[Discussion] Sex and the Body Politic

[gonul@bilkent.edu.tr]

CALL FOR PAPERS: 

13th Annual Cultural Studies Conference 

Sex and the Body Politic 

March 4-6, 2004 
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 

Plenary Speakers: 

*Elizabeth Grosz, author of Space, Time and 
Perversion: Essays on the Politics of Bodies and 
Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism, editor 
of Sexy Bodies: The Strange Carnalities of Feminism 

*Carl Phillips, author of In the Blood, Pastoral, Cortige 

* Donald Hall, author of Queer Theories, The Academic 
Self: An Owner’s Manual, editor of Representing 
Bisexualities: Subjects and Cultures of Fluid Desire 

Topic: 

>From clerical sexual abuse in the Catholic church, to 
repressive Taliban policies toward women in 
Afghanistan, to same sex marriage, to debates about 
how gender should be determined, sex is a topic that 
garners lavish popular and critical attention. From 
Michel Foucault's examination of our garrulity about 
sex, to Judith Butler's theory of performativity, to 
Elizabeth Grosz's emphasis on the diversity of sexually 
specific bodies, important contemporary thinkers have 
brought issues of sexuality and society to the forefront 
of debates within cultural studies. "Sex and the Body 
Politic" considers the construction of sexual identity as 
a function of political, social, and economic forces. 

We invite papers or paper proposals that explore the 
intersections between structures of "sex" and the 
discourses of law, science, medicine, history, religion, 
empire, and cultural taste, to name a few. We invite 
papers on all periods from ancient to the future. 

Possible paper or panel topics: 

sex and travel 
sex and race 
sex and gender 
sexual selection (plants/animals/humans) 
sex & the market 
sex and crime 
sex rituals and practices 
sex and education 
sex and discourse 
reproduction/childbirth/maternity 
sex and religion 
sex and the media 
sex and beauty 
sex and war 

Send 1-page abstracts to: 
Michele Janette 
Director, Cultural Studies Program 
English Department 
Kansas State University 106 Denison Hall 
Manhattan KS, 66506-0701 

Email submissions are encouraged: send to 
mjanette@ksu.edu. 

Deadline: October 20, 2003.