Tenured · Fangirl · -- · the · fullmetal · analyst

If you think you might be interested, let me know. This conference is local for me.

CF: Gender, Bodies and Technology
"Gender, Bodies and Technology"

http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gbt/

Proposals are invited for an Interdisciplinary Conference

April 22-24, 2010

Roanoke, Virginia

Sponsored by the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Virginia Tech

Proposal Deadline: September 15, 2009

We invite proposals from scholars in the humanities, social and natural sciences, visual and performing arts, engineering and technology for papers, panels, new media art and performance pieces that explore: the technological production of gendered and racialized bodies, historical and contemporary feminist appropriations of technology in aesthetics and representations of embodiment, and the gendered implications of technology in contexts ranging from classrooms to workplaces to the Internet. We construe technology broadly to include material culture and the apparatus of daily life, such as writing, books and the built environment.

Specific topics might include, but are not limited to:

-Technological production and control of classed, racialized, aged and gendered bodies

-Work, healthcare, education and activities of daily life as produced through technologies

-Performance, new media and other creative expressions as sites for engaging/enacting/destabilizing conventions of embodiment and technology

-Biopolitics and medical engineering of reproduction, sexual identity and gender

-Personal narrative and oral history as sources of embodied theorizing

-Surveillance, containment, in/security and militarization

-Identity and technological design, production and use; gender, race, age, class and sexuality in SET (sciences, engineering and technology) fields

-New media art and feminist aesthetics

-Technologies of development and sustainability; eco-feminism

-Activism, participatory decision-making and issues of technological citizenship

As an assemblage of people and technologies we see the conference itself as enacting the conference theme. We welcome innovative uses of technology and creative session formats, including performance and interactive presentations, as well as traditional paper presentations. Using the form attached, please submit a proposal of up to 300 words for each individual presentation, including not only the scholarship you will engage but also the format that you wish to use. For panels, include an abstract for each presentation. Please specify in your proposal any special requirements for technology or space that you anticipate. Proposals will be reviewed by Virginia Tech Women's and Gender Studies faculty/affiliates with appropriate expertise and notification of the outcome will be made no later than October 15, 2009.

Proposals should be submitted via our website at http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gbt/.
If that is not possible, or if you have questions, please contact:



Sharon Elber

GBT Conference Co-Planner

STS/Women's and Gender Studies (0227)

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, VA 24061

selber[@]vt.edu

2. Roland Barthes
In the work that I'm doing now, Barthes' essays "The Death of the Author" and "From Work to Text" have been very influential in terms of examining the ways that fans assert themselves in relation to the text.

3. Mikhail Bakhtin
It's really hard for me to rank my top three. I could shuffle the rankings of Bakhtin, Barthes, and Foucault, and it would still reflect the influence they've had on me. Bakhtin's notions of discourse in particular have been very powerful for me in terms of looking at Internet discourse.

4. Henry Jenkins
Most non-academic fans, if they've heard of any cultural theorist, they've heard of Henry Jenkins. He's the father of fan studies and brought it a legitimacy that allowed the rest of us to follow along behind him.

5. Matt Hills
If Jenkins is the father of fan studies, then Hills is perhaps the oldest son -- a bit defiant, but on target in his critiques. He developed some very valuable concepts that I hope for my work to build on -- particularly hyperdiegesis and endlessly deferred narrative. I feel that these two concepts are critical to understanding the kinds of stories that result in the strongest fan engagement. (Hyperdiegesis refers to the world-building that goes on and endlessly deferred narrative refers to the lack of closure. Both mean that a story has a potential world and history that extends beyond that provided by the author.

1. scholars -  For me, being a scholar is a calling, rather like a religious vocation. It's about being committed to the pursuit of knowledge, but also the transmittal of knowledge. A scholar both researches and teaches. Nine years ago I earned my PhD and came to work here. I can't imagine being in any other line of work, even with what I'll be saying about power play.
   
2. serial fiction - What happens after the last page? What happened to those character between that scene and this scene? The thing that fascinates me about serial fiction is the way that the answers to those questions are negotiated between the writer and the reader (or producer and viewer) because the story hasn't ended yet. The writer still tells the story, even as the audience anticipates the future within the narrative or asks that the past be filled in.
   
3. OCMS - The great thing about Old Crow Medicine Show concerts is that you get a string band concert with a light show that leaves you deaf for a while afterwards. I love string band music, and I especially love that OCMS bring a punk edge to the sound.
   
4. power play - One of the reasons I love the work of Michel Foucault is that he understood power as an ever-shifting relationship between people involved in a situation. (Hmm, I wonder if anyone has done a study of fanfic kink using Foucault's History of Sexuality.) Any given situation is going to involve a play of power, especially the workplace. Just the other day I was in the grocery story, and a younger man in a tie and dress shirt and an older woman in a store uniform were carrying a table. The act of carrying a table looked egalitarian, but the difference in their clothing and the fact that she addressed him as "sir" spoke to the play of power. The play of power is unavoidable, and it can be one of most upsetting parts of my job.
   
5. Virginia - I'm not really sure yet what Virginia means to me. I've lived here for nine years now in the Appalachian corner of the state, which is different from the DC metropolitan area, from the patrician central part of the state, from the coastal, naval regions. I grew up in Kentucky, which actually part of Virginia before becoming a state of its own in 1792. So it's not exactly home, but I recognize the culture and the landscape. Several of my colleagues are from New York or New England, and they experienced a bit of culture shock down here. One thing did strike me when I moved here though. Where I'm from, Appalachia is about the politics and economics of the region, especially the mines and the drugs. Here it's much more about the culture, especially the music. And I really love the music.

( Why does it matter to me that Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett Died? )

Current Mood:

pensive