folklore feminists communication
Newsletter of the AFS Women's Section
Announcements and Calls for Papers
CFP: The Internet and Alternative Politcal Practices 22 November 2004
Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (WPCC)
Issue 2 (Spring-Summer 2005): The Internet and Alternative Political Practices
Aiming to open up a critical dialogue on the Internet and alternative political practices, the second issue of WPCC is welcoming both theoretical and applied contributions. Stimulating this dialogue is the potential of the Internet to transform our notions of citizenship, democracy and political practice. The Internet can also be used as a tool by current social movements and alternative political activists, changing the way people organize and protest around their
ideas. It may also foster alternative media practices that redefine our notions of the public sphere, alter social and political identities, and facilitate processes of development and empowerment, particularly for the politically
disenfranchised.
Therefore, the coming issue of WPCC will be an attempt to address these topics by drawing on research that focuses on the following interrelated questions:
How is the Internet transforming our notions of democracy, citizenship and
the public sphere?
Has the Internet changed political campaigning, both for electoral and
alternative politics?
Has it influenced political activism, organizing and participation?
Is it transforming our perceptions of the political?
How is it used by current social movements, both local and global?
Does it foster alternative political and media practices?
Does it affect the development and negotiation of social and political
identities?
Does it empower the grassroots and the local?
Applicants may submit abstracts of no more than to 350 words to Anastasia Kavada - anakavada@hotmail.com or Pantelis Vatikiotis ˆp_vatikiotis@hotmail.com. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is Monday 22 November.
Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (WPCC) is a peer-reviewed journal, published twice a year in hard copy and PDF format. WPCC recognises the interdisciplinary nature of the field of Media and Cultural Studies, and therefore deliberately encourages diverse methods, contexts and themes.Particular interests include, but are not limited to, work related to Popular Culture, Media Audiences, Political Economy, Promotional Culture, New Media, Political Communication, Migration and Diasporic Studies.
A major goal of the WPCC is to help develop a de-westernised and transcultural sphere that engages both young and established scholars from different parts of the world in a critical debate about the relationship between communication,
culture and society in the 21st Century.
WPCC invites contributions from all scholars; particularly those at the beginning of their careers.
posted 10/30/2004
CFP: The Post-National Nation 31 January 2005
Rice Graduate Symposium, March 25-26, 2005; Rice University, Houston, Texas
"The Post-National Nation: Ideology and Institution in the Global Era"
In academic and public contexts, the nation-state has long served as a point-of-origin for discussing and articulating identity, ideologies, economies, histories and literary or cultural productions. As our title suggests, the ascendancy of global paradigms have brought new urgency to long running analyses and interrogations of the nation-state model.
We anticipate work exploring the discursive formation of the nation and its ostensible role as a site for ideological, economic and cultural capital, especially as that role is said to be eroded by a new world order. Do cultural productions, institutions and ideologies belong to the nation-state proper, or can they be more accurately understood globally? How has the global been defined rhetorically and distinguished from the national? What is the stake for political identity, cooperation or agency within a global framework? Finally, what is the status of the academic curricula within a global imaginary: how are disciplinary boundaries being re-mapped while the globe is?
Both individual and panel submissions are welcome. Please send abstracts of 250 words or less by January 31, 2005 to cledoux@rice.edu and/or jjacks@rice.edu. All presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes.
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
Any topics on internationalism, cosmopolitanism, globalization and geo-political order
All topics on the nation, the nation-state, nationalism and the political or cultural creation of national identity
All papers on refugees, diasporas, exiles and displaced populations
The circulation of capital, labor, literatures, populations and information
Global and/or national frames for understanding literary productions of all periods
These questions, of course, could not be sufficiently addressed from within a singular disciplinary framework. As such, we are actively soliciting submissions from across academic departments and programs, such as English,history, economics, cultural geography, religious studies, sociology, anthropology, environmental sciences, philosophy, political science, public policy. This theme demands a representation that is, itself, global in its ambitions.
The keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Michael Bérubé, professor of Cultural Studies and English Literature at Penn State University.
posted 10/30/2004
CFP: Refresh! First International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology 1 December 2004
Banff New Media Institute, Canada, September 28 - October 3, 2005
MediaArtHistory.org
Deadline: Dec. 1st 2004
Recognizing the increasing significance of media art for our culture, this Conference (Evening of Sept. 28th, Sept. 29th, 30th, October 1st) on the Histories of Media Art will discuss for the first time the history of media art within the interdisciplinary and intercultural contexts of the histories of art. Leonardo/ISAST, Banff New Media Institute the Database for Virtual Art and UNESCO DigiArts are collaborating to produce the first international art history conference covering art and new media, art and technology, art-science interaction, and the history of media as pertinent to contemporary art.
For more information on the conference, please visit: MediaArtHistory.org
I. MediaArtHistories: Times and Landscapes I and II
II. Methodologies
III. Art as Research / Artists as Inventors
IV. Image Science and 'Representation': From a Cognitive Point of View
V. Collaborative Practice/ Networking (history)
VI. Pop/Mass/Society
VII a. Collecting, preserving and archiving the media arts
VII b. Database/New Scientific Tools
VIII. Cross-Culture - Global Art
IX. What can the History of New Media Learn from History of Science/Science Studies?
X. Rejuvenate: Film, sound and music in media arts history
XI. High Art/Low Culture - the future of media art sciences?
Please send a 200 word proposal and a very brief curriculum vitae by December 1st, 2004 via e-mail to MediaArtHistories@culture.hu-berlin.de. Full papers (5000 to 7000 word long) must be received via e-mail by July 1st., 2005.
Details about their format will be sent separately to the participants.
All Papers will be considered for publication.
Registration information soon: www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/
posted 10/30/2004
CFP: Female [super] Heroes 15 February 2005
Female [super] Heroes
This is a reopening of submissions for an anthology whose primary concern is Feminist interpretations of the female [super] hero in popular culture with emphasis on (though certainly not limited to) race, able, disabled, hyper and cyberdized bodies, gender constructions and desire. The goal of the anthology is to deal with the complex, competing, and some times contradictory images of „female heroes‰ in primarily cinematic (both film and television) images. Analysis of the graphic novel, comic books, cartoons, and video games are equally welcome including those geared toward young, teen, and adults audiences. Material that puts the graphic arts and the cinematic or either of these mediums and the novel (upon which the cinematic/graphic is based) in conversation are also encouraged but analysis of novels on their own will not be accepted. Since this is a reopening of submissions, only those topics listed below (or in rare cases proposals that resonate with topics listed be low) are welcome. Items listed below are split into three categories, which may or may not correspond to sections in the final anthology: comics and cartoons, film, television. If you are concerned about the appropriateness of your submission please send a short abstract along with your query to the editor.
Primary audience: popular & academic readers. Essays should be thoroughly grounded in analysis rather than simply a description of the text[s] in question while keeping in mind that rarified analysis may preclude them from inclusion in the final body of the anthology.
Theoretical impetus: Feminism (including but not limited to antiracist and critical race feminisms, queer theories and feminism, embodiment, poco, pomo, science and feminism, etc.). Thus, you may define feminism in any multitude of ways for the purposes of submission; however, essays whose theoretical stance is either anti-feminist or post-feminist will not be accepted. Analysis of gender is essential to the anthology ˆ essays that take "male" or "female" subjects or audiences as given rather than critical
analyzing which audiences and how subjects are constituted will not be considered.
Highest Priority: Highest priority will be given to essays that deal critically with race (including whiteness), sexuality, and various forms of the "disabled" body and the multitude of tactics utilized to represent the
O/other in the depiction of gendered heroes.
Submission: 2 HARD COPIES; include name and contact information (along with the title of your paper) on a separate piece of paper, and a short (200 word) bio that includes your academic or activist affiliation if you have one.
Due Date: 2/15/05 (received by)
Contact Info: lverastegui@msn.com
Topics/Characters:
Within these character studies or programs/films, themes of particular interest are racial constructions and juxtapositions, parallels and paradoxes between male and female heroes and/or masculine and feminine bodies, the construction of disability within or juxtaposed to female heroism, desires and the potential or lack there of for transgressive sexualities. Items are split into three categories that may or may not be reflected in the anthology: comics and cartoons, film, and television. (some characters overlap categories but are only listed once)
Comics and Cartoons Shenice Veil/She Bang ˆ Static Shock (of interest - essays dealing with the marketing of/ constructing of multiculturalism and poc hero, deconstructions of stereotypes. Archetypes, and transgressions) Wonder Woman ( of interest - essays dealing with existing statements that the wonder woman television show was the first attempt to put a feminist character on television, gender performance, utopia vs. dystopia, comparisons between wonder woman and current comic book and/or television heroines etc.) Anya Corazon (of interest- essays addressing the impact of
the first Latina superheroine to star in her own comic book, as well as comparison to other characters with similar powers) The Black Orchid Amy Chin ˆ Silver Sable‚s Wild Pack (essays dealing with ambiguous sexuality and or the role of author‚s intent vs. reader response) FemForce The Women of
X-Men (Storm, Jean Grey, Phoenix, etc.) Maggie Sawyer ˆ Head of Metropolis Crime Unit (superman) Witchblade Comet ˆ Supergirl (essays on transgendered politics or on the complex construction of a male character with a lesbian alternate) Catwoman (of particular interest are essays dealing with the differences and similarities between the 4 prominent actresses who have played cat woman) Batgirl &/or Oracle (of particular interest is analysis of Batgirl as both able-bodied and differently-abled superhero) Rene Montoya ˆ Batman Comics (essays dealing with her outing are of particular interest; as well as essays that juxtapose cartoon female detectives like Montoya, Sawyer, et al with television detectives) Power Girl The Women of the Justice League (essays dealing with sexuality, interpersonal relationships between women, and male-female dichotomies welcome) Jem (can a pop star be a hero?, are there overlaps with Jem‚s balance between heroism and love that are echoed in other heroes?, what about the statement that Jem was supposed to give girls something other than Barbie to look up to?) Bubble Gum Crisis
The Women of Mucha Lucha Sailor Moon (of particular interest the shift from Hentai to children‚s programming) Jade ˆ Jackie Chan Adventures Rain Maker ˆ Generation 13 (particularly interest lesbian sexuality for the male gaze) The Women of Robotech (possible essays comparisons between Lisa Hayes and Capt. Janeway, explorations of age in prominent female characters or as described by prominent female characters, interracial relationships and interspecies relationships) Ms. Witch Thelma, Daphne ˆ Scooby Doo Amanda ˆ Cyberzone (examination of black lesbian identity, exploration of potential
intergen issues) Firestar (essays exploring Firestar on her own as well as the only female hero in the cartoon series starring Spider Man, Ice Man and Firestar)
Film & Video Games Trish Jenner - Jeepers Creepers (How can ordinary women ˆ no technology, no science, no special powers ˆ be heroic? Comparisons between Trish and Nancy or others in similar genres or dissimilar genres like the human women on Roswell) Jade - Bullet Proof Monk Nancy-Nightmare on
Elm Street Alice, Rain Ocampo - Resident Evil Lara Croft (of particular interest are essays that deal with the ambiguous racial constructions of the character, as well as essays that deal with technology and heroism, and the „new‰ female body) Elektra Natchios ˆ Daredevil (the juxtaposition of the female body and the dis/able body) Oracle, Trinity, Niobe - The Matrix (essays dealing with blackness, whiteness, and female empowerment of particular interest) Sarah Conner T1-2 Ripley ˆ Alien/s Kate Brewster- T3 (particular interest ˆ comparisons between Kate and Sarah Connor as reluctant heroes) The Women of Bond Films (of particular interest analysis of Wai Linn ˆ Tomorrow Never Dies, Jinx ˆ Die Another Day, and/or comparison between Bond girls over time) Selene ˆ Underworld (what is the role of the dark hero?, comparisons between Selene and other similar heroes, etc.) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Anna Valerious ˆ Van Helsing Gothika The Monkey‚s Mask Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (racial discourse, motherhood, rape and sexual violence) The Women of Austin Powers (camp and heroism, Felicity Shagwell as American archetype ˆ whiteness, etc.) Foxy Brown (can blackexploitation films be feminist? If so for whom?) Charlie‚s Angels
The Vampire Effect (women as rescuers of men, window dressing and heterosexuality, the need to become the other, racial constructions - Asian heroes vs. white super villians)
Television Arina ˆ The Beast Master TV series (is a sidekick a hero in their own right?) Amanda- The Raven &/or Amanda -Highlander La Femme Nikita (the role of the reluctant hero, compared to other reluctant heroes, exploration of her relationships and/or comparison to other heroes whose heroism was in direct conflict with their love interests) Cordelia ˆ Angel &/or Buffy Winifred &/or Illyria - Angel The Women of Mutant X The Women of Farscape The Women of Andromeda (of particular interest is analysis of Andromeda as warship, love interest/object of desire, and sentient being) The Women of Star Trek The Women of Roswell The Bionic Woman Dark Angel The Profiler The Women of CSI The Women of Law and Order Tru Davies - Tru Calling Nancy Drew (analysis must include TV show; comparisons between Nancy Drew and other teen detectives like Veronica Mars or Drew's contemporaries) Gigdet (watch the 70s movie, then the tv show, and then ask yourself again how she ended up on the list) Kendra, Willow, Tara, Kennedy, Cordelia, Faith - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (of particular interest ˆ analysis of episodes like „Pangs‰ or characters ˆ including liner notes- like Kendra that deal critically with race; analysis of class in constructions of characters like Faith and Cordelia; analysis of desire between Willow and Tara, Willow and Kennedy, or exploring all of Willow‚s relationships ˆXander, Oz, Tara, and Kennedy ˆ NO papers on Buffy herself, papers on Buffy have already been accepted) Charmed (of particular interest is analysis of a recent episode in which the central theme was PMS and the Charmed ones were turned into werewolves; other close readings of episodes, or the show in general are welcome.)
posted 10/30/2004
CFP: Shaping the American West
Shaping the American West:
A New Western Ethic for the 21st Century
An International Interdisciplinary Conference
http://research.uvsc.edu/AmWest
June 9-12, 2005
Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Snowbird, Utah
Plenary Addresses by Charles Wilkinson, the Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Law, and George Sánchez, the Director of the Program in American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California
Shaping the American West is an international, interdisciplinary conference examining the literature, history, culture, art, economics, recreation, and environment of the urban and rural west. Its broad aim is to bring together multiple disciplines, populations, and concerns in order to explore an updated, inclusive, and workable ethic for the 21st-century West.
Employing perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, business, industry, and fine arts, the conference will seek a wide ranging understanding of the cultural history, human heritage, and contemporary issues and challenges of the 21st-century American West. Topics to be addressed might include (but would not be limited to) urbanization, immigration, cultural history, water policy, tourism, the military-industrial complex, Hollywood, multiculturalism, land use pressures, and environmental concerns.
The conference will take place 30 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City, in Utah's spectacular Rocky Mountains, where the world-class Snowbird Resort will provide the conference venue and reduced-rate accommodations.
Utah Valley State College invites proposals for papers, workshops, presentations and performances that will provoke discussion of the American West, past, present, and future. The conference welcomes diverse voices, including those of scholars, writers, activists, ranchers, rangers, and others whose work centers upon the land and its relationship to people. Papers or presentations may assume a variety of forms, from traditional sessions to roundtables, seminars to film screenings, panel discussions to poster sessions. Individual papers should be no longer than 20 minutes and should be submitted in the form of a 300-word abstract. We also strongly encourage the submission of organized sessions; please send a 700-word description comprised of an overview of the session and brief abstracts of each paper or component.
Send proposals to
Professor Robert Cousins
English and American Studies
Mail Code 153
Utah Valley State College
800 West University Parkway
Orem, UT 84058
robert.cousins@uvsc.edu (electronic submissions are welcomed: please send RTF or DOC file attachments)
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: January 15, 2005
For more information, please visit the conference website at research.uvsc.edu/AmWest
posted 10/22/2004
CFP: Body Modification: Mark II Conference
Following the great success of the first Body Modification conference in April 2003, and the requests we have received to host another conference, we are pleased to announce: Body Modification Mark II. Abstracts are invited for this international conference to be held at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, 21st – 23rd of April, 2005. Abstracts should be 300-500 words and should be forwarded to Dr Nikki Sullivan at the address listed below. Proposals for panels and for performance pieces are welcomed. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer any financial assistance to conference participants. Once again, the aim of this conference is explore the many and varied ways in which bodies are modified, selves are formed and transformed, and culturally specific knowledges and practices are mediated and transfigured. We hope to include a wide range of interdisciplinary approaches to the question of what constitutes body modification, as well as performative and visual presentations.
Possible topics
- ‘non-mainstream’ body modification (tattooing, piercing, scarification, branding, etc)
- body sculpting (corsetry, dieting, body-building, binding, constriction, negation, elongation, etc)
- performance art
- body politics
- transformative rituals
- body modification in non-Western cultures and/or in other historical epochs
- transgender and/or transsexualism; intersex
- cosmetic surgery
- fatness; anorexia; eating
- technology and the body (enhancement technologies, cyborgs, nanotechnology, reproductive technologies, transplants, implants, cloning, ethics, etc)
- virtual bodies
- ‘self-mutilation’
- fashion
- illness; pain
- sadomasochism; fetishes; bodies and pleasures
- pregnant embodiment
- the racialization of the body; hybrid bodies
- monstrosity; the normalization of ‘deformed’ bodies
- ageing
- addiction
- reading/writing the body
- intercorporeality
- war; violence; torture; terrorism; imprisonment
Deadline for abstracts: 1st November, 2004
Further information
Body Modification Conference Committee
Department of Critical and Cultural Studies
Macquarie University
North Ryde
New South Wales 2109
Australia
Email: bodmod@scmp.mq.edu.au
Web site: www.ccs.mq.edu.au/bodmod/callforpapers.html
Phone: + 61 (0)2 9850 8760
posted 10/22/2004
CFP: The eBay Reader
The eBay Reader
Editors: Ken Hillis, Michael Petit, Nathan Epley
This anthology, under contract with Routledge and scheduled for Spring 2006 publication, is the first book-length academic inquiry within the humanities into the cultural implications of eBay. The essays collected analyze specific socio-economic, cultural and political practices engendered by eBay; the site's structural organization, material/technical interface, and cultural appeal; the "experience economy" eBay has been central in developing and promoting; and the kinds of cultural changes this has wrought to aspects of everyday life. The collection is accessible for a range of readers (including literate lay readers) and includes shorter critical and historical essays that set the context and develop a single point as well as longer, more complex theoretical analyses and arguments.
To compliment the essays already selected, we seek four to five additional pieces that specifically focus on the following aspects of eBay:- eBay folklore. There are countless stories of oddities being bought, sold and banned on eBay, from an individual's soul to parts of crashed aircraft to kidneys available for sale. We seek work from any theoretical point of view that examines eBay folklore and myth.
- Political-economy approaches. For example, eBay as "perfect market,"
eBay as a post-crash surviving remnant of the "new economy." We especially seek work with an international scope, including the global reach of eBay, international transactions, and eBay-owned auction sites based in different countries and contexts than the United States. - eBay camp and kitsch any aspect.
- Short (3,000 word) case studies of individuals using eBay for academic or professional purposes such as data collection or gathering artifacts for research.
- Short (3,000 word) analytic essays on specific eBay fandom/collecting cultures, eBay's relation to other sites of internet culture, or eBay's individuating address and user feedback system.
We welcome email enquires. We need proposals of approximately 500 words (in MS Word, Word Perfect, or RTF format) sent to Michael Petit at mepetit@duke.edu by 20 December 2004. Drafts of accepted essays due 1 Feb, 2005.
posted 10/20/2004
CFP: Journeys of Expression IV: Tourism, Carnival and Folklore
This is the 1st CALL FOR PAPERS of Journeys of Expression IV: Tourism, Carnival and Folklore, jointly organised by the Centre for Tourism & Cultural Change at Hallam University, UK and the Ivo Pilar Institute, Croatia. JOE will take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia on 17-20 march 2005.
In the tradition of the Journeys of Expression conference series, this fourth event will again bring together international academics to discuss the multi-faceted relationships between tourism and festivals, this time focusing on aspects of folklore and carnival. The conference will take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia, from 17 to 20 March 2005 and will be hosted by the Croatian Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences. The themes to be discussed are inspired by the conclusions of our 2004 conference, which focused on "tourism and festivals as transnational practice", and was held in Innsbruck, Austria, with our partners at the Institute of European Ethnology and Folklore.
Conference Aims
Journeys of Expression IV aims to discuss different dimensions of festivity, carnival and celebration and their relation with various forms of tourism and touristic participation in festivals. In this sense, there is a focus on festival tourism as a transnational practice whose systemic character allows us to rethink the role of touristic strangers in the symbolic and economic exchange and consumption processes of contemporary society. Integral to this we will also focus upon the extent to which custom, tradition, legend and myth are expressed through festivals and are communicated to, and experienced, by tourists. The conference will bring together an international audience drawn from ethnology and folkloric studies, history, sociology, anthropology, cultural geography and tourism studies.
Themes of Interest
Key themes of interest to the conference include:
* Festival Tourism as Transnational Connectivity, Exchange and Consumption;
* Hospitality, Appropriation and Manipulation of Festival Tourists;
* Festival Tourism, Folklore and Agency;
* Music, Feast, Firework, Orgy and Dance - Inversion, Transgression, Fusion;
* Nation / Region Building in a Transnational Society - Changing Forms, Boundaries and Meanings of Festival Folklore;
* Cultural Performance, Ethnicity and the Politics of the Aesthetic;
* Myth, Legend and Superstition in Festival Tourism;
* Management Dilemmas related to Cross-Cultural Festival Audiences
* Urban Myths and Legends in Contemporary Festival Spaces;
* Tales that Travel - Buying and Selling Narratives of Tradition;
* 'Non-Festivals' - Global Mobilities, Internationalisation and Uni-formisation of Festival Spaces and Practices.
Please send your abstract of no more than 300 words with full address details as an electronic file to Dr. David Picard (d.picard@shu.ac.uk ) as soon as possible but by January 14th 2005 at the latest.
David Picard, Ph.D. (Anthrop., Univ. La Réunion, France, 2001)
Centre for Tourism & Cultural Change
Sheffield Hallam University
Howard Street - Owen Building
Sheffield S1 1WB
United Kingdom
Phone +44 (0) 114 225 3973
Fax +44 (0) 114 225 3343
Journeys of Expressions IV: Tourism, Carnival and Folklore, the fourth edition of the CTCC's Tourism and Festivals conference series will take place in Dubrovnik, Croatia in March 2005. Further details and a CFP will soon be available at our website www.tourism-culture.com.
posted 10/20/2004
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