1st Annual Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies Conference: Shifting Gender Identities in the Face of War, Globalization, and Natural Disaster
|
• March 30 -31, 2006 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA The Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies is launching it's first conference, developed by and for students doing graduate work in the field of Women's and Gender Studies. The 2006 conference is an event organized by graduate students for graduate students working in the field of Women's and Gender Studies. It is a 2 day event where students and faculty will gather to present and discuss cutting-edge student work, workshop ideas, and network to share skills and resources and build cross-institutional colleague community. Panels and presentation submissions are encouraged! We are now accepting proposals -- click here for information on the submission guidelines and selection process. If you are interested in proposing a panel or paper presentation, read our Call for Proposals. Conference is *Free* and registration is required To find out more about conference registration, contact gcws@mit.edu Conference AbstractIt may be said that we live in desperate times. Following September 11, 2001, it became 'unpatriotic' for U.S. citizens to question or criticize their presidential administration while, in the global arena, that same administration claimed that engaging in so-called 'pre-emptive,' warfare was both moral and necessary. Powerful social and political forces seek to undermine gains made by racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities since the mid-twentieth century, even as the culture at large pays lip service to increasingly corporatized and sanitized notions of 'diversity.' And while the aforementioned administration invoked the rhetoric of an equal and free society to justify its continued presence in Iraq, massive hurricanes in the American south revealed deep domestic disparities around class and race that the administration seemed ill-prepared to acknowledge, much less address or rectify. Moreover, devastating and nearly unparalleled natural disasters in Southeast Asia and Pakistan revealed just how deep the divide is between wealth and poverty on the global scale. Human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, environmental degradation, border disputes and enduring conflicts around racial, ethnic, and national identities continue, seemingly unabated, around the world. What does this mean in an age we have come to call 'globalized,' in which the flow of information, labor, goods, and bodies takes place with unprecedented speed and in ever-shifting patterns? And in the context of women's, gender, and queer studies, what does it mean for women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender persons, and anyone else who stands outside or astride the boundaries of conventional gender/sexual norms? Furthermore, are we, as scholars and/or activists, prepared for our advancing future? In what ways are we prepared or, perhaps more importantly, unprepared? And ultimately, where do we go from here? Submission TopicsPossible topics could include, but are not limited to: • All forms of labor and work, including traditionally unrecognized forms such as care work and sex work • Social, economic, and political upheavals stemming from manmade and natural disasters, military conflict, and other forms of violence • Human impact on the environment and vice versa • Emerging and/or changing forms of identity in a global future • The future of identity politics in a globalized world • Re-imagining the theory/practice divide; where and how do scholars and activists fit into today's global cultural 'flows' moving people, goods, information, and ideas? • Original research paradigms and methods • How do past frameworks for understanding gender, sexuality, and global movement help or impede our efforts to describe current shifts? • The changing nature of war/conflict, and implications for the future • The function and dysfunction of various borders and borderlands around nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. For more information, contact Andi Sutton, GCWS Program Coordinator at: Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies |
|
