CEERES

5th Biennial Conference of the Association for Women in Slavic Studies

GENDER IN CONFLICT

University of Texas, Austin, and Indiana University, Bloomington
Austin, TX
April 1-2, 2011

Call for Papers/Panels

As we approach the 20th anniversaries of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union respectively, this conference offers a timely opportunity to consider the causes and legacies of these historic events from the perspective of gender analysis and by examining women’s lives in particular. The conference will enable us to consider critically the extent to which gender as an element of identity formation, social relations, politics, economic activity, culture, and warfare has become or has still yet to become­ an essential category of analysis. Potential questions of engagement might include (but are not limited to): To what extent has gender become an important means for understanding conflict (military, political, social, economic) in the region? Are women’s issues still just that, or has there been a scholarly shift in agenda and perspective in the last two decades to consider them more generally as human issues? In framing analysis of gender and conflict how can we nuance women’s (and men’s) experiences, so that they are seen as agents of transformation or even destruction, rather than re-victimizing them as mere objects? The conference will not focus solely on Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union/CIS; indeed, we encourage prospective participants to think more broadly and thematically about the origins and legacies of these breakups and the shared historical experience of communism and the transition for the whole Eurasian and Eastern European region.

AWSS is also pleased to announce at this time that the keynote speaker will be Prof. Yana Hashamova, Director of Center for Slavic and East European Studies and Associate Professor of Slavic at The Ohio State University.

AWSS invites scholars of all disciplines (Slavic/Eurasian/East European studies, including anthropology, art, film, history, library science, literature, music, political science, popular culture, sociology, and any aspect of women’s studies) who are working on themes related to gender and conflict broadly defined in Eastern Europe and Eurasia to submit their abstracts electronically to Professor Maria Bucur (mbucur@indiana.edu) for distribution to a multi-disciplinary conference committee. All proposals are due January 15, 2011. Applicants will be notified about their participation in mid-February.

Proposals for panels/papers must include:

· A 250-word abstract for each paper

· A two-page c.v. for each participant

· For panel proposals, we ask that the organizer send a cover page with the list of proposed participants as well as a brief description (150 words) of the panel.

Proposals for roundtables must include a brief description of the topic and, if possible, a list of presenters/facilitators.