[ecrea] Conference: Women’s Spring: Feminism, Nationalism and Civil Disobedience

*Upcoming conference organised by IBAR in partnership with: 
openDemocracy 50.50, the Cornelia Goethe Center (Goethe University, 
Frankfurt); International Development and Inclusive Innovation, 
Strategic Research Area (The Open University), De Gruyter Open*

*(website: 
http://ibaruclan.com/womens-spring-feminism-nationalism-and-civil-disobedience/)*

*21-23 June 2018, University of Central Lancashire, Preston,*

*Keynote speakers (confirmed):*

  * *Dr Umut Erel, *International Development and Inclusive Innovation,
    Strategic Research Area (The Open University)*;*
  * *Prof. Dr. Helma Lutz, *the Cornelia Goethe Center at Goethe
    University, Frankfurt;
  * *Prof. Ewa Mazierska, *University of Central Lancashire;
  * *Prof. Toby Miller*, University of California, Riverside;
    Loughborough University London
  * *Pragna Patel, *Southall Black Sisters;
  * *Prof. Nira Yuval-Davis, *Research Centre on Migration, Refugees and
    Belonging (CMRB) at the University of East London.**

The aim of this conference is to explore the ways in which female 
activists and artists responded the resurgence of the far-right 
nationalism and the twin evil of religious fundamentalism. We want to 
take a closer look at grassroots emancipatory movements, women-led 
voluntary associations, as well as cultural texts by women – 
performances, installations, artworks, films and novels – in which 
authors take a stance against religious bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia, 
racism and misogyny. But we also invite contributions that focus on 
women’s endorsement of and participation in ultra-conservative national 
and orthodox religious campaigns. More specifically, the conference will 
provide an opportunity to consider:

  * feminist discourses and activism that shed light on current threats
    to human rights, reproductive rights, rights of freedom of movement
    and speech, LGBTQ rights;
  * analyses/case studies on social/political movements initiated and/or
    run by women activists, e.g. Black Lives Matter;
  * militant or transgressive feminisms as conflictual and antagonistic
    counterpublics; their potential to revitalise the civil society and
    its institutions (feminist discourses, representations and activism
    that dispute anti-immigrant, fundamentalist, racist, sexist and
    homophobic abuse to promote solidarity, secularism, empathy and
    resistance),
  * stories, real and fictional, about women’s struggles against the
    resurgence of nationalism, populism and religious fundamentalism;
  * social media as parallel counterpublics for feminist activism and
    the struggle for preservation and expansion of human rights;
  * political discourses and cultural texts by women that challenge
    “androcentric nationalism” (Elleke Boehmer 7) and imagine different
    scenarios for female agency in the public sphere;
  * political discourses and cultural texts by women that endorse
    nationalism and women’s activism on behalf of right-wing and rigidly
    doctrinal campaigning platforms.

We are aware of the fact the Arab Spring to which the title of this 
conference alludes ended in a disappointing disaster. Therefore, we also 
welcome submissions that imaginatively tackle

  * dystopian visions of a world which rejects women’s subjectivity and
    agency,
  * failure of feminist movements to live up to expectations (expressed
    among others by Alain Touraine after the publications of/ Le monde
    des femmes/)

Please send your 250-word abstracts for 20-minute papers or article 
proposals and 100-word bio notes to:*(ipenier /at/ uclan.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(ipenier /at/ uclan.ac.uk)>* by *01.04.2018*. Selected papers will be 
published as a special issue in /Open Cultural Studies/ 
https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/culture

*References:*

Boehmer, Elleke. /Stories of Women: Gender and Narrative in the 
Postcolonial Nation./ Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005.

Fraser, Nancy. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the 
Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” Ed. Craig J Calhoun. /Habermas 
and the Public Sphere. Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought/. 
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1992.

Gilroy, Paul. Interview by Philip Dodd in BBC Radio 3, Free Thinking 
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08chbpf>

Mayer, Tamar. /Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing the Nation/. London 
and New York: Routledge, 2000.

Nayar, Pramod. /Writing Wrongs: The Cultural Construction of Human 
Rights in India./ London and New York: Routledge, 2012.


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please
use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------