Interdisciplinary Symposium Gender in Transformation Processes: Central and Southeast European Perspectives
September 30 – October 2, 2021
As part of the Elisabeth-List-Fellowship-Programme for Gender Research at the University of Graz, Austria, this interdisciplinary symposium focuses on gender in transformation processes from a Central and Southeast European perspective.
In recent scholarship, in the humanities and social sciences alike, gender has crystallized as a central category through which cultural and social changes can be understood and assessed. In the humanities, “gender in transformation” has been referred to as a separate analytical framework determining how the body is socially constructed and power relations are inscribed, whereas the social sciences have tended to approach gender as essential for understanding a wide range of historical and contemporary changes in social, economic and political structures and practices.
The aim of this conference is to examine the frequently contradictory developments concerning gender and modernization in the South East European region, as well as in the neighbouring Central European countries. Namely, while the “modes of modernity” (Touraine) in different countries that make up these two geographical areas are still very different, in the post-2008 crisis context of an increasingly “regressive modernity” (Nachtwey) and an increased economic migration, there are ever more reasons for researchers to engage in comparative studies. This is especially true in view of the claims that “no road maps are available charting predefined ‘gender routes.’” (Mukhopadhyay et al, 2006)
We invite scholars working within and across a number of disciplines, methodologies, and intellectual traditions to contribute to the conference. Topics to be addressed at the conference include but are not limited to:
- Cultural representations of gender and age/aging, in literature, film, popular culture, broadcast media and social media
- Social and cultural experiences of digital transformation at the intersection of gender and age
- Gender identities in transformation
- Transformations and cultural representations of LGBTIQ+ identities
- Social practices related to the performance of gender and age
- Gender and generations
- Gender and modernization
- Gender and inequalities
- Gender and migrations
- Gender and European integration
Abstracts of 250 words for 20-minute presentations should be submitted to sarah.nabjinsky@uni-graz.at by May 10th 2021. Please, include a short biography of 100 words or less.