Women, Political Engagement, and the Artistic Imagination

We seek 1-2 panelists for our panel titled Women, Political 
Engagement, and the Artistic Imagination, to be proposed to the 
National Women’s Studies Association Conference, November 11-14, 
Denver, CO.  Panel description is below. If you would like to join us, 
please submit a title and abstract to either Kim or Heather by Feb. 
18th.

Panel co-chairs and contact:

Heather Hewett, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and English, 
SUNY New Paltz: hewetth@newpaltz.edu

Kim Miller, Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies and Art History, 
Wheaton College, Norton, MA: miller_kim@wheatoncollege.edu

Women activists world-wide have long engaged in movements for social 
change through their work in creative production and the arts. 
Likewise, there is also a rich and complex history of textual/ aesthetic representations of women’s political lives. Yet, women’s 
artistic and creative contributions do not always fully “count” as 
knowledge in the academy, just as women’s political work is often 
overlooked or dismissed in both grass roots movements and within 
governments. Scholarly discussions about the significance of women’s 
creative expressions and cultural production are even marginalized 
within the field of Women’s Studies.

This panel seeks to bring together recent and ongoing research on the 
intersection of women’s political participation and textual/aesthetic 
representation related to local, national, or transnational issues.

Panelists might consider some of the following topics or questions:

• How is creative representation used to influence political 
struggles, or how has political need affected women’s creative 
expression?

• How have women ­ individually or in groups ­ employed representation 
as a form of resistance against political oppression?

• What roles does women’s cultural production play in social justice 
work? How might this work challenge the distinct categories of 
politics and art, critical theory and creative expression?

• What does current research tell us about feminist cultural production?

• What kind of new questions or knowledges does their work provide, 
and how are these knowledges being integrated in Women’s Studies 
classrooms?

• What resources are available to Women’s Studies instructors who seek 
to integrate creative cultural production and the arts into their 
research, teaching, and activism? What barriers and obstacles remain?

All best,

Heather

Heather Hewett, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, English and Women’s Studies
Coordinator, Women’s Studies Program
State University of New York at New Paltz

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