The Spaces of Women's Studies -- SAMLA -- November 9-11, 2012

full name / name of organization: 
David Magill / SAMLA
contact email: 

"The Spaces of Women's Studies" – SAMLA Women's Studies session

In keeping with the theme of this year's conference, "Text as Memoir: Tales of Travel, Immigration, and Exile," the Women's Studies regular session invites paper proposals on the spaces of women's studies. What tales of travel, immigration, and exile can we tell about women and/or women's studies, and how do these terms identify "space" as an important influence on women's lives, careers, identities, and literary productions? What are the geographies of women's studies and how have women writers approached those geographies in their works? Papers for this panel might examine particular writers who embody these issues in their works, or they might focus on broader issues in women's studies. Possible questions for consideration:

How does women's studies function in the university? Is it "on the border," "at the margin," or is there a more appropriate metaphor for its positioning? And how is that spatial vision reflected in practical considerations of budgeting, curriculum, and assessment?

What are the borders of women's studies? And do those borders (if they exist) stabilize or limit the possibilities for inquiry? What is in the space between women's studies and more traditional disciplines?

How do women writers engage with conceptions of space in their works?

How do women writers and thinkers depict travel? Immigration? Exile?

What are the spaces of reading and writing about women? What spaces do women inhabit when reading and writing?

How should women's studies think about space and place?

Does women's studies travel to other disciplines well? Do other disciplines immigrate to women's studies?

What knowledge gets produced in the spaces of women's studies? Who produces that knowledge?

Please send a 300-400 word abstract (in word doc or rich text format) by June 25, 2012 via email to magillde@longwood.edu. All proposals should include the title of the paper, author's name, email address, and author's institutional affiliation.

Dr. David Magill
Department of English and Modern Languages
Longwood University
201 High Street
Farmville, VA 23901
magillde@longwood.edu