[Discussion] CFP: Gender and Citizenship (10/15/05; 3/24/05-3/25/05)

[gpultar@cstgroup.org]

From: Petra Lina Orloff <ad1477@wayne.edu>

Third Annual New Scholarship in Citizenship Studies
Conference: "Gender and Citizenship" with Dr. Hortense J. Spillers

The Center for the Study of Citizenship at Wayne State University announces its
third annual New Scholarship Conference in Citizenship Studies. The conference
will be held on March 24, 2006 with a workshop for presenters on March 25, and
will focus on the Center's theme for this academic year: "Gender and
Citizenship." To explore this theme, the Center is considering questions such
as: In what manner is citizenship a gendered concept? Should citizenship be
equal or differentiated with respect to gender? How can tensions between gender
identity and identity group loyalty be resolved? How does gender influence civic
participation, political activism and expressions of nationalism?

The Center for the Study of Citizenship's third Distinguished
Scholar-in-Residence, Hortense J. Spillers, the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of
English at Cornell University, will serve as the keynote speaker and commentator
at the conference. Professor Spillers' work has focused on the relationships
between race and gender in African American and American literature. She is best
known for her race-centered revision of psychoanalytic theory and for her subtle
account of the relationships between race and gender. Her collection of essays,
Black, White, and in Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture, published
by the University of Chicago Press in 1993, spans her work from the early 1980s,
in which she pioneered a poststructuralist approach to African American
literature, and extends through her turn to cultural studies in the 1990s. These
pieces, which display her passionate commitment to reading as a fundamentally
political act, contain powerful readings of individual authors and address such
issues as the effect of migration on the black cultural experience and the
African American sermon.

The Conference will give junior faculty and advanced graduate students the
opportunity to present their own work in citizenship studies. Please submit a
one-page abstract of a paper proposal and a one-page c.v. to Marc Kruman,
Director, Center for the Study of Citizenship, Wayne State University at
M.Kruman@wayne.edu by October 15. Proposals are welcome from scholars in all
disciplines. A faculty committee will review each application and announce its
decisions by November 15. Among the topics you might consider are those
relating to aspects of Professor Spillers' work as well as subjects such as:
gendered and multicultural citizenship, challenges to understanding gender
construction including transgender identity, gender-specific activist movements,
popular media messages of citizenship and gender, the relationship of gender to
membership within identity groups (based on ethnic, religious, racial, sexual
orientation, political, or other differences), and gender-based variances
in immigration and migration practices and policies.

Unfortunately, the Center for the Study of Citizenship is unable to defray the
cost of travel.



>From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List