Call for Papers: Indigenous Mothering, Family and Community: International Perspectives

Call for Papers:

The voices of Indigenous women worldwide have long been silenced by colonial oppression and institutions of patriarchal dominance. Recent generations of powerful Indigenous women have begun speaking out so that their positions of respect within their families and communities might be reclaimed. As part of this process of reinvigorating our spirits we are compiling a volume exploring the issues surrounding and impacting Indigenous mothering, family and community in a variety of contexts internationally. We welcome submissions from Indigenous mothers, scholars, students, activists, workers, artists, and any others interested in the experiences and knowledges of Indigenous mothering, families and communities in either historical or contemporary societies.

The deadline for abstracts is January 7, 2013.

Contact Information:

Dr. Dawn Harvard
mharvard@sympatico.ca

Dr. Kim Anderson

kanderson@wlu.ca

http://www.vivalafeminista.com/2012/09/cfp-indigenous-mothering.html

Call for Papers: Forced Migration Review

Call for Papers:

This issue of FMR will address questions such as the following:

• What are the different state practices in asylum for recognising sexual orientation or gender identity as grounds for claiming a well-founded fear of persecution?
• Do existing legal instruments protect LGBTI people’s rights in respect of displacement and how are those instruments enforced?
• What are the practices in reception, detention, status determination and resettlement for LGBTI people, whether their gender identity or sexual orientation is the cause of their claim for asylum or not?
• What examples of good practice are there in reception, detention, status determination and resettlement?
• What can we learn from local initiatives to protect LGBTI rights and prevent persecution and displacement?
• Is data about the legal and cultural position of LGBTI people included in Country of Origin Information?
• Is discrimination by states and by others on the grounds of gender identity and/or sexual orientation given due weight by those states considering asylum claims? Are non-stereotypical relationships given fair or equal consideration in matters of asylum and resettlement?
• How can government agencies, service providers and displaced communities enhance the protection of displaced LGBTI people?
• Are there particular aspects relating to age – either young or old – that need to be considered?

The deadline for submission of articles is December 3, 2012.

Contact Information:

fmr@qeh.ox.ac.uk

http://www.fmreview.org/sogi

Call for Papers: The Legal and Ethical Implications of Posthumous Reproduction

The Journal of Law and Health (Cleveland-Marshall) invites submissions for its Annual Symposium: The Legal and Ethical Implications of Posthumous Reproduction. The submission deadline is October 1, 2012.

Recently, in Astrue v. Capato, the Supreme Court held that children conceived through in vitro fertilization after the death of a parent were not automatically entitled to survivor benefits under the Social Security law. The Court stated that the children’s eligibility to receive the benefits depended upon their ability to inheritance under the state’s intestacy system.

Areas of interest for this special journal issue include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• What steps are necessary to protect the financial interests of posthumously conceived children?
• What regulations are needed to protect the reproductive rights of the dead gamete provider?
• What steps are necessary to address the legal, moral and ethical consequences of posthumous reproduction?
• What impact, if any, will the United States Supreme Court decision in Astrue v. Capato have on posthumous reproduction?
• Do the dead have a fundamental right to procreate?
• Should posthumously conceived children be treated like heirs under the intestacy system?
• Whether health insurance should cover the expense of posthumous reproduction?

Please submit a 600-word abstract describing your topic and a copy of your curriculum vitae by October 1, 2012 to Journal of Law and Health at health.journal@law.csuohio.edu. Please include “Submission: Annual Symposium” in the subject line. The symposium is tentatively scheduled for March 2013.

Contact Information:

health.journal@law.csuohio.edu

http://legalscholarshipblog.com/2012/07/31/call-for-papers-posthumous-reproduction/

Call for Papers: Title IX and Transgender Rights

Call for Papers:

The Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society will present its 2013 symposium, Transcending Gender Lines: Title IX and Transgender Rights, in Feb. 2013. Abstracts for the call for papers are due October 15, 2012.

We are seeking original scholarship, from both scholars and practitioners, addressing the current state of Title IX application in relation to the rights of transgender individuals.

Ideally, proposals would highlight:

• An analysis of the effectiveness of current Title IX implementation in prohibiting sex-discrimination of transgender individuals.
• Recommendations as to how Title IX implementation could be improved to address issues particular to the needs of transgender individuals.

Topics could include: judicial decisions opening the door for Title IX’s application to transgender individuals, the current scope of Title IX’s application to harassment of transgender individuals (including sexual harassment, bullying at schools, on athletic teams, and online, sexual abuse); the effectiveness of measures state and local governments have enacted to protect the transgender rights under Title IX.

Interested parties should send an abstract to WJLGS.Symposium@gmail.com by October 15, 2012. Those selected for the Symposium will be notified by November 2012. The Journal’s Symposium issue will be published in Fall 2013.

Contact Information:

Jill Parikh
Symposium Editor
jparikh@wisc.edu

http://hosted.law.wisc.edu/wjlgs/

Call for Papers: Applied Feminism and Families

Call for Papers:

The University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center on Applied Feminism seeks submissions for its Sixth Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference.

This conference seeks to explore how feminist legal theory affects families in the United States and abroad. We are interested in including both family law experts and experts who consider issues facing families from other legal perspectives. Papers might explore the following questions:

• What have been the accomplishments or shortcomings of feminist legal theory for families?
• How might feminist legal theory respond to the challenges facing families?
• What sort of support should society and law provide to families?
• Does feminist legal theory support state interventions into family life? In what circumstances?
• How do law and feminist legal theory conceptualize the roles of family members, including mothers, fathers, caretakers, children, and others?
• How does feminist legal theory help us understand changes in the institution of marriage and family structure?
• How do the needs of families vary across cultural, economic, religious, and other differences?
• Are theories of essentialism and intersectionality necessary or helpful in shaping laws that impact families?
• In what areas outside of family law could or should feminist legal theory be applied to assist families?

To submit a paper proposal, please submit an abstract by 5 p.m. on October 26, 2012, to Professor Michele Gilman at mgilman@ubalt.edu.  In the subject or “re” line of your submission, you must type: CAF conference submission. It is essential that your abstract contain your full contact information, including an email, phone number, and mailing address where you can be reached. Abstracts should be no longer than one page. Practitioners’ and activists’ papers need not follow a strictly academic format, but all paper proposals should address the conference theme. We will notify presenters of selected papers in mid-November. We anticipate being able to have twelve paper presenters during the conference on Friday, March 8, 2013. All working drafts of papers will be due no later than February, 15, 2013. All abstracts and drafts will be posted on the Center on Applied Feminism’s conference website to be shared with other participants and attendees.

Contact Information:

Prof. Michele Gilman
mgilman@ubalt.edu

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/family_law/2012/08/call-for-papers-applied-feminism-and-families.html

Call for Papers: Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Call for Papers:

The Journal of Feminist Scholarship invites submissions that are not currently under consideration or published elsewhere, either in print or in electronic format. The JFS, at this time, can only accept completed work; the editors cannot offer feedback on work in progress.

The Journal of Feminist Scholarship is committed to encouraging a discussion of feminist thought and feminist scholarship for the twenty-first century, their directions today and their relationship to the foundations laid down by twentieth-century feminist inquiry and action. We aim to publish work that explores the multiple theoretical paradigms and political agendas of contemporary feminism and the potential intersections and tensions between these paradigms and agendas. We are especially interested in examining productive controversies and divergences between local and global contexts of feminism. We also welcome submissions that focus on feminist pedagogies and activism.

Contact Information:

jfs@umassd.edu

http://www1.umassd.edu/jfs/submissions.html

2012 Lavender Law Conference & Career Fair

Date(s) of Conference:

August 23-25, 2012

Location:

Washington, D.C.

Description:

Each year, the National LGBT Bar Association hosts the Lavender Law Conference and Career Fair to bring together the best and brightest legal minds in the LGBT community. 

Contact Information:

info@lgbtbar.org

http://www.lgbtbar.org/annual/

Call for Papers: Black Women in Politics

Call for Papers:

The editors of The National Political Science Review (NPSR) invite submissions from the scholarly community for review and possible publication for a Special Issue: Black Women in Politics: Moving Forward -New Questions, New Directions.

A recent study, appearing in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, suggests that Black women are often rendered invisible in the social sphere. This study brings to light what we might already know via anecdotal evidence. However, it leaves us wondering how do we study Black women? When Black women are the subjects of the research, must they always be compared to other racial/ethnic groups? Which methodologies and methods are better suited for unearthing and explaining Black women’s experiences as political and social actors?  And, finally what new knowledges are produced when interdisciplinary approaches and unconventional methodologies and methods are employed?

In addressing these questions, this special issue seeks to interact with and advance the continuum of Black women’s studies with a special focus on Black women and politics. The editors are soliciting articles for a themed issue of the National Political Science Review (NPSR) to be published in 2014. This special edition will be devoted to (1) questions of epistemology and the politics of knowledge production; and (2) the lives and lived realities of Black women–their cultures and politics, their representations in media, their involvement in new media, and their activism. We invite research length papers on Black women in politics and Black gender politics from a wide range of disciplines including Black women’s studies, political science, religion, Black Studies, sociology, Women’s Studies, and philosophy among others. Papers may take any theoretical and or methodological perspective that centers Black women’s political phenomena — broadly defined. All submissions should be written in a manner that is accessible to a wide scholarly audience. Papers should be no longer than 25 pages, inclusive of notes and references, and should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition). We especially encourage papers that employ not only quantitative, but also qualitative and interpretive methodologies, which analyze and explain the triumphs and challenges faced by Black women domestically and globally.  Particular attention will be given to the ways in which feminist and womanist scholars have challenged disciplinary conventions in producing transformative, interdisciplinary knowledge. Articles may be inspired by, but are certainly not limited to, the following themes:

• Black women and reproductive justice
• Black women’s response to nation states, colonialism and neo-colonialism
• Black women’s contemporary social and political activism
• Black women’s experience with and negotiation of the criminal justice system
• Black women and the politics of representation: sexuality, media, and/or texts
• Black women’s informal political participation in movements and organizations
• The politics of knowledge production
• Transformational approaches to intersectionality scholarship
• Black women in international relations and comparative politics
• Black women in politics, new social media, and virtual social networks

Please email submissions and cover letter, no later than October 1, 2012, to: Dr. Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd at ngaf@rci.rutgers.edu and Dr. Julia Jordan-Zachery at jjordanz@providence.edu.

Contact Information:

Dr. Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd
ngaf@rci.rutgers.edu

Dr. Julia Jordan-Zachery
jjordanz@providence.edu

Call for Papers: Expanding the Gaze: Gender, Public Space, and Surveillance

Call for Papers:

The past decade has witnessed an explosion of scholarship covering the broad area of surveillance studies. Surveillance, or the ability to engage in what David Lyon (2003) calls ‘social sorting’, is understood by social scientists to be key to neoliberal governance, in large part because of its capacity to reconfigure both public space and forms of citizenship.  And yet, to date, very little scholarly work systematically considers the gendered dimensions of, and experiences with, surveillance. The little research that does exist indicates the need for more in-depth study. This edited collection seeks to engage  with contemporary studies on surveillance by expanding the gaze to include a critical analysis of gender and public space.

The aim of the collection is to capture a wide range of gendered experiences, identities, and subjectivities, including, but not limited to, those of ‘women’. By public space we are referring to those places to which the public has reasonable expectations of access.  This space might be privately owned, public space, or a hybrid; it may be physical (e.g. shopping malls, city streets) or virtual (e.g. public on-line profiles and social media platforms). Surveillance itself may be technological (e.g. CCTV) or informal (e.g. ‘eyes on the street’). The key uniting theme of ‘Expanding the Gaze: Gender, Public Space, and Surveillance’ is the ways that the dimensions of gender, public space, and surveillance interact to produce particular configurations that have yet to be fully explored.

This call for papers seeks innovative feminist and/or intersectional scholarship for an interdisciplinary edited collection of original works. We welcome submissions from a variety of perspectives and academic disciplines, including: communication studies, criminology, geography, law, sexuality studies, socio-legal studies, sociology, and/or women’s and gender studies.  Papers may be theoretical or empirical in nature.

Topics may include (but are not limited to):

- Surveillance, bodies, and forms of citizenship
- Sexuality/ies and surveillance
- Masculinity/ies and surveillance
- Gendered resistance to surveillance
- Gender and urban CCTV
- Surveillance and the intersectionality of gender, race, and class
- Queer and trans perspectives on, and experiences with, surveillance
technologies
- Media/cinematic representations of surveillance
- Relationships between the watchers and being watched

Interested contributors should send a 300-500 word abstract and 200 word
bio to genderedlens@gmail.com no later than September 15, 2012.

Those invited to contribute to the collection will be notified in October
2012 and full papers will be due in April 2013.

Contact Information:

Emily van der Meulen
evandermeulen@ryerson.ca
Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

Call for Papers: Feminists Interrogate States of Emergency

Call for Papers:

This special issue of FeministFormations will take up the concept of “states of emergency” as an object of feminist analysis.  We seek essays that will interrogate the ways in which a “state of emergency,” whether it be about economic scarcity, morality under siege, sexual violence or national security, is politically constructed and (re)produced through myriad technologies of power.  How do political actors define a moment as a state of emergency in order to mobilize publics, re-define citizenship, or deploy political machinery?  At the same time, we invite scholarship that names states of emergency made invisible by existing public discourse. In addition to essays that analyze the role and power of difference in framing narratives of emergency, we invite papers that question what can “count” as a state of emergency.  For example, how can the racialized, sexualized and gendered exigencies of the everyday be seen as constitutive of affected “states”? How are so-called “natural disasters” of environmental calamity or contamination dependent on variable distinctions between “natural” and “unnatural”?

We seek papers that interrogate “states of emergency” in relation to gender, sexuality and race on topics such as war, institutions, law, literature, popular culture, “natural disasters,” state and intimate violence, citizenship, immigration, environment, population, health, and economic instabilities.  We welcome contributions with U.S., global and transnational foci.

The special issue will focus on the following themes and questions but is not restricted to them:

• How are “states of emergency” produced, claimed and deployed?  What are the institutional (e.g., government, media, religion) and/or informal (e.g., local networks) mechanisms that create /construct or facilitate a “state of emergency”?
• How and why are certain events framed as “natural disasters”?  Why are certain experiences with environmental disasters represented as “natural” and what division between “nature” and “human” is required?  How do the global and transnational operate within these constructs of “natural” and in locating disaster?
• What does it mean to approach disaster relief from an intersectional perspective?  What lessons have we learned frompost-disaster relief efforts in the United States, such as after Hurricane Katrina and 9/11?  How do such efforts operate at an international level, as with the UN in the post-Rwandan genocide projects?
• How are discourses about environmental states of emergency (such as with populations, environmental contamination and global warming) deployed and informed by understandings of gender, race and sexuality and other naturalized categorizes such as “health” and “safety”?
• How have the issues of immigration and economic recession been crafted as “states of emergency” in the United States and/or in other countries?  What political projects have they served?  What counts as a “state of emergency?
• How does the state produce narratives about states of emergency—stranger abduction, morality under siege, economic scarcity or debt, sexual violence—in ways that are shaped by gendered, sexualized and racialized discourse?
• How do feminist understandings of affective “states” alter the framework of “states of emergency”?  What cultural or emotional terrains do we traverse when we include such understandings of “states of emergency?”
• How do representations—fiction, memoir, film, art, television, online sites—address states of emergency? How can representations reinforce or resist dominant narratives about women/subjects in crisis?

Fullpapers should be sent to Jill Bystydzienski by August 1, 2012.

Contact Information:

Jill Bystydzienski
The Ohio State University
bystydzienski.1@osu.edu

Jennifer Suchland
The Ohio State University
suchland.15@osu.edu

Rebecca Wanzo
Washington University in St. Louis
rwanzo@wustl.edu

http://www.feministlawprofessors.com/2012/04/cfp-feminists-interrogate-states-emergency/