[NIS_GS:] CFP: Theories and Methods for Gender Studies
CALL FOR PAPERS
Gender Workshop 2005 - Theories and Methods of and for Gender Studies International University Bremen
April 29-30, 2005


We are pleased to announce a call for papers for the second Gender Workshop at International University Bremen, which will take place on April 29-30, 2005.
The Gender Workshop is a multidisciplinary conference that aims to introduce and align ways of seeing and negotiating gender as an analytical category in various academic fields and paradigms. The term workshop is chosen to stress our wish to offer a forum for lively discussions and active exchange. The workshop brings together scholars from a broad range of interests and offers talks and discussions on theoretical and methodological issues of gender studies and gender theory from both the perspective of traditional academic disciplines and interdisciplinary angles.

The First Gender Workshop took place at International University Bremen in February 2004. Presentations at the Gender Workshop 2004 covered a variety of fields, such as, development and institutionalization of Women’s and Gender Studies in Germany, China and post-Soviet countries; gender theories and empirical studies in psychology; gender, nationalism and migration; gender, genre and (trans)gender formations in literature; construction of gender in historical discourses; gender representations in visual arts and movies. The workshop provided an opportunity to introduce and discuss the many ways gender can be approached in different fields of research. Selected papers of the Gender Workshop 2004 will be published early 2005 in a special volume titled "Negotiating Space for Gender Studies: Frameworks and Applications" by Peter Lang Publishings.

The many fields that participated in the first Gender Workshop shall by no means restrict the choice of fields that will participate in the second one. They are, however, listed above in order convey the versatility and variety of fields that the workshop is based upon. The Gender Workshop 2005 will follow the conceptual multidisciplinary framework of the first conference and continue discussing the different ways of studying gender as an analytical category in different academic fields. Special attention will be given to the applicability, correspondence and incorporation of the category of gender in methodologies and epistemologies of traditional academic disciplines. In addition, the Second Gender Workshop will elaborate with greater precision the varying theories and methods of gender studies.

In order to connect the many different fields and create a basis for comparison at Gender Workshop 2005, and in order to work towards a thorough understanding of both theory and methods of and for gender studies, we would like each contribution to refer to the following three pivotal points:
First, we would like participants to point out in detail the theories of gender that are important for their research, and to elaborate on the coherence of these theories with their disciplines and fields of study.
Second, we would like our participants to comment on the applied theories of gender and explain which parts of them are central and which parts are more marginal for their own studies of gender, and why. That is, we would like to discuss which meanings, aspects, and/or characteristics of gender are most crucial (or less important, respectively) for one’s research.
Third, we would like our participants to specify the methods they use in their research.
Each participant will have 60 minutes to discuss her or his research project, including 30 minutes for presentation and 30 minutes for discussion. The workshop language will be English.

We would like to emphasize that the general conceptual framework of the Gender Workshop sketched above does not only target the ones who have worked with the category of gender for many years, and who are thus more proficient in gender studies. Instead, we would like to invite to our workshop any academics, experts or novices, who consider the category of gender important for their research and who would like to share their ideas and approaches with fellow researchers from other schools and disciplines.
Contributions from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences are equally welcome.

Unfortunately, we are not able to cover travel and accommodation costs for our participants.

If you are interested in participating at the Gender Workshop 2005, please send abstracts of 250-300 words explaining your research project, as well as theories and methods you are using in it by Monday, February 7, 2005, to the workshop organizers Özen Odag: o.odag@iu-bremen.de and Alexander Pershai: a.pershai@iu-bremen.de. Please include your academic affiliation in your letter.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Yours truly,
Özen Odag o.odag@iu-bremen.de and Alexander Pershai a.pershai@iu-bremen.de