The Ohio State University’s Department of Women’s Studies’
Graduate Student Research Conference:
“The ‘F’ Words of Feminist Scholarship”
futures, feminisms, fat, functionality, freak, fresh, family, fetish, fixity, fore, f*cking, fleshy, foul, field, fear, finish, foundations, failure, fertility, figures, fundamentals, fragment, findings, fold, flow, fathers, follow, fire, friendship, fight, female, fascism, feminine, fanaticism fundraising, fun, fierce, focus, finitude…
Dates: April 4 and 5, 2008
Confirmed Keynote: Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Call for Papers: The phrase, the ‘F’ word, elicits feelings of anxiety and excitement. As a euphemism for what should not be said, the ‘F’ word characterizes what is taboo or prohibited. Feminist scholarship has a strong history of challenging the ‘F’ words of disciplinary scholarship- those topics ignored, erased, and/or contested in canonical knowledges. Certainly, as feminist scholarship develops, new ‘F’ words are being created and contested. We view this conference as an opportunity to think carefully about feminist scholarship’s ‘F’ words and how an exploration of these topics and the scholarship produced about them (or the absence of such scholarship) might lead to more intimate understandings of feminist research in the academy. To this end, we invite papers, art installations, creative performances, panels, poster presentations, and workshops.
We especially encourage graduate students whose research topics and/or methodological approaches embody a contested location in the emerging canon of feminist scholarship.
Possible topics may include:
How do different disciplines create and/or control ‘F words’?
In what ways are ‘F words’ negotiated across disciplines?
What are the potential benefits and/or risks of studying ‘F words’?
How do ‘F words’ influence the future of feminist scholarship?
What is feminist about feminist scholarship?
Additional topics are very welcome!
Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent by December 1, 2007. Please send abstracts to Kelly Ball (ball.1824@osu.edu).
Include your name, university affiliation, email, and presentation title. Submissions will be reviewed anonymously.
Accepted proposals will be announced via email February 1, 2008.
While we cannot provide travel funds, we will make every effort to provide housing for graduate students participating in the conference.
This conference is organized by the graduate students of the Women’s Studies Department at The Ohio State University and is made possible with the help of generous funding from the department.
Conference Organizers:
Alina Bennett, bennett.520@osu.edu
Kelly Ball, ball.1824@osu.edu