Please see attached call for abstracts: Deadline July 31st. 

Call for Abstracts

“Southern Feminisms”

A conference hosted by Women and Gender Studies at Arkansas State University
Jonesboro, Arkansas
 October 13-15, 2016

Confirmed Plenary Speaker: Susan Bordo
Susan Bordo is Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and holds the Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities at the University of Kentucky. She is the author of The Flight to Objectivity: Essays on Cartesianism and Culture (SUNY Press, 1987), Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (U. of California Press, 1993), Twilight Zones: The Hidden Life of Cultural Images from Plato to O.J. (U. of California Press, 1997) and The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and in Private (Farrar, Straus and Giroux,1999), among many other publications.

This conference aims to explore ways in which the many waves of the feminist movement have impacted and continue to impact The South, from political and philosophical ideology, to education and daily life. We welcome submissions by authors from any discipline that addresses feminist issues tied to the southern regions of the United States. While we are interested in any proposed topic, some specific themes and related questions and we hope to discuss are:

-	What does feminism mean in The South? 
		How is feminism perceived in The South? How have various waves of 					feminism impacted different regions and marginalized groups of people? 				What role does Intersectionality play in theorizing and activism?

-	What unique histories surround women and minorities in the south and how do those histories shape current theories and practices? 
		What roles have historical movements, revolutions, immigration and wars 				play in developing a southern feminism? How has history reflected upon 				women’s experiences in The South? Is there a collective and meaningful 				women’s southern history? 

-	What does it mean to be embodied in The South? 

		Is there an ideal southern body or specific southern standards of female 				beauty? Are eating disorders and body image disruptions viewed and 					treated differently? How does southern cuisine affect the ideologies of 					health and beauty? Is fat embodiment the same in the south as in other 					regions? How are queer bodies lived through in The South? 

-	Working and Law in the South
		
		How does legislation affect women and underrepresented groups in the 				south? To what extent is activism effective, encouraged, shamed? How 					does the culture impact/reflect laws specific to LGBTQIA communities? 

-	Health and Reproductive Rights 
		
		What does ‘health’ mean in the south? How are women’s bodies viewed 				medically? Understanding that access to women’s health tends to be 					worse by comparison to other regions, what is being done to address 					inequities? Are transgender persons afforded adequate levels of 					healthcare options and if not, what sorts of activism is underway/should 				get underway to address these issues?

Please submit an abstract addressing one or more of the above topics of no more than 500 words to [log in to unmask] by July 31st. 

We welcome panel proposals as well. 

Notification of acceptance will be in early August. 



Michele Merritt, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Arkansas State University
Department of English and Philosophy
[log in to unmask]
www.michelemerritt.com
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