CCCCs Feminist Panel; San Francisco, March 11-14th 2009
Description of Workshop:
The 2002 anthology Disciplining Feminism: From Social Activism to Academic
Discourse suggests that the divide that has persisted in feminist
scholarship between activism and intellectualism results from divergent ways
of defining change– change as something to be debated or shaped. These
discussions have often highlighted the disjuncture between various feminist
groups and forms of feminism within the academy, as well as the uneasy
relationship between academics and activism. Such disjunctures, however, are
also productive and can signal the ways in which academia and the community
might continue to dialogue. This workshop seeks to analyze these
disjunctures as productive difference and to interrogate their implications
in the creation of feminist coalitions, pedagogies, and mentorships. We
would like to address the theoretical and practical roles of feminists in
the academic community in shaping feminism’s dedication to change– as a
movement and a discourse– that crosses and negotiates the currents of
difference.
Additionally, this workshop asks participants to frame and respond to
questions such as the following:
– What are the bases for coalitions between academic feminists and feminist
community activists, artists, or workers?
– What coalitions seem to be lacking in academic feminist communities?
– What are the effects of conflicts within feminist academic
communities–i.e. the Andrea Smith tenure case at Michigan–on feminism as a
social movement?
– How do conflicts or coalitions within online communities affect the “real
world” structures of feminism, in the academy or in other contexts?
– What political issues not historically identified with feminism–i.e.
immigration, security issues, environmentalism–have feminists been
contributing to in productive ways?
– In what ways have these movements offered alternative models for
coalition-building?
– Which issues are feminist communities overlooking or not doing enough to
address?
– Is feminist pedagogy a form of feminist activism?
– If feminist pedagogy is a form of activism, what kinds of practices do
people use in their classrooms or in their writing?
– How can feminist mentorship facilitate feminist coalitions and activism?
This workshop will be divided into three interconnected parts.
Part One: Currents
Part One will explore the work of women of color and academic-activists
working in our current political climate. This panel will feature the voices
of academics and activists, discussing feminist-activist research and
methods, activist projects, and collaborative community and coalition work.
This portion will involve interactive discussion and multimedia
presentations.
Part Two: Pedagogies
Part Two will be an interactive portion as well, where participants will
share feminist knowledges and pedagogies. This part will consist of brief
presentations by participants, who will discuss their classroom practices
and rationales specifically. Every participant will bring handouts on
syllabi, activities, and assignments. All workshop participants will
brainstorm pedagogical choices and methods. Some activities in this portion
will be roundtable discussions and some large group discussions. Multimedia
and creative presentation formats are highly encouraged.
We will collaborate on creating an online archive resource for these
materials, from which there will be a publishing opportunity in a
peer-reviewed pedagogy journal.
Part Three: Coalitions
Part Three will discuss coalitions and mentorship in academia and in the
community, particularly for underrepresented groups. This interactive
portion will involve prominent academic-activists discussing successful
examples of coalition building and mentorship. All speakers and participants
will explore advantages and obstacles to mentorship in large and small group
discussions, as well as brainstorm techniques for successful local and
national, feminist coalition building.
Publication:
As was outlined briefly in Part Two, there will be opportunities to publish
the pedagogical materials submitted, brainstormed, and collaboratively
created in this workshop to an online archive and/or a special issue of a
peer-reviewed pedagogy journal.
Requirements/Submission Guidelines:
We invite proposals for brief presentations (6-9 minutes), to be included in
Part One or Part Two. Presentations outside of the traditional paper format
(multimedia, performative reading, interactive, etc.) are especially
welcome. Please submit abstracts of no more than one double-spaced page to
4Cfeministworkshop@gmail.com by *April 30, 2008*.