Monthly Archives: September 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS/DEMANDE DE COMMUNICATIONS
CANADIAN WOMEN’S STUDIES ASSOCIATION/L’ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE DES
ETUDES SUR LES FEMMES (CWSA/ACEF)

DATE: May 24-26, 2009
LOCATION: Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
CONGRESS THEME: Capital Connections: nation, terroir, territoire

The CWSA/ACEF is now seeking proposals, in either French or English, for
its annual conference, held in conjunction with the Congress of the CFHSS/FCSH.
Submissions for papers and panels can be made by individuals or groups, and as joint
sessions with other associations. The conference will be structured around two embedded
themes in addition to an open call:

Theme 1: Roots, Territories, and Territorial Struggles in Women’s Studies
This theme honours a tradition of self-reflexivity within Women’s Studies and encourages
presenters to reflect upon the nature of the discipline, its past, and its continuing
challenges.

a) What are the territories that Women’s Studies has claimed and
occupied within academia? What struggles have been waged/continue/are evolving in order
to create and secure these spaces? What is the role of Capital in these struggles, in
the neo-liberal university? What have been the implications within the academy of
Women Studies commitment to interdisciplinarity/transdisciplinarity with respect to
capital, terroir (ground,roots), and territory? What are the territorial implications of naming
ourselves feminist/women’s/gender studies?

b) Under this theme, presenters are also encouraged to consider
contested spaces within the discipline:

Diversity has been a central theme in feminist theoretical work for at
least two decades, but how has this translated into the classroom? How are
territories and boundaries of exclusion reproduced (or diminished) within this space?

Deconstruct/otherwise explore the binary between academic and activist
feminisms. Issues such as those raised by bell hooks in Theory as Liberatory
Practice could be considered: e.g., the appropriation of collective and/or non-academic
thought by academics; intellectual class hierarchies; disconnections between lived
realities and academic theory classes.

How is transnational feminism–with the new concepts space, nation,
territory it presumes–being translated in WS classrooms? Do the uncritical ways
transnational feminism is mobilized in WS merely replicate the imperialism it was
ostensibly meant to critique?

In Canada the concept of nation is crucial and has important
implications for the nature of Canadian Women’s Studies. For example, Indigenous feminisms
often discuss nation, nation-building, and (dis)connections between First Nations and
non-Native women’s issues. What are the potential connections and breaking points
between WS and Native Studies?

How are national issues of language/nation mirrored within Canadian
Women’s Studies? How can CWSA/ACEF better fulfill its bilingual mandate, or
should it try? Are there better structures to encourage and improve dialogue?
& What connections/struggles/common ground/divisions can be productively
explored between Women’s Studies and other contested and inherently
self-reflexive disciplines such as cultural studies, transgender and queer studies, race and
ethnicity studies,disability studies?

We encourage presenters to think about this topic broadly and welcome submissions that
address these debates at the institutional, administrative, intellectual, and pedagogical
levels.

Theme 2: Capital, nation, terroir, territoire: through the lens of gender

This conference theme inviteterritoriality from the perspective of women and/or through a gendered lens. Again, this theme may be applied broadly to include many areas of scholarship:

Empire: The relationship of gender to new forms of empire; historical
perspectives on the role of women in empire-building

Women, gender and discourses and practices of nationalism

War: Situating women and gender in nations currently at war (including
the US and Canada); feminist pacifisms

Relations among “race,” racialization, and nations and nationalism

Gender in/and the relationship between nation and global flows of capital

Indigenous feminisms and the practices of nation they articulate

Francophone and Anglophone feminisms in Canada: How do French language
and the English language feminisms conceptualize/practice feminist issues and
struggles differently?

What are the spaces that women have created within government and as
independent activist organizations, and how are these being sustained or eroded?

Theme 3: Open Call. Papers which do not address the above themes
specifically.

**Please indicate clearly which theme you are submitting to on the proposal form.**

We encourage presentations in a variety of formats, including papers,
panels, workshops, roundtables, poster sessions, film and video screenings, performance art
pieces, exhibits, and cultural events. If you are proposing a non-traditional
presentation, please include a brief write up on any necessary audiovisual, technical, logistical, or room size and location considerations.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

The proposal form (as a Word document), can be found on the CWSA/ACEF
website: www.yorku.ca/cwsaacef.

All submissions must include the proposal form in addition to a maximum
250-word abstract for individual papers and panels. In addition to the 250 word
abstract summarizing the panel theme, pre-arranged panel submissions must also
include short (50-100 word) abstracts of the individual papers clearly indicating the
contributions of each member. All proposals will be anonymously reviewed.

**You must be a current member of CWSA/ACEF to submit an abstract.**

To join, please visit www.yorku.ca/cwsaacef.

Send proposals, by email only, in Word/RTF to:
Shana Calixte, Assistant to Dr. Andrea Levan, Program Chair, at
scalixte@laurentian.ca

Deadline: December 15, 2008. Late submissions and proposals over the
stated word limit will not be considered.