Transnational Feminisms Conference - Call for Contributions

Transnational Feminisms Conference

University of Manchester

4-5 December 2009 (with associated activities on 6 December)

Drawing on the impact of postcolonial feminism and its enactments, this conference will examine how women are affected by political systems in a global climate, how feminism translates and moves across borders, and how feminism can be utilised as a methodology for understanding the transnational context.

Here the transnational is understood to be a complication of notions of the 'elsewhere', highlighting the challenges of fluidity, movement and instability whilst also paying close attention to locatedness.

This is a feminism that is engaged with the woman-as-subject without making universalising claims regarding women's experience; it both considers how gender operates and critiques categorisation.

The purpose of this conference is to explore the vitality of feminist interdisciplinarity as it pertains to the transnational, providing space for these debates to come together, creating an interrogation of transnational feminist theory and practice from academic, activist and artistic standpoints.

The conference will also engage with ideas of transnational feminism through workshops, exhibitions and a history walk. We welcome contributions from academics, postgraduates, activists and artists.

Keynote Speakers:

* Doctor Anne-Marie Fortier (University of Lancaster)

* Professor Gabriele Griffin (University of York)

* TBA

Contributions may take the form of papers, workshops, exhibitions or reading group style discussions, amongst others. Paper presentations will consist of panels of 3 x 20 minute papers.

Topics might include:

* Global markets of cultural production

* Religion and the nation state

* Belonging and home

* Feminism and neo-colonialism

* Diaspora and migration

* The international as the popular

* Historical moments of transnational feminism

* The struggle for, and violence of, borders

* Postcolonial/queer intersections

* Feminism and gender in a wider global political debate

* Sites and voices of privilege

* Historicisation and genealogies

* Alliances

* Cultural and textual translations

* Memorialisation

* Feminist anti-racism

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words and a short biography by Friday August 28th to transfem09@yahoo.co.uk

Conference website

http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/sage/transnationalfeminisms/