CFP: Arab American Feminisms (6/1/04; journal issue)

full name / name of organization: 
Evelyn Alsultany
contact email: 

CALL FOR PAPERS: "Arab-American Feminisms," a special journal issue
to be published in the Spring 2005 edition of the MIT Electronic
Journal for Middle East Studies. http://web.mit.edu/cis/www/mitejmes/

Glaringly underrepresented within American Studies, American Ethnic
Studies, and Middle East Studies, this journal issue seeks to bring
together Arab and Arab American Feminist Scholars to discuss and
analyze our experiences related to race, class, gender, sexuality,
violence and belonging in the U.S. Our aim is to highlight the
significance of Arab and Arab American feminist voices to the field
of American Studies and Middle East Studies and to epistemologically
challenge these fields' treatment of Arab and Arab American women.
We hope to explore activist and academic spaces of empowerment,
resistance, and alliance building where Arab/Arab American feminist
politics have flourished.

This journal issue builds on the discussions begun at the American
Studies Association Conference 2003, where Rabab Abdulhadi, Nadine
Naber, and Evelyn Alsultany organized two panels on Arab-American
Feminism. We invite both Arab and Arab-American women who
participated in the conference as well as those who did not, to
submit a piece for this journal issue.

We offer the following questions as a starting point:
1. How have you experienced being racially marked in the U.S.? in
the classroom? in academia?
2. How would you name some of your struggles/tensions around issues
of sexuality, sexism and racism within your various communities?
3. What have been your experiences with feminism in the U.S.? What
does women of color feminism mean to you? (Or are there other
feminist spaces that have meaning to you?)
4. When you hear "violence and belonging" what do these terms evoke for you?

Ultimately, we hope not only to increase the visibility of Arab/Arab
American feminists within American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Women's
Studies, and Middle East Studies, but we also hope that this
visibility will contribute to new understandings of race, gender,
sexuality nation, and community within the U.S.

Deadline for submission of 500-750 word abstract: June 1, 2004.

Send submissions and questions to guest editors: Rabab Abdulhadi
(rabab.abdulhadi_at_nyu.edu), Nadine Naber (ncnaber_at_umich.edu) and
Evelyn Alsultany (alsultany_at_stanford.edu).

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Received on Thu May 06 2004 - 00:41:44 EDT