Call for papers for the conference and for a special issue of DEP in July 2018: DEP. Deportate, esuli, profughe. Online journal of studies on women’s memories (Web)
Venue: Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Time: 30.11.-01.12.2017
Proposals by: 1st March 2017
Within the 16 days of Activism against Gender-based Violence Campaign promoted by the United Nations (UniTe to end violence against women, Link), the journal DEP. Deportate, esuli, profughe (Link) is organising an international conference on the theme of borders in feminist theories.
Borders, lines drawn to mark a difference and make it normative, and the place of an always potential violence, have been in recent years at the centre of feminist thought, an inclusive approach in which borders – geographical, cultural, religious, linguistic, of gender and species – have been unveiled, crossed and challenged.
The interpretation of war as a violent redefinition of borders, and of the relationship between human beings and nature as an expression of patriarchal dominion and oppositional thought, as well as the reflection on monotheist religions that have idealised dominion, on the formation of a country, on the use of language and the meaning of its translation, have led to the development of new critical theories relating to law, citizenship, ecology, international relations, knowledge, and economics. The dichotomies that bring about dominion in social, political, cognitive, gender and species relations have been deconstructed, the intertwining of power relations have been unveiled, and the bases have been laid for a coherent theory of oppression and liberation.
Starting from the numerous women writers who have recently dealt with these themes, without forgetting feminist interpretations of the thought of Hannah Arendt and studies on Virginia Woolf, the conference plans to retrace feminist reflection on borders in various disciplines – philosophy, history, law, religion, language, literature, politics and society – and to explore its relevance in a world that is increasingly marked by new barriers and dominated by ways of thinking that are imprisoned in rigid oppositions.
The conference and the special issue will be structured into three strands:
- Unveiling borders
- Crossing borders
- Challenging borders
Submissions may focus on the thought of individual writers and/or deal with one of the following themes:
- Feminist pacifism and transnational and transreligious practices
- Ecofeminist thought, reflection on borders of gender, species, race
- Queer and transfeminist critical theory
- Reflection on language, translation and literature, in particular diasporic and utopian literatures
- International feminist legal theory
- Reflection on the formation of a country, migration and critical theory of citizenship
- Feminist theology beyond the borders of religious orthodoxies
Scientific committee
Bruna Bianchi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Geraldine Ludbrook (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Rosa Caroli (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Emma Sdegno (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Ida Zilio Grandi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
Conference languages
Italian/English
Deadline for submissions
Submissions both for the conference and for the special issue of DEP should be sent to the following addresses by 1st March 2017: ludbrook@unive.it; bbianchi@unive.it). The submission should include an abstract of approximately 1,500 characters, a reference list, and a short author bio.
Authors will be contacted regarding acceptance of the submission by 31st March 2017.
Deadline for accepted submissions
Authors whose submission has been accepted will be required to send a long abstract (at least 3,000 characters) by 1st September 2017.