gender studies and sexuality

Since 2017, the #metoo movement has been successful for the conviction of Harvey Weinstein, who was at the center of the landmark trial. The same cannot be said in the case of India, which is still coming to terms with the issue of gender-based violence. Our panel will examine the representations of women who have been forgotten or have been rendered invisible in the national and international media discourse. Our panel will examine such representations through the study of South Asian filmic and theatre representations of Dalit (lower-caste), Northeast Indian, and women who were foundational figures in the defining the newly minted nation—India and Pakistan.

In the Arcades Project, Benjamin wrote that it is from the gates of the imagination that lovers and friends draw their energies. Over the past few decades, scholarship has been ever more inclined to treat the imagination not as false or unreal, but as an embodied, affective, and fluid mode of creating meaning and experiencing the world. The concept of bodily imaginaries in queer and feminist studies, for instance, seeks to overcome the strict duality between imagination and the body: as Maggie Nelson points out in The Argonauts, “in the field of gender, there is no charting where the external and the internal begin and end.”

Shortened Description of creative session:  This session calls for women and members of the LGBTQ community to submit work related to the function of their wombs and how the womb creates/destroys/changes identity. By creatively exploring our histories of meaning associated with womb, this creative session aims to contribute to NeMLA’s 2021 Philadelphia convention theme, “Tradition and Innovation: Changing Worlds Through the Humanities,” by sharing unique writing experiences that challenge the traditional meanings associated with wombs and present new ways of looking at the literal and figurative womb.  Attendance to the conference, whether virtual or in-person is required.

A Special Issue of MELUS– Call for Papers

 Black Women’s Literature: Violence & the COVID-19 Moment

Guest Editors: Robin Brooks (University of Pittsburgh) and Meina Yates-Richard (Emory University)

Deadline for Abstract Submissions: July 31, 2020 

Media globalization has transformed the study of Gender Identities and Gender Politics over the past few decades.  Such globalization has given rise not only to new research but also to new media forms that explore such Gender Identities.  As a result, many gender identities are now more widely visible than they were a decade ago—through both representation in texts and actual, real-life encounters.

Indeed, even fictional narratives—such as Slash Fan-Fiction—have increased such visibility and representation.  At the same time, mainstream cultures often regard such representations (and research) as provocative and/or scandalous.