CfP for Panel: (En)Gendering Identity: Gender in Culture, Education and Society

1. Panel proposed by Dr. Panayiota Chrysochou, The University of Cyprus  (As part of the Second Euroacademia Forum of Critical Studies to be held in Prague, Czech Republic on 21st and 22nd of February 2014)\r\n

   Deadline for Paper Proposals: 15 January 2014

   Panel Description:

    In Judith Butler's highly influential and groundbreaking book 'Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity' (1990), Butler pokes fun at the notion that there is an 'original' gender to which we can ascribe, and playfully asserts that all gender is in fact scripted, rehearsed, and performed. To what extent can we challenge the notion that there is no fixed and gendered identity? Is it true to say that there is no such thing as real or true gender and/or that it is merely a constructed entity upon which implicit and invisible assumptions are heteronormatively entrenched in a patriarchal society? Can we really move beyond or outside gender and gendered constructions of identity? What are the stakes of eliding gender altogether? Is identity a fixed concept? Such questions become even more imperative nowadays given the growing politico-cultural tendency to assume that gender is an existing given which either can be singled out as a unique form of oppression or a systematized and neat classification in education, culture, and society at large. A case in point is the Universities UK's recent report which endorses gender segregation at university events.

   
   

    This panel seeks to explore and address these issues in a number of ways. Broadly speaking, we welcome abstracts which engage with gender issues as documented in case studies, stories, on stage and in the literature, and particularly welcome papers which unsettle the fixed and divisive binary of 'subject/object', 'man/woman' and fixed notions of gender and identity politics.

   
   

    The main topics to be addressed and covered include:

    ·          Notions of gender and identity politics in literature and the performing arts ·         Gender dysphoria, gender reassignment and drag
   

    ·         Gender issues in higher education, culture, religion and society

   
   

    ·         Ways of destabilising notions of a fixed and gendered body and identity politics and/or potentially moving beyond or outside gender definitions

    ·         Gender and trauma
   

   \r\n If interested to apply, please see the full details of the conference at http://euroacademia.eu/conference/the-second-global-forum-of-critical-studies/

   You can apply online on the conference website or by sending 300 words abstract together with the details of affiliation until 15th of January 2014 at application@euroacademia.eu