth and breast-feeding
Pregnancy, birth-control, and abortion
• Fashion (dress, cosmetics, decoration)
• Exercise and well-being
• Un/healthy spaces (including spa and resort towns, hospitals, slums, factories, home)
• Age (childhood, puberty, menopause)
• Illness and disease (venereal diseases, hereditary diseases, contagion)
,
• Disabilities and disfigurations, 
Death and grief (terminal illness, death of spouse or child, execution)
• Medicine (diagnosis, prescription, treatment)
• Medication and surgery
 / Health and superstition / Metaphors of health / 
Definitions of health

Please send your abstract of 250-300 words for a 20-minute paper to womenshealth.2011@gmail.com or submit online at the conference website (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/events/pwhconference/) along with name, affiliation, e-mail address, and title of paper. The deadline for submissions is 5th November, 2010.

You will be notified whether or not your paper has been selected by 22nd November. Acknowledgement of receipt of proposal will be sent. If you do not receive a reply from us, please resend.
If you have any questions regarding the conference and/or the proposal, please feel free to contact us at the above email address. The conference website will contain updated details of the conference programme, registration, accommodation, and travel details one month prior to the conference. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/events/pwhconference/

Organising committee: Kate Scarth, Fran Scott, Ji Won Chung (Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick)

(5) 18th Annual Lesbian Lives Conference

REVOLTING: BODIES, POLITICS & GENDERS
University of Brighton, UK
11-12 February 2011
Hosted by the University of Brighton LGBT and Queer Life Research Hub
in conjunction with the Women’s Studies Centre, University College Dublin

University of Brighton’s LGBTQ Life Research Hub is proud to co-host the 18th Lesbian Lives conference with University College Dublin at the University ofBrighton in February 2011. It is the only annual academic conference in Lesbian Studies, bringing together academics, activists, performers and writers from all continents to network across international and professional boundaries and provides a unique forum dedicated to exploration of lesbian identity and experience.

Lesbian Lives hosts the best-known and emerging scholars in the field, and speakers such as Kate Bornstein, Emma Donoghue, Jackie Kay, Cherry Smyth, Del La Grace Volcano, Sarah Waters and academics such as Sara Ahmed, Terry Castle, Laura Doan, Lillian Faderman, Sarah Franklin, Clare Hemmings, Alison Hennegan, Sally R. Munt, Eve Sedgwick, Helena Whitbread, Bonnie Zimmerman among many others have contributed to the conference over the years.

CONFERENCE CONVENORS OF THIS TWO-DAY INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE NOW WELCOME PROPOSALS FROM ACADEMICS, SCHOLARS, STUDENTS, ACTIVISTS, DOCUMENTARY AND FILM-MAKERS, WRITERS AND ARTISTS.

Proposals are welcomed on (though are by no means limited to) the following:

• Revolting lesbians
• Bodies beautiful and/or grotesque
• Revulsion and Disgust
• Freaks and Families
• Shame and Shock
• Feminisms and Movements
• Sex
• Archives and Ageing
• Class
• Transformations
• Paranormal and Out of this World
• Femmes Fatale
• Cyber and Sonic
• Mobility

The conference organisers welcome proposals for (A) individual papers, (B) sessions, (C) round table discussions, (D) workshops and (E) visual presentations or performances. You can find more information on presentation formats on our website.

E-mail proposals (up to 300 words) to LGBTQ@brighton.ac.uk or post them to:

Lesbian Lives conference
c/o Dr Kath Browne
University of Brighton
School of the Environment & Technology
Cockcroft Building, Lewes Road
Brighton BN2 4GJ
UK

The closing date for the submission of proposals is Friday 26th November 2010. For further information visit our website: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/lesbian-lives

If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to get in touch on LGBTQ@brighton.ac.uk
Subject: FW: CFP: Translating Queers/Queering Translations

NEW PUBLICATIONS

HerStoria Magazine – Autumn issue out 26 August, Print, Digital & Gift Subs available

Email: editor@herstoria.com; Telephone: 0151 324 3150
HerStoria Magazine, PO Box 261, Wallasey, CH27 9EA.

Subscribe at www.herStoria.com
History that puts woman in her place

INVITATIONS TO LECTURES

(1) Anne Phillips, Professor of Gender and Political Theory, LSE

A Gender Institute and Department of Government Public Lecture

* Wednesday 29 September, 2010
* 6.30pm
* Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE
* Chair: Professor Emily Jackson, Department of Law, LSE
* Open to all – no booking required. Followed by an informal drinks reception at the Gender Institute, 5th Floor, Columbia House.

Click here for more details: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/genderInstitute/events/eventsProfiles/bodiesAsPossessions.aspx

Abstract
We commonly use the language of body ownership as a way of claiming personal rights, though we do not normally mean it literally. Most people feel uneasy about markets in sexual or reproductive services, and though there is a substantial global trade in body tissues, the illicit trade in live human organs is widely condemned. But what, if any, is the problem with treating bodies as resources and/or possessions? Is there something about the body that makes it particularly inappropriate to apply to it the language of property, commodities, and things? Or is thinking the body special a kind of sentimentalism that blocks clear thinking about matters such as prostitution, surrogate motherhood, or the sale of spare kidneys?

The related question is whether there is something about feminism that makes it particularly resistant to the body as property. The critique of objectification suggests there is, but there is also an influential strand that defends the commodification of sexual and reproductive services and queries the idea of the body as special. In this lecture, Anne Phillips defends the idea that the body is special, but argues that debates about body ownership are best understood as debates about market relations, not simply claims about the body per se.

For speaker biographies and a list of all forthcoming Gender Institute events, visit http://www2.lse.ac.uk/genderInstitute/events/eventsSchedule10.aspx

For information on how to get to LSE, accessibility maps and how to get around campus, please visit http://www2.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/Home.aspx

The Gender Institute (LSE) was established in 1993 and brings together social sciences and humanities approaches in order to address key problems in gender studies transnationally. We provide a leading role internationally in combining innovative theory and epistemology with policy concerns. We provide a vibrant research environment and train the largest number of postgraduates qualifying in Gender Studies anywhere in Europe.

END