Extended CFP: Feminist Readings 3 – Feminist Writings
The deadline for the CFP Feminist Readings 3: Feminist Writings is the 28th February.
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Call for Papers
May 26th and 27th, 2017
University of Helsinki, Finland
Feminist Readings 3: Feminist Writings
Could creative writing and other creative methods allow more diverse ways to do research and approach feminism? What do creativity and innovation mean in relation to research if doing research is always already creative, yet often represented as separate from the artistic activity? Is it possible to write and do research differently or against the grain, challenging conventions of the academic, artistic, and activist mainstream? How could different situated knowledge question the white malestream?
This two-day graduate symposium offers a space for voices that meet at the crossroads of research, artistic activity and politics. The focus will be on writing. In this context, we understand writing broadly as giving form to ideas and creating connections. Writing is a process, often necessary for the realisation of an idea, a manifestation of the act of thinking.
We welcome performances and papers that challenge traditional academic expression and knowledge production. Neither art nor science needs to be discussed in just one fixed way in this symposium. In order to explore the many-fold interrelations of feminist research, art, and activism, these are some of the themes that could be discussed:
–Artistic activity in feminist politics
–Feminist research as activism
–Writing as activism
–The relationality between research and activism, research and creativity
–Ways of combining these modes to conduct multi-voiced research
–The possibility of finding hope in feminist research
–The subjectivity and positioning of self in writing
–Voice in writing, the body in writing and racializing in or as writing
This symposium is intent on starting discussions about the possibilities of bringing together research, creativity and activism. You are free to choose the form of your presentation. We encourage testing new approaches. There is room for hesitation. Could there be a poem in the middle of a theoretical research paper? Could a song or a needle point pillow, a rap lyric or a gallery tour help in the process of producing knowledge? What turns feminist research into a feminist act?
We welcome presentations on feminist writing on various topics reflecting these questions. The symposium will be in English, but presenters are encouraged to use other languages as part of their presentations as well. Abstracts of 200 words (for 20 minute presentation, performances and art practices), plus a short biographical statement, should be submitted to the symposium organisers by Tuesday February 28th, 2017. Please submit to: feministreading(at)gmail.com.
Keynote speakers: Akila Kizzi (University of Paris 8) and Heta Rundgren (University of Helsinki & University of Paris 8)
Symposium fee: There is no registration fee, but the participants must cover their own travel and accommodation costs.
Organizers: Vilja Alanko, Hanna Etholén, Astrid Joutseno and Ada Schwanck (University of Helsinki)
Feminist Readings 3: Feminist Writings is a continuation of the inaugural symposium Lectures féministes that was held at the University of Paris 8 and the Finnish Institute in Paris in 2015 and Feminist Readings 2: Theory, practice and politics of reading today that was held in the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom in 2016. Feminist Readings 3 is a part of Feminist Readings Network, supported by Gender and Education Association.
Feminist Writings is organised by the University of Helsinki doctoral programme Gender, Culture and Society (SKY), in association with LEGS – Laboratoire d’études de genre et de sexualité, and University of Leeds, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, and with support from the Academy of Finland project Embodied Religion and Oranssi Youth Cultural Center.
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