CLASH ZONES: IDENTITIES IN (R)EVOLUTION
an interdisciplinary graduate student conference
sponsored by the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies

Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
Date: April 5-6, 2013
Proposal Deadline: December 30, 2012

The graduate students from nine universities of the Boston-area Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies present a biannual interdisciplinary conference entitled "Clash Zones: Identities in (R)evolution," to be held at MIT on April 5-6, 2013.

The borders and boundaries where political, ethnic, religious, racial, national, and other factions meet are hotbeds for ideological and psychological tensions that affect marginalized gender and sexual identities. Within these "clash zones," anything from eruptive transformations (revolutions) to gradual modifications (evolutions) might occur.

This interdisciplinary Women's and Gender studies conference will investigate how frictions produced in these "clash zones" impact individual and communal bodies and alter the identity categories by which we define those bodies. We invite presentations from any discipline or period to explore how contentious cultural spaces shape gender and sexuality, both historically and today.

Categories of interest may include, but are not limited to:
• Labor borders: separate spheres, class divisions, wealth/pay equality
• Political borders: uprisings, warfare, revolution, protest
• Environmental borders: lands of ecological concern, the natural world
• National borders: citizenship, immigration, diaspora, post-/colonialism
• Urban borders: socioeconomic divisions, cultural spaces, public vs. private
• Community borders: online/virtual, alternative, and imagined communities; subcultures
• Body borders: Transgender/transsexual, intersex, queer bodies; reproductive technologies

We invite three types of proposals: individual paper presentations, complete panels, and alternative presentations.

For individual 15-minute presentations, please submit an abstract of 250 words to gcws@mit.edu by December 30, 2012. Include a 2-3 sentence biographical statement that includes your institutional or professional affiliation and research interests. For complete panels, please submit a 100-word proposal along with three (3) paper abstracts with biographical statements for each panelist. We strongly encourage interdisciplinary panels that embrace the notion of "clashing"—papers need not cohere but could generate new conversations out of underlying frictions.

We also welcome alternative presentations by activists, artists, and non-academics, including art installations, performances, workshops, film screenings, and more. Please submit a 300-word proposal to gcws@mit.edu by December 30, 2012. Provide an explanation of your presentation and a 5-sentence biographical sketch. Include a description of your space and A/V needs.
All submissions will be acknowledged via e-mail by January 30, 2013. For more information, please visit http://web.mit.edu/gcws/news+events/2013-Conference-Home.html or send an email to gcws@mit.edu .