To all scholars (including graduate/doctoral students) interested in Arab
women’s movements:

Call for Book Chapters

Proposed Title: Mapping Arab Women’s Movements

Editors: Dr. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley
          Dr. Pernille Arenfeldt

Over the past 100-150 years, women from across Arab countries (from Syria
in the North to Yemen in the South and Morocco in the West to Iraq in the
East) have been struggling, together with sympathetic Arab men, to achieve
greater gender equality. The accomplishments are not consistent across the
Arab region and significant work remains to be done.

Mapping Arab Women’s Movements is meant to provide a comprehensive overview
of women’s movements in Arab countries from the mid-nineteenth century to
the present. While an abundance of good analyses are available on the
history of the women’s movements in a few Arab countries, little or no
literature is available on the developments in other parts of the Arab
region. The goal of the volume is to chronicle and analyze the Arab women’s
movements (its successes as well as its setbacks), thus bringing together a
selection of papers that allow an impression of both differences and
similarities between the Arab countries.

Contributions that cover the following countries will be considered: Syria,
Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, United Arab
Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and
Morocco.

Each chapter should examine the women’s movements in an Arab country (or
region) in terms of its origins, organizations (both formal organizations
and less-formalized groups/networks), ideologies, participation in
international networks, class and racial diversities, counter-movements,
and outcomes. The volume takes a pluralistic approach to women’s movements
and the contributions should consider both organizations/groups with an
explicit feminist agenda, and women’s organizations that arose from
philanthropic and/or religious concerns but in retrospect can be seen to
have contributed to a transformation of women’s status and their presence
in the public sphere. Consequently, attention to the journals/magazines and
literary salons that developed already from the late-1800s in some Arab
countries is encouraged. Similarly, we welcome considerations of so-called
“state feminism” and state-sponsored as well as independent
groups/organizations. The exact chronological frame for the individual
contributions will inevitably vary, but a concerted effort will be made to
incorporate papers on the youngest Arab nation-states where women’s
movements/organizations are a relatively recent phenomenon.

Priority will be given to papers that actively employ both primary and
secondary sources. The chapters should be 20-30 double-spaced pages (Times
New Roman, font size 12). The volume will only include papers in English.

The idea for Mapping Arab Women’s Movements grew out of our teaching
experiences with women’s studies/women’s history at the American University
of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. As a result, the intended audience
is primarily undergraduate students â€" both in the Arab region and in other
parts of the world, where an increasing number of universities offer
courses related to women in the Arab region. In addition, we hope that the
collection will prove to be an indispensable tool for scholars who wish to
develop more in-depth comparisons and contextualization in research
projects that focus on a single or a few Arab country/countries.

Most importantly, however, Mapping Arab Women’s Movements should provide
the young generations of Arab women and men with accessible but
comprehensive and analytical accounts of what has been achieved in their
respective countries and, thus, encourage them to continue to work towards
enhancing gender equality in the Arab countries.

Please submit your CV and an abstract of the chapter you would like to
contribute, marking the name of the country/region clearly, no later than
April 15th, 2008, to:

Dr. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley: nhgolley_at_aus.edu

Complete chapters are due: November 30th, 2008.

If you would like additional information, please contact Dr. Nawar
Al-Hassan Golley or Dr. Pernille Arenfeldt (parenfeldt_at_aus.edu)

Nawar Al-Hassan Golley is Associate Professor in Literary & Cultural
Theory, Women's Studies Advisor and Head of the Department of Arabic
Studies at the American University of Sharjah, UAE. Al-Hassan Golley is the
author of, Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies. Shahrazad Tells her Story
(Texas University Press: 2003) and editor of Arab Women's Lives Retold.
Exploring identity through Writing. (Syracuse University Press: 2007).
Pernille Arenfeldt is Assistant Professor of History at the American
University of Sharjah, UAE. Her most recent publication is, “Gendered
Patronage and Confessionalization: Anna of Saxony as a ‘Mother of the
Church’” (Renaessanceforum, vol. 4, (2008)). She co-edited (with Regina
Schulte, et al.) The Body of the Queen. Gender and Rule in the Courtly
World, 1500-2000 (Berghahn Books: 2006; German edition by Campus Verlag: 2002).

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Received on Tue Apr 01 2008 - 23:49:57 EST