CALL FOR PAPERS

When There Was No Sex or Gender?

Fifteenth Annual Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Symposium

Department of Foreign Languages and Literature with the participation of

the Department of History and the Center for Women and Gender Studies

University of Miami,

Coral Gables, FL

23-25 February, 2006

Organized by

Laura Giannetti and Guido Ruggiero

Stimulated by a generation of feminist scholars and the cultural and linguistic turn in literary studies and history, the study of sex and gender and their interrelationship in the pre-modern period has flourished and changed dramatically our way of understanding the literature and history of the middle ages, renaissance and baroque eras. As knowledge of local practices and values has grown and interpretations proliferated, grand theories have lost some of their dominance and begun to seem more procrustean moulds than useful interpretive models. This conference seeks to evaluate from an interdisciplinary perspective where the study of sex and gender in the pre-modern world stands at the beginning of 2006 and where it is headed as well as where it should be headed.

There will be two major keynote speakers: Carla Freccero, Professor and Chair of the Department of Literature at the University of California Santa Cruz and Linda Woodbridge, Distinguished Professor of English Literature and Women's Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. The majority of the conference, however, will be given over to papers dealing with literary and/or historical topics presented in a traditional panel format.

Possible topics include but are not limited to: theoretical issues; pre-modern sexual practices and gender; pre-modern sex and gender stereotypes; the role of sex and gender in determining pre-modern identity; representations of women, men, the body; the disciplining of sex and gender; licit and illicit sex and gender practices; the place of sex and gender in broader historical and literary contexts.

Those interested in participating are encouraged to send a short proposal (electronic submission encouraged) of no more than a page outlining the subject that they would like to present at the conference no later than 30 October 2005 to:

Laura Giannetti and Guido Ruggiero,

c/o Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures,

University of Miami,

P.O. Box 248093,

Coral Gables, Florida 33124-2074

or via e-mail to lgiannetti_at_miami.edu <mailto:lgiannetti_at_miami.edu?subject=MRB> .

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Received on Sat Oct 29 2005 - 14:48:51 EDT