Website: https://www.nitk.ac.in/upcoming_events#/

About the Conference
In accordance with the aim to provide a suitable platform to express the self, the School of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Management, NITK is organizing its first International Conference on Gender Studies. The conference will be in hybrid mode. It seeks to bring together contemporary research on Gender studies and create an environment to exchange ideas, experience revered speakers, and explore future research directions. The International Conference on Gender Studies encourages academicians, researchers, activists, scholars, post-graduate students, and other enthusiasts to attend in order to present their research and findings, participate in the conference, and connect with like-minded individuals from around the globe.

Objectives of the Conference
The conference invites faculty members, Ph.D./M. Phil scholars, Post-graduates students, and other academicians working in Gender studies and allied areas to share their ideas. It seeks to:
 Initiate and exchange critical dialogues on gender and sexuality
 Explore the representation of gender roles and their depictions in literature, and media
 Dismantle gendered portrayals and narratives
 Provide an opportunity to form networks and collaborations
 Deliberate crucial efforts and plausible solutions to achieve gender equality and sexual liberation

Call for Papers

The idea of gender is highly debated, and has been deprived of its biological connections in recent years, and is stated as a purely social construct. Performance theory too ascertains sexuality, one’s sexual identity, or gender to be a performance that is socially and culturally constructed. This result of transplanting gender, and by that sex, from the landscape of biology onto a social sphere was achieved initially by feminists and social theorists. Questions as to the distinctions between sex and gender hence arise, prolonging the debate. Suppose the belief that sex determines gender is already thwarted; it is further being disregarded by the very presence of intersex and transgender people whose gender experience is different from their biological sex. Hence, in such cases where the birth sexes are ambiguous or irrelevant to individuals, they are addressed as people according to their gender experience in legal documents; here, gender determines sex, completely debunking the notion of sex being a fixed category. This is a visible example to prove that gender and sexuality are fluid, should be studied as a continuum, and cannot be limited within binaries to be categorized. This could have been a major reason for the scientists and biologists who could not think beyond the compartmentalized binary of sex or gender to term the people who did not fit their definition as ‘Queer’, ‘othering’ them ever since modern science began. The queering of sexuality has meant that studies are now tracing the ways in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQA2S+) bodies experience and live their gender beyond normative binaries. This conference would attempt to encapsulate the inherent multiple perspectives of the theme by incorporating the theoretical and pragmatic dimensions of Gender Studies. Furthermore, it envisages a dynamic academic interaction where the critical and historical paradigms of the gender-culture association can be perceptually evaluated.

The conference is seeking submissions related to Gender Studies in the following sub-themes, though not limited to:
• Gender/ Sexual Stereotypes
• Sexual Orientation and Body Politics
• Power politics and Patriarchy
• Alternative Sexualities
• Representation of Queer Identities in Popular Culture
• Homophobia and violence
• Scopophilia, Voyeurism and Surveillance
• Intersectionality and Identity
• Queer films
• Gender and Ecology
• Indigenous and MigrantLiterature
• Environment and popular culture
• Women in Anthropocene Narratives
• Eco Cinema

Submission guidelines:
 Please submit your abstract within 250-300 words and with 4-5 keywords in an email attachment to icgsnitk@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Abstract for ICGS’ by 10 August 2023.
 The contributor should mention the preferred presentation mode (ONLINE/OFFLINE) in the email's subject line.
 Selected papers from the conference will be published in reputed Journals or as book chapters in edited books with ISBN by international publishers.
 All content must be original, and authors are responsible for obtaining necessary consent and permission to use any third-party material.

Manuscript guidelines:
 Title page comprising the following- Abstract Title, Author’s & Co-author’s Names, Designations & Institutional Affiliation, Correspondence Details.
 Files should be in Microsoft Word format.
 Use Times New Roman, 12-Font, 1.5 line spacing, with ‘Justify’ alignment.
 Adhere to APA Style Guidelines for reference.
 Incomplete papers and plagiarised work will not be considered.

Important Dates
 Deadline for Abstract Submission: 10 August 2023
 Acceptance Status Update: 20 August 2023
 Full Paper Submission: 15 September 2023

Conference Coordinator
Dr. Dhishna Pannikot
Associate Professor of English
School of Humanities, Social Sciences & Management, NITK
National Institute of Technolohgy Karnataka, Surathkal

For queries, contact: icgsnitk@gmail.com