CALL for PROPOSALS
2019 Annual Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Conference
sponsored by the Central Pennsylvania Consortium and the Women, Gender
and Sexuality Studies Programs of Dickinson College,
Franklin & Marshall College, and Gettysburg College
Saturday, March 23, 2019
8:15 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Gettysburg College
Breidenbaugh Hall
Gettysburg PA
THEME: Looking Back, Looking Forward: Contested Histories, Multiple Futures
Speakers:
Alexis Lothian, Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies, University of Maryland, College Park. Professor Lothian researches and teaches at the intersections of queer theory, cultural studies, digital media, and speculative fiction. Her book, forthcoming from NYU Press, Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility, explores alternative futures dreamed up by feminists, queers, and people of color in 20th- and 21st-century Britain and America. http://www.queergeektheory.org/
Jessica Marie Johnson, Assistant Professor, Center for Africana Studies and Department of History, Johns Hopkins University, and historian of Atlantic slavery and the Atlantic African diaspora. Professor Johnson is the author of Practicing Freedom: Black Women, Intimacy, and Kinship in New Orleans Atlantic World (University of Pennsylvania Press, under contract). As a digital humanist and queer theorist, Johnson explores ways digital and social media disseminate and create historical narratives, in particular, comparative histories of slavery and people of African descent. http://jmjohnso.com.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING PROPOSALS: MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2018
(250-word abstract describing the project; see below for details)
In 2018-19 Gettysburg College will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as an academic discipline, a time to take stock. This anniversary also comes at a time of heightened activism: The current move to the right politically in the U.S. and much of Europe has fueled resistance and precipitated large scale activism (the Black Lives Matter Movement, the Women’s March on Washington, the #Metoo Movement, etc.). Transnational forms of feminism have thrived, along with on-going efforts to decolonize US and European feminisms by recognizing contributions of women from other world regions. Queer and Trans activism and theories have been challenging and enriching the discipline, along with Disability studies. There has also been an effort to rethink the “history” of the U.S. women’s activism in order to include the histories of those who were involved in anti-lynching campaigns, indigenous rights movements, the Civil Rights movement, immigration advocacy, the Chicano/a Movement, the labor movement, and civil rights for LGBTQ people, among others. How can we (those of us committed to social justice) tell these stories in a more inclusive way (looking back at contested histories)? How can we move forward to form coalitions for social change (looking forward to multiple futures)? How can we better craft theories and practices that “lead to liberation, making the connection between our past and our future,” as Barbara Smith phrased it?
The Central PA Consortium (CPC) seeks papers that comment on any aspect of the struggle for social progress, looking back, looking forward, or both. In addition, we’re looking for commentary on significant texts or theoretical concepts from the past (e.g. intersectionality, cyborg, strategic essentialism, identity politics, the subaltern, standpoint theory, etc.) and how these ideas resonate today. We are also curious about research on how these perspectives have impacted other disciplines: how have the fields of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Queer Studies influenced anthropology and other social sciences, literary studies and cultural studies, etc.?
Potential topics for papers include, but are not limited to:
- Tensions in WGS history and with “new” fields opening, such as cis/trans studies, critical race studies, queer of color critique, Queer disabilities etc.
- From where do the points of tension emerge? Are there places where connections do not work?
- Intersectionality - Exploring and theorizing multiple intersectional experiences: for example: disability + sexuality + class
- Impact of Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies on culture and society, including in terms of public policy
- Impact of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Programs on life on our campuses
- Feminism and queer studies emerged from social movements. Do we still have a relationship with social movements? With community organizations (especially around immigration)?
- How do these contested histories and multiple futures help us understand the contemporary moment, politically?
- Impact of feminist and Queer studies on the disciplines: Will a day come when we no longer need Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies?
- What knowledge and knowledge production are still siloed into different disciplines? What’s open across disciplines and interdisciplinary work?
- Multiple histories of women’s activism (labor activism, reproductive justice, LGBTQ Civil Rights, indigenous rights, Latina/Chicana movements, Asian women’s activism, etc.)
In addition, here are suggestions for multigenerational (student/faculty), faculty-driven panels around significant foundational texts or thematic streams in our discipline:
- On intersectionality - Kimberlé Crenshaw: conceptualizing “intersectionality” 30 years ago, current initiatives: African American Policy Forum (), and critiques (Jennifer Nash)
- On technology - Donna Haraway (A Cyborg Manifesto) and Jasbir Puar (I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess)
- Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa (This Bridge Called My Back)
- Adrienne Rich (Compulsory heterosexuality)
- Cathy Cohen (Punks, Bulldaggers and Welfare Queens)
- José Muñoz (Disidentification)
- Black feminism/womanism
- Joan Scott, on experience
- Rebecca Walker, Third Wave
- Combahee River Collective
- Orientalism
- Performativity
- Feminist film theory (the male gaze)
- Gayatri Spivak (“The Subaltern Speaks”)
- Chandra Talpade Mohanty (Under Western Eyes)
- Octavia Butler – dystopias and utopias in the age of Trump
Send a one-page proposal (approximately 250 words) by Monday, December 3, to Kathy Missildine, Executive Assistant to the CPC (kathy.missildine@fandm.edu).
At the top of your proposal, include the following information:
- Presenter’s full name
- Class year (’19, ’20)
- Institution or place of study (Gettysburg College, etc.)
- Format – panel, individual oral presentation, or poster
- Presenter’s email address
- Title of presentation (if this is a working title, please state this)
- If the proposal is a panel, include all panelists’ names and above information along with a 250-word abstract for each presentation.