College of Arts & Sciences Women's Studies

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Research Conference

Gender and Conflict 

Biennial Women and Gender Research Conference

October 18-19, 2012
University of South Dakota campus

The University of South Dakota's 2012 Biennial Women and Gender Research Conference invites submissions on the theme Gender and Conflict: Unraveling Paths to Change.

Organizers seek proposals for individual papers or panels on conflicts reflecting the ways in which individuals negotiate gender and agency across space and time. Conflicts may be personal, social, military, generational, familial, postcolonial, economic, psychological, or ethical; they may be the result of cultural, ethnic, racial, and religious expectations, rigidity of sex roles, war, inequality, colonization, or other factors. 

Call For Papers information.

 conference 
The 2012 conference identifies several central questions to be addressed within the context of the theme:
  • War, diplomacy, and trauma: How do women and men explore new roles in military environments? How do they negotiate for peace? How do they face or resolve trauma resulting from military conflict and/or its consequences, including displacement and forced relocation?
  • Marginality and resistance: What creative negotiations of gender and agency occur in societies that restrict human rights and free expression? How have minority cultures or individuals maintained their own constructions of gender in the context of dominant ideologies?
  • Assimilation and alienation: What are the current conflicts faced by gay, lesbian, and transgendered individuals? How do immigrants, indigenous peoples, and racial/ethnic minorities re-construct gender within a mainstream culture?
  • Internalized conflicts: How do women and men negotiate body image and self-presentation in mediated contexts? What is the conflict between public and private identity in the context of gender?
  • Personas and politics: How do women and men deal with conflict as they re-negotiate gender roles in parenting and the workforce? How has the conflict between definitions of sex and gender changed? How will it continue to change?

The conference is interdisciplinary. Perspectives from anthropology, art, business, communication, education, film, history, journalism, languages, law, linguistics, literature, medicine, music, philosophy, political science, popular culture, psychology, religion, and sociology are welcome.

Please submit a one-page abstract, panel proposal, or a full paper by May 18, 2012, to:

  • Miglena Sternadori
    Women's Studies Coordinator
    The University of South Dakota
    414 East Clark
    Vermillion, SD 57069
    miglena.sternadori@usd.edu.
Proposals may be submitted electronically. Submissions will be evaluated by mid-June 2012.

Keynote Speaker:
BethBailey_115

Beth Bailey
U.S. Gender and Sexuality, 20th-century U.S. Cultural/Social, War and American Culture

Beth Bailey is a social/cultural historian of the 20th century United States. Her research has focused on the history of gender and sexuality and on war and society/military institutions in US history; her most recent book is America's Army: Making the All-Volunteer Force (2009).