Our fourth, and final, keynote has been confirmed! Constance Penley works in film and media studies at the Carsey-Wolf Centre at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Constance’s work is interdisciplinary and includes research on the intersections between women and technology, pornography and sci fi. Constance is also a practicing artist and has written the libretto for an Biospheria: An Environmental Opera.
Find out more about Constance here.
We are pleased to announce our third keynote speaker, Tracey McIntosh, from the Department of Sociology at the University of Auckland. Tracey works on a number of projects, including research on women, particularly Indigenous women, in prisons.
You can find out more about Tracey, including a list of publications here.
Hi everyone,
Thankyou so much for your patience. Our registration page is now live and you can register for the conference here.
Rosie
Hi everyone,
Please note that we have shifted the conference dates. It is now happening between 23rd – 25th November – please mark / update your diaries
We are pleased to announce that Associate Professor Audrey Yue will be presenting a keynote at trans/forming feminisms. Audrey works on the intersections between queer theory (in particular queer Asia) and transnationalised cultural formations.
Most recently, Audrey has published (with Belinda Smaill and Olivia Khoo) Transnational Australian Cinema: Ethics in the Asian Diasporas through Lexington books. In 2012, Audrey also edited (with Jun Zubilaga-Pow) Queer Singapore: Illiberal Citizenship and Mediated Cultures published by HKUP.
trans/forming feminisms: media, technology, identity
An international conference at the University of Otago
23rd – 25th November 2015
Keynote speakers include:
– Sandra Grey, Victoria University, Wellington / Tertiary Education Union President
– Audrey Yue, The University of Melbourne
– Third keynote TBA
The conference is organised by the Department of Media, Film and Communication, University of Otago, in conjunction with the following:
– Dunedin Free University
– Fresh and Fruity Gallery Collective
– Blue Oyster Art Project Space
– The Tertiary Education Union (Otago branch)
trans/forming feminisms: media, technology, identity
Discussions of feminist theory and activism have taken on a new dynamism in the past decade. Online media spaces – such as twitter, tumblr and blogs like Jezebel, feministing and autostraddle– have provided a key site for the debate of what it means to be a feminist in the contemporary moment. Hashtag flashpoints over popular cultural figures such as Beyonce, Iggy Azalea, Miley Cyrus and Lena Dunham as well recent social movements around #thisiswhatafeministlookslike #feminismisforwhitewomen and #slutwalk have generated broader popular, and critical, discussions around gender politics. Further, activists around feminist, trans* and Queer politics have integrated technology as an important means for consciousness-raising as well as enabling broader struggles against patriarchy, hetero-normativity and non-inclusive forms of feminism. Alongside this, numerous academics (Sara Ahmed, Jack Halberstam, Tiziana Terranova) are moving ‘online’ to use web spaces as a means for disseminating theoretical work to a broader audience.
All this points to an invigoration of feminist theory and politics which we are signaling via the prefix ‘trans’ – as a way of gesturing towards not only trans* politics, but the notion of transformation, change and the animation of new modes of being, thinking and doing ‘feminism’.
This conference brings together international scholars and activists from diverse disciplinary and radical political backgrounds to foster discussions around theorizing and doing feminist activism. In particular trans/forming feminisms focuses on the intersections and tensions between contemporary feminist conceptualizing, activism and media technologies. It aims to combine theory with on-the-ground organizing in a productive and transformative discussion, and to provide a forum to unpack the tensions between intellectual imperatives, praxis, and mediated modes of feminist communication and activism.
trans/forming feminisms is organised collectively and we aim to produce a genuinely open space for the interaction between activists and academics. Thus we also encourage creative and praxis / performance-based proposals and ideas for skillshares and workshops which will run alongside more traditional academic papers.
Topics and approaches on which we would welcome proposals for papers and panels include the following but are not confined to them, and are in no particular order:
– How does the ‘mediated self’ and Web 3.0 enable particular modes of feminist practice?
– How do media platforms, such as social networking sites, constitute and reproduce forms of white bourgeois feminism and how can intersectional feminism counter this?
– What are the cultural politics around ‘trigger warnings’ and ‘call outs’ on social media platforms?
– How do contemporary gender and feminist politics intersect with theories of the ‘transhuman’?
– How are the politics of intersectional feminists performed and consolidated online?
– What are the political and theoretical implications of the popularising of terms such as ‘cis’, ‘trans*’ and ‘Queer’ via their foregrounding on social media sites such as tumblr and twitter?
– How do media formations (technologies, institutions, practices) operate in relation to feminist politics in different geographic contexts?
– What does ‘rape culture’ mean in the current Web 3.0 context?
– What is the relationship between sexual violence and media representations?
– How might mediated practices empower women to fight back against sexual violence?
– What is the role of media in fermenting radical changes in global gendered oppression?
– How has the ongoing proliferation of gendered identities affected feminist theoretical engagements and the broader political movement?
– Who is the feminist subject in the contemporary moment?
– What the relations between media technologies and the non-cis-male subject?
Topics and approaches on which we would welcome proposals for skillshares and workshops include the following but are not confined to them, and are in no particular order:
– narrativising / writing feminism in the contemporary university
– practical activist workshops – how to take action / deal with institutions such as the police; what is rape culture and how whanau / family and friends can battle this
– skillsharing between feminist academics / strategies for being feminist in the university context
Dunedin
Dunedin is a beautiful small city, located in the South Island of New Zealand. A true ‘university town’, it buzzes with student life and academic activity. It hosts a number of independent art galleries, bookshops and radical institutions. Alongside these cultural sites, Dunedin offers stunning opportunities for nature tourism and is a perfect taste of New Zealand’s natural beauty. Tramping (hiking) tracks are within easy distance of the town, as is the striking Otago Peninsula, home to albatross colonies and rare penguin breeds.
Please send panel proposal, paper abstracts, and proposals for info booths or skillshare / workshops to the collective at:
transformingfeminisms@riseup.net by 1st May 2015 as an email attachment in Word.
Papers will be 20 minutes long, with ten minutes for questions. Panels will generally be made up of 3 speakers and a chairperson.
Skillshares will run for 1-2 hours and can take diverse and creative formats.
Infobooths with be stands in shared / communal space – tables and chairs will be provided.
Panel and skillshare proposals should provide an outline of the panel idea and its relations to the conference theme (200 words max), and provide abstracts of the 3-4 speakers (250 words maximum per abstract), and the name of a person who will chair the pane. Paper abstracts, infobooth ideas and skillshare proposals should be 250 words maximum and should explain the connection to the conference theme.
Registration fees:
Academic: NZ$200
Postgraduate / casual lecturer: NZ$75
Activist: NZ$55
Registration includes lunch and refreshments (including a ‘cocktail function’) for the duration of the conference.
Researchers from countries where it is difficult to fund research travel should consult the conference organisers.
Collective members:
Rosemary Overell, Vijay Devadas, Catherine Fowler, Massimiliana Urbano, Kevin Fletcher, Catherine Dale, Rebecca Stringer, Katharine Legun, Annabel Cooper
Twitter: https://twitter.com/transfem15
Web page: http://transformingfeminisms.noblogs.org/
Our second keynote speaker has just been confirmed! Dr Sandra Grey is a senior lecturer in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Victoria University, Wellington. She works on social activism in New Zealand with a particular focus on women’s and union struggles.
Alongside her academic role, Sandra is the National President of the Tertiary Education Union.
This is the blog for the trans/forming feminisms: media, technology, identity conference, to be held at The University of Otago in the Department of Media, Film and Communication between 25th-27th November 2015.
Keep checking back through the year for information about the event – we will be updating regularly!
A call for papers will be distributed in late January 2015.