CFP: [Gender Studies] Crosscurrents in Feminism: Building Coalitions, Sharing Knowledges and Pedagogies, Shaping Networks

full name / name of organization: 
Emily Hoeflinger
contact email: 

CFP TITLE: Crosscurrents in Feminism: Building Coalitions, Sharing Knowledges and Pedagogies,
Shaping Networks

Description of Workshop:

The 2002 anthology Disciplining Feminism: From Social Activism to Academic Discourse suggests
that the divide that has persisted in feminist scholarship between activism and intellectualism
results from divergent ways of defining change-- change as something to be debated or shaped.
These discussions have often highlighted the disjuncture between various feminist groups and
forms of feminism within the academy, as well as the uneasy relationship between academics
and activism. Such disjunctures, however, are also productive and can signal the ways in which
academia and the community might continue to dialogue. This workshop seeks to analyze these
disjunctures as productive difference and to interrogate their implications in the creation of
feminist coalitions, pedagogies, and mentorships. We would like to address the theoretical and
practical roles of feminists in the academic community in shaping feminism’s dedication to
change-- as a movement and a discourse-- that crosses and negotiates the currents of
difference.

Additionally, this workshop asks participants to frame and respond to questions such as the
following:

- What are the bases for coalitions between academic feminists and feminist community activists,
artists, or workers?
- What coalitions seem to be lacking in academic feminist communities?
- What are the effects of conflicts within feminist academic communities--i.e. the Andrea Smith
tenure case at Michigan--on feminism as a social movement?
- How do conflicts or coalitions within online communities affect the "real world" structures of
feminism, in the academy or in other contexts?
- What political issues not historically identified with feminism--i.e. immigration, security issues,
environmentalism--have feminists been contributing to in productive ways?
- In what ways have these movements offered alternative models for coalition-building?
- Which issues are feminist communities overlooking or not doing enough to address?
- Is feminist pedagogy a form of feminist activism?
- If feminist pedagogy is a form of activism, what kinds of practices do people use in their
classrooms or in their writing?
- How can feminist mentorship facilitate feminist coalitions and activism?

This workshop will be divided into three interconnected parts.

Part One: Currents
Part One will explore the work of women of color and academic-activists working in our current
political climate. This panel will feature the voices of academics and activists, discussing
feminist-activist research and methods, activist projects, and collaborative community and
coalition work. This portion will involve interactive discussion and multimedia presentations.

Part Two: Pedagogies
Part Two will be an interactive portion as well, where participants will share feminist knowledges
and pedagogies. This part will consist of brief presentations by participants, who will discuss
their classroom practices and rationales specifically. Every participant will bring handouts on
syllabi, activities, and assignments. All workshop participants will brainstorm pedagogical
choices and methods. Some activities in this portion will be roundtable discussions and some
large group discussions. Multimedia and creative presentation formats are highly encouraged.
We will collaborate on creating an online archive resource for these materials, from which there
will be a publishing opportunity in a peer-reviewed pedagogy journal.

Part Three: Coalitions
Part Three will discuss coalitions and mentorship in academia and in the community, particularly
for underrepresented groups. This interactive portion will involve prominent academic-activists
discussing successful examples of coalition building and mentorship. All speakers and
participants will explore advantages and obstacles to mentorship in large and small group
discussions, as well as brainstorm techniques for successful local and national, feminist coalition
building.

Publication:
As was outlined briefly in Part Two, there will be opportunities to publish the pedagogical
materials submitted, brainstormed, and collaboratively created in this workshop to an online
archive and/or a special issue of a peer-reviewed pedagogy journal.

Requirements/Submission Guidelines:
We invite proposals for brief presentations (6-9 minutes), to be included in Part One or Part Two.
Presentations outside of the traditional paper format (multimedia, performative reading,
interactive, etc.) are especially welcome. Please submit abstracts of no more than one double-
spaced page to 4Cfeministworkshop_at_gmail.com by April 30, 2008.

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Received on Tue Apr 22 2008 - 12:43:45 EDT