Call for Papers
NeMLA’s 58th Annual Convention – “Empowering Communities”
March 6–9, 2027 | Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island (Hybrid Conference)

Panel Title: Tracing Female Body, Art & Economy in the Global South

Primary Area / Secondary Area: Women’s and Gender Studies / Interdisciplinary Humanities
Modality: Hybrid
Chair: Maryam Raza (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

This panel explores how the historical treatment of female bodies in the Global South through the patriarchal structures of subjectification, commodification, sexualization and objectification has been reversed by contemporary strategies of resistance and reclamation. The panel examines how the postmodern woman in diverse socio-economic contexts “trains” the masculine gaze (Dixit 2024) over her body, renegotiating agency.

Women increasingly reconfigure the female body through carnivalesque, alternative spaces of identity, creativity and skill through embodied forms. The female body evolves from a passive object of desire into an active, expressive, and economically productive site. Thus, women transform spaces of suppression to places of resistance and empowerment. Hussain et al. (2025) note that emancipation precedes autonomy and decision-making in socio-economic spheres.

The panel further examines the intersection of bodily narratives with performative femininity, wellness cultures, fitness regimes, and beauty and anti-aging industries. It also restructures the domestic space as a site of culinary entrepreneurship, aided by digital platforms. Consequently, the Global South woman utilizes such arenas to enhance visibility, economic upward mobility, and global networks beyond what Fahmida Riaz termed the “Four Walled Homestead.”

Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from cultural, gender, media, literary, and postcolonial studies, this panel foregrounds how women collectively construct bodily identities that both challenge and adapt to tradition. The selected papers will revolve around the following themes:

• Women and wellness culture
• Gender, food, and culinary skills
• Ageing
• Dance Cultures
• Women and Performing Arts
• Fetishizing and infantilizing women within beauty industry

Submission Deadline: September 30, 2026

Please submit abstracts via the NeMLA portal: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22411

For queries about the panel, prospective participants are warmly encouraged to contact the chair:
Maryam Raza
mraz655@aucklanduni.ac.nz