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2017 Graduate Conference - "State of the Field"
CFP: “State of the Field”
A Conference for Emerging Scholars in WGSS
Humanities Institute- Stony Brook
Stony Brook, New York
Date: Friday, April 7, 2017
Keynote: Elora Chowdhury (Ph.D. Clark, Associate Professor of WaGS, UMass-Boston)
Confirmed Plenary Speakers: Lisa Diedrich (Ph.D. Emory, Associate Professor of WGSS at Stony Brook University), Amy Washburn (Ph.D. Maryland, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at Kingsborough Community College), Che Gossett (current PhD student, Rutgers)
What is the potential of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as a field? What surprising and generative ideas are sparked by conversations within this field?
Graduate training in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) is not a new development. Indeed, the first M.A. programs in the field date back to the early 1970s, while the first Ph.D. programs were introduced twenty-five years ago in the early 1990s. However, although there is an established tradition of graduate training in the field, the growth of graduate programs over the last few years is in many ways unprecedented. Since 2010, new Ph.D. programs have been introduced at TWU (2010), Kansas (2011), Kentucky (2013), UCSC (2013), Toronto (2013), Stony Brook (2014), and Oregon State (2016), extending the total number of WGSS Ph.D. programs in North America to twenty-six. In addition to the proliferation of Ph.D. programs, there has also been an increased interest in thinking specifically about the intellectual and political stakes of these degrees, as evidenced by the creation of the GWSF PhD interest group in the NWSA as well as an upcoming special issue of Feminist Studies on “Doctoral Degrees in WGSS: Taking Stock.”
“State of the Field: A Conference for Emerging Scholars in WGSS” responds to these larger trends. The purpose of this conference is to create a forum for WGSS graduate students to meet, discuss their research, and think collectively about professionalization. The conference will feature a roundtable on the professional and intellectual state of the field as well as a keynote address by Prof. Elora Chowdhury, an associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at UMass-Boston whose recent publications include Transnationalism Reversed: Women Organizing Against Gendered Violence in Bangladesh (2011) and (co-editor) Dissident Friendships (2016). In addition to these plenary sessions, we invite WGSS graduate students to submit abstracts for papers or precomposed panels that fit into one of four broad streams:
*queer and trans* studies;
*globalization and transnational social movements;
*the politics of race, gender, and sexuality;
*the body, disability, and the politics of health
Rather than putting forth a specific theme, this conference aims to generate unexpected conversations. What excites you intellectually? What matters to you politically? And what are your priorities and concerns as a developing scholar in this field?
Please send a 300-word abstract and a one-page CV to wgsssbu@gmail.com by December 15, 2016. Along with your abstract, please list your chosen stream. Although this conference is designed for M.A. students, Ph.D. students, and recent PhDs in WGSS, we will also accept abstracts from graduate students in other fields. If you are outside of the field, you must submit a short statement (250 words) describing your relationship to WGSS. Preference will be given to WGSS graduate students and recent PhDs. We will inform participants of the status of their submission by Jan 15, 2017. We look forward to reading your submissions, and hosting “State of the Field: A Conference for Emerging WGSS Scholars” on April 7, 2017.