GWSS Community Blog

Co-Editors, Chris Bobel, University of Massachusetts Boston and Samantha Kwan, University of Houston

This edited collection will assemble scholarly yet accessibly written works that explore the dimensions of resistance to embodied taboos of all sorts. We are interested in pieces that describe and analyze the many ways that humans subvert the social constraints that deem certain behaviors and bodily presentations as inappropriate, disgusting, private and/or forbidden in various cultural and historical contexts. Empirical, historical, theoretical and narrative contributions are equally welcome. This book, intended as a supplemental text for use in undergraduate and graduate classrooms, aims to advance and deepen our understanding of the motivations, experiences and consequences associated with the bodies that break the rules through the (intersecting) lenses of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, culture, religiosity, class and nation.

The editors welcome submissions from scholars in a range of disciplines, including but not limited to sociology, women’s and gender studies, anthropology, science studies, cultural studies, literary studies, disability studies, psychology, and history. We especially encourage scholarship which focuses on areas outside the US and the West.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, practices that challenge: [after the jump]

- Traditional attire norms, e.g., older women who do not “dress their age,� fat women who “show skin,� and parents who refuse to dress their children in traditional gender attire

- Conventional hair and body norms, e.g., women who conspicuously do not shave, youth who experiment with hair colors and cuts, and individuals with numerous and various forms of body art

- The binary construction of gender, e.g., various practices and performances by individuals who identify as transgender, queer, or metrosexual

- Biological processes considered contextually taboo, e.g., mothers who conspicuously breastfeed in public and women who do not hide the fact of their menstruation

- Physical conditions that carry stigma, e.g., cancer patients who do not conceal their hair loss, HIV positive people who speak openly about their HIV status, and intersex individuals who publicly discuss their condition

- Cultural, religious, and/or ethnic norms, e.g., Muslim women who wear hijab in spite of policies or laws that forbid veiling and Falun Gong practitioners who meditate in public demonstrations

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: We invite authors to submit an abstract on or before December 19, 2008. Submissions should take the form of a 250-500 word abstract outlining the intent and scope of the paper, and where appropriate, author’s theoretical, empirical, and/or methodological framework. Authors will be notified by February 13, 2009 about the status of their proposal. Full papers are expected by May 29, 2009.

Please direct inquiries and submissions to BOTH editors at:

Chris Bobel chris.bobel@umb.edu

Samantha Kwan sskwan@uh.edu

Posted by Rae at 5:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ~ March 5-7, 2009
Submission Deadline: November 1, 2008

The Executive Committee of the Tenth Annual Graduate Symposium on Women’s and Gender History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is pleased to announce a call for papers.  The Symposium, which is the capstone event of the History Department’s Women’s History month celebration, is scheduled for March 5-7, 2009.
 
To celebrate and encourage further work in the field of women’s and gender history, we invite submissions from graduate students from any institution and discipline.  The Symposium organizers welcome individual papers on any topic in the field of women’s and gender history; papers submitted as a panel will be judged individually. Preference will be given to scholars who did not present at last
year’s Symposium.

This year’s theme, “Transforming Power,� seeks to interrogate a
variety of trends shaping the field of women’s and gender history. The
Symposium Executive Committee is interested in assembling a
geographically and temporally diverse body of papers; exciting
proposals could focus on, but would not be limited to, analysis of
whether and to what extent power—as both a force in the world and an
analytical scaffold—has been transformed over the past decades of
feminist scholarship and activism. Of related interest, as well, would
be proposals that engage the issue of difference in women’s and gender
studies and history, especially the benefits and difficulties of using
difference as a scholarly and political frame of reference. These
questions are purposefully broad, inviting perspectives and reflections
from a variety of temporal, geographical, and inter/disciplinary
perspectives. Additionally, in order to celebrate the Symposium's
tenth anniversary and in keepin!

g with our theme's focus on gender, power and the politics of
location, we hope to assemble a specifically historiographic panel
addressing the state of the field.We are, then, particularly interested
in paper proposals that problematize the history of feminist history or
suggest new historiographic avenues of inquiry for our futures.

For the Tenth Annual Symposium, we are delighted to announce a keynote speaker who engages many of these themes in his work:

• Roderick A. Ferguson, Associate Professor of American Studies, University of Minnesota

The journal Gender & History will again sponsor a prize for the
best graduate student paper presented at the Symposium. Conference
presenters will also have the opportunity to publish their work in the
on-line proceedings volume. We possess limited resources to subsidize
travel expenses for presenters. Giving priority to presenters with
limited conference experience, we will allocate these funds based on
the quality of presenters’ proposals and the availability of funds.

To submit a paper or panel by email (preferred method); please send
only one attachment in Word or PDF format containing a 250-word
abstract and a one-page curriculum vitae for each paper presenter,
commentator, or panel chair to gendersymp@gmail.com .

To submit a paper or panel in a hard copy format, please send five
(5) copies of all abstracts and curriculum vitae to: Programming
Committee, Graduate Symposium on Women's and Gender History 309 Gregory
Hall, MC 466, 810 S. Wright Street Urbana, Illinois 61801.

For more information, please contact Programming Committee Chairs, David Greenstein or Laura Duros at gendersymp@gmail.com .

Posted by Rae at 5:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Radical queer politics and anarchism have much in common. Queer theory
argues against traditional identity politics, recognizing the social
construction of 'sexuality' and identity categories. Anarchism argues
against any structured hierarchical arrangement of humanity that allows
some members of society to systematically exploit and oppress others.
Thus, both projects argue for a need to move beyond hierarchical and
naturalized arrangements of socially constructed identities--though, at
times, articulating those arguments in different ways. Nevertheless,
despite these commonalities, little has been written about the deep
connections between anarchism and radical queer politics. This edited
volume is an attempt to fill that gap.

With this book, the authors wish to assemble writings that are useful to
activists (i.e. not written in obscure academic jargon and relatable to
social movement contexts) working in the intersections of queer and
anarchist politics. Many anarchists use the term 'queer' as shorthand
for the LGBT community and have little understanding of what queer
theory can provide for a contemporary radical praxis and how it differs
from traditional LGBT politicsâ€"even some radical strands. Likewise,
there are many among the queer community who know little to nothing
about anarchismâ€"relying mostly on the sensationalist news medias'
construction of anarchists as terrorists, anti-organizationalists, etc.
This volume, then, will be split into three sections (theory, praxis,
and personal experience) featuring writing that deals specifically with
these intersections.

Interested authors should send a small abstract (just a paragraph
explaining exactly what it is you wish to do) along with your name and
brief bio (100 words or less, please) by August 15th to
propaganarchy@hotmail.com and rogue@riseup.net. Finished pieces will
range from 2500 to 5000 words. Below are some suggested questions and
issues for each section (feel free to come up with your own fantastic
topic too!):

Theory

What can anarchism learn from queer theory? What could queer theory
learn from anarchism? How do queer politics relate to class struggle,
anti-racism, feminism, post-colonialism, etc.? Can queer theory be
meaningful in movements if it remains written in academic jargon? What
might 'street' queer theory look like and how might it differ from the
queer theory that emerges from the university? Should we think of queer
as something we are or something we do?

Praxis

What does existing queer anarchist praxis look like? How would we queer
current anarchist praxis and what might emerge from that? What
challenges have you faced as a result of combining queer political
practice with anarchist social movements? What challenges go along with
bringing anarchist political practice into existing queer groups?

Personal Experience

Have you had personal experiences of marginalization within the
anarchist community for your queer politics? Have you been ignored among
the queer community because of your commitment to anarchism? Have you
had good experiences combining anarchist and queer activism? What made
you feel marginalized or good in those contexts and how can we use those
experiences as a catalyst for creating more inclusive movements? How
have ideologies of normalcy affected your activism within the anarchist
community? How have expectations of ideological normalcy limited the
field of politics in queer groups in your experience?

Author Bios

J. Rogue is a queer anarchist-communist feminist who has been organizing
in anarchist, feminist and radical queer communities for ten years. Her
recent projects have centered around HIV/AIDS and prisons, with the
Austin chapter of the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) as well
as the Inside Books Project, which sends free books to Texas prisoners.
She has also been involved in transfeminist organizing with Camp Trans,
and participated in several radical queer and feminist conferences and
projects over the years.

Deric Shannon is a long time social anarchist activist with roots in
groups like Anti-Racist Action and Food Not Bombs. He is a part of the
editorial collective of the forthcoming volume Contemporary Anarchist
Studies (Routledge, Spring '09), the entry for 'Anarchism, Communism,
and Socialism' in the Encyclopedia of Modern Revolutions (James
DeFronzo, ed.), and a number of book chapters and journal articles,
typically on radical political thought. He currently lives in
Connecticut where he works with Hartford Food Not Bombs, ARRGH! (The
Area Radical Reading Group of Hartford), and Queers without Borders.

Posted by Rae at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sept 2nd March For Our Lives: Money For Health Care And Housing Not For War!
Health care and housing should never be luxuries - not in the United States, not anywhere. Toward this end, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign calls for you to join us as we fill the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota in a powerful, peaceful demonstration for the right to health care, housing and all economic human rights. We will march because as poverty, hunger, unemployment and homelessness grow throughout this country, political leaders from both major parties have abandoned us. We cannot afford to be silent. We cannot afford to be disappeared from the public eye and the political debates as our families suffer. This September we will bring together poor and homeless people of every race, background and age, students, social workers, union members, lawyers, religious leaders, artists and everyone who stands for social and economic justice. We will make our voices heard as we “March for Our Lives to demand “Money for Health Care and Housing, Not for War!�

Full Schedule of Events HERE

Posted by Rae at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)