The Journal of Feminist Scholarship is a twice-yearly, peer-reviewed, open-access journal published online and aimed at promoting feminist scholarship across the disciplines, as well as expanding the reach and definitions of feminist research. The journal can be found at http://www.jfsonline.org/.

The editors of JFS invite submissions on a rolling basis (for more information, please see the “Submissions” page on our website). The average time from submission to publication for accepted manuscripts has been less than a year, and our current acceptance rate stands at thirty five percent.

Issues 1-4 (Fall 2011 to Spring 2013) of JFS are now available for open-access reading and downloading. Issue 5 (Fall 2013) is in preparation. We invite you to visit our site, explore the journal’s contents, and consider submitting your research to the forum that allows for sharing it freely with the worldwide community of feminist scholars and activists while maintaining rigorous reviewing and editorial standards.
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=205130

Tuesday 8 April 2014, University College London

With a keynote address by Professor Laura Doan, University of Manchester

CALL FOR PAPERS

This one day workshop looks to bring together scholars, at any stage of their career and working on any aspect of gender, sex and sexuality in 20th century Britain, and to provide a forum for both the presentation of new work and the beginning of a dialogue about the past, present and future of the field.

The workshop addresses the field at a critical juncture in its development. The decades since the publication of Jeffrey Weeks’ Sex, politics and society (1981) have seen histories of gender, sex and sexuality become increasingly central to historians’ understanding of 20th century Britain. There has been a corresponding march through the institutions: no longer regarded as involved in a fringe pursuit, scholars of gender, sex and sexuality have found homes in departments; non-specialist periodicals have watched and sponsored new research with interest; and the UK’s major presses have published groundbreaking work, exemplified by the inauguration of Palgrave Macmillan’s ‘Gender and Sexualities in History’ series in 2009.

Alongside this professional maturation, events in wider society have demonstrated the continued power of ideas about gender, sex and sexuality to shape popular understandings of British history. Indeed, the recent past, whether as a dark age of intolerance or, conversely, a golden age of “family values,” has loomed heavily in debates about equal marriage, the Savile affair and the “sexualisation” of childhood. The voices of historians have been present in some of these debates. Yet in others they have been largely absent, even when scholars from other disciplines – sociology, education, gender studies, science and medicine – have been prominent.

The workshop therefore asks participants to consider “where have we got to, and where do we go from here?” What contributions have we made, through British examples, to understandings of gender, sex and sexuality in history? What contributions have we made, through a focus on of gender, sex and sexuality, to understandings of 20th century British history? Finally, what contributions have we made to understandings of gender, sex and sexuality in Britain outside our profession, both in other disciplines and, importantly, the wider public conversation? And in all three cases, what contributions, in new and ongoing work, might we make in the future?

To help address these questions, the workshop organisers welcome proposals for papers presenting new work on any aspect of gender, sex or sexuality in twentieth century British history as well as those that reflexively engage with the past, present or future of the field. The organisers particularly welcome papers looking at non-marginal experiences, as well as those looking to challenge marginal/non-marginal distinctions altogether. We are also especially interested in contributions from postgraduate and early career scholars.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at the workshop, please email a short proposal (max. 300 words) and CV or short bio to newdirections2014@gmail.com by 1st September 2013.

If you would like to discuss possible topics before submitting a proposal, please get in touch at the same address. Registration details for non-speakers will be publicised later in 2013 at http://newdirections2014.wordpress.com/

Kevin Guyan and Ben Mechen, UCL History (organisers)
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=204877

Feral Feminisms, a new independent, inter-media, peer reviewed, open access online journal, invites submissions from artists, activists, scholars and graduate students for a special issue entitled, “Feminist Un/Pleasure: Reflections on Perversity, BDSM, and Desire,” guest edited by Toby Wiggins. Submitted contributions may include full-length academic essays (about 5000 – 7000 words), shorter creative pieces, cultural commentaries, or personal narratives (about 500 – 2500 words), poetry, photo-essays, short films/video (uploaded to Vimeo), visual and sound art (jpeg Max 1MB), or a combination of these. Please direct inquiries and submissions to Guest Editor, Toby Wiggins (wiggins.yorku@gmail.com).

Courtesy Co.Design, http://www.fastcodesign.com/

What gets you off? Desire is a slippery concept, difficult to hold or describe, and certainly not consistent or interchangeable. An insatiable yearning for some is for others abhorrent and deserving of reprimand. The social complexities of perversion are therefore always in flux, influencing diverse manifestations of sexuality and its censorship. According to Freud’s early formulations on the two principles of psychic functioning, and later developed in his writings on the death drive, pleasure and unpleasure are intimately bound. Our primary drive encompasses both the unpleasure of an increase in excitation and the pleasure of its release. In other words, an individual’s relationship to unencumbered indulgence continually grapples with its denial. This fundamental tension also resonates beyond psychoanalysis, in feminist genealogies, as an ambivalence towards BDSM and “perverse” sexualities. Echoed in Carole Vance’s influential anthology, Pleasure and Danger, and the ongoing battles of the sex wars, feminist sexuality encompasses both enjoyment and suffering wrapped tightly around the politics of desire. This apparent contradiction of painful enjoyment also weaves throughout BDSM sexuality itself, where the lines between violence, sex, and love begin to blur.

This special issue of Feral Feminisms aims to complicate, untame, queer and radicalize tumultuous legacies of pleasure and unpleasure by reflecting upon the current intersections of feminist desire and BDSM sexuality. Topics of inquiry may include, but are not limited to:

● pleasure and pain in feminist sexualities

● resonances of canonical sexologists such as Richard von Kraft Ebbing on contemporary perverse sexualities

● the instability of sexual subcultures vs mainstream

● gender and power play

● representations of perverse feminist sexuality in film, literature, and art

● Fifty Shades of Grey and histories of erotic fiction

● psychoanalytic theories of BDSM and/or perversion

● affect and kinky feminist desire

● sex work and professional dominatrices

● critical interrogations into the construction of subversive sexualities

● masochism, sadism, fetishism

● the politicization of BDSM

● death, the death drive, and queer sexualities

● addressing white supremacy, capitalism, ableism, colonialism, heteronormativity, and/or patriarchy through scenes of perversion
● limit experience

● BDSM sexuality as performance

Submission guidelines:

Articles, no longer than 7,000 words, should be prepared for anonymous peer-review. Please include a separate document with the contributor’s name and email, affiliated school (if applicable), a 100-word abstract, and a 60-word biography. All references should be in MLA citation style. For written submissions: 1 inch (2.54 cm) margins. Times New Roman 12pt. Double spaced. Include page number in header. Bold headings.

We also welcome the submission of shorter creative pieces, cultural commentaries, or personal narratives between 500-2500 words, poems, colour or black & white images, and films, or a combination of mediums. Written submissions should be in Microsoft Word format. Image submissions should be in jpeg, with a maximum file size of 1MB. Film submissions should be uploaded to Vimeo with a link to the film provided in the submission email; if you are submitting a film or multimedia piece and do not wish to upload to Vimeo, we are open to establishing other means of submission – please contact the Guest Editor (email provided above). All art and non-text based submissions should be accompanied by a paragraph length artist statement that outlines the goals of the work and how it engages with the CFP.

All submissions are subject to double-anonymous peer review, are reviewed by 2-3 peer reviewers, and receive collegial feedback on their work.

Previously published articles will not be considered without the permission of the editors. Do not simultaneously offer your article to another publication. The author(s) always retain copyright of their work. The author(s) may republish provided they request permission from the Managing Editors and they agree to acknowledge that it appeared in Feral Feminisms.

These submission guidelines can also be found at www.feralfeminisms.com

Email submissions to: Toby Wiggins (wiggins.yorku@gmail.com)

Women and Children as New Tools of Trade in the 21st Century: Exploring Policy, Research, Community and Legal Frameworks for addressing Human Trafficking

In response to global concern about the trafficking of women and children, the Third International Law Conference on Women and Children offers an interactive platform for conversations that will facilitate new and comprehensive ways of addressing human trafficking.

The 2013 Conference will take place from September 26 – 27, 2013 at the Recital Hall, Muson Centre, Lagos, Nigeria.

Plenary Speakers include:

Prof. Osita Agbu, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, Nigeria.

Prof. Aderanti Adepoju, Co-ordinator, Network of Migration on Africa and member of The Hague Process on Refugee and Migration Policy.

Abstracts for oral presentation at the conference will consider but are not limited to the following sub-themes related to discussions on Human Trafficking with focus on WOMEN AND CHILDREN:

•Emerging Issues in the Trafficking of women and children for Prostitution
•Cultural practices promoting the marginalisation and trafficking of women and children
•Micro-credit financing and trafficking of women and children
•Poverty as a major trigger of human trafficking
•Global politics and human trafficking
•Family institutions and human trafficking
•Policy frameworks and interventions for reducing human trafficking
•The Constitution, human trafficking and the place of women and children
•Problems with trafficking research in Developing Countries
•Funding, Authority and research with trafficked women and children
•Local and International Cartels and Human Trafficking
•Gender and human trafficking
•Silent triggers of human trafficking (request for human organs, health care, religious, cultural and political triggers)
•The media and trafficking of women and children
•Internal conflicts, Corruption and human trafficking

In addition to plenary presentations, the conference will include presentations by legal practitioners, policy makers and researchers. We invite you to respond to the conference Call-for-Papers by submitting a 250 word abstract and 120 word Bio on the conference website.

The deadline for Submission of Abstracts is: August 15, 2013 with notification of acceptance by August 22, 2013.

Full details of the conference, including an online abstract submission form, can be found at the conference website:
http://www.nbailcwc.com

Deadline for submissions: September 1, 2013

The intention of the fellowship is to encourage research in the area of feminist science fiction within the University of Oregon Libraries, which house the papers of authors Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ, Kate Wilhelm, Suzette Haden Elgin, Sally Miller Gearhart, Kate Elliot, Molly Gloss, Laurie Marks, and Jessica Salmonson, along with Damon Knight. The UO Libraries Special Collections and University Archives is also in the process of acquiring the papers of James Tiptree, Jr. and other key feminist science fiction authors.
This award supports travel for the purpose of research on, and work with, these papers. These short-term research fellowships are open to undergraduates, master’s and doctoral students, postdoctoral scholars, college and university faculty at every rank, and independent scholars working in feminist science fiction. In 2013, $3,000 will be awarded to conduct research within these collections. This fellowship has been created as part of the UO Center for the Study of Women in Society’s 40th Anniversary Celebration. Questions: email Jenée Wilde.

Jenée Wilde
University of Oregon
Center for the Study of Women in Society
541-346-2838
Email: jenee@uoregon.edu

Visit the website at http://csws.uoregon.edu/?p=16615

Announcement and call for papers: Congress of the International
Committee of Historical Sciences, special theme: The History of
the Girl, Jinan, China, August 23-29, 2015

The Congress of the International Committee of Historical Sciences will be
held in Jinan, China from 23-29 August 2015. One of the Specialised Themes
focusses on the History of the Girl. The aim of this session is to bring
together scholars working in the field and to identify common themes and
differences in the history of the girl across the world. In order to
establish some cohesion for the discussion the focus will be on girls aged
from early adolescence to the early 20s. Paper proposals are welcome on all
periods of time as well as from as wide a geographical span as possible.
Topics to be discussed include:

Public discourses on girls
Girls and the family
The culture of adolescent girls
Coming of age
Sex education
Debates on the education of girls
Dress and fashion
Girls work
Consumerism and girls
The modern girl
Representations of girls
Literature and writing for girls

Professor Mary O’Dowd
School of History and Anthropology
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN
Email: m.odowd@qub.ac.uk
Visit the website at http://www.cish.org/congres/**
ST29-Towards-global-history-**girl.pdf

Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology, Issue 4, Queer, feminist digital media praxis

Editors: Aristea Fotopoulou (University of Sussex), Alex Juhasz (Pitzer College), Kate O’Riordan (University of Sussex/ University of California, Santa Cruz)

We invite contributions to a peer-reviewed special issue that brings together artistic, theoretical, critical and empirical responses to a range of questions around mediation, technology and gender equality. In particular we are interested in exploring what the concept of praxis could offer in our thinking about the intersections of gender, digital media, and technology.

Praxis in both Marxist and in Arendtian political thought brings together theory, philosophy and political action into the realm of the everyday. Inspired from this premise, and continuing the conversations that started during the workshop Queer, feminist social media praxis at the University of Sussex in May 2013 (queerfemdigiact.wordpress.com), we focus here on the conditions for a feminist digital media praxis. Media praxis, in other words the ?making and theorising of media towards stated projects of world and self-changing? (mediapraxis.org), could be a vital component of feminist and/or queer political action. We are interested in the different modes of political action for social justice, enabled by digital technologies and social media, including theory, art, activism or pedagogy. What kinds of possibilities or impossibilities do these technologies and platforms offer for interpreting and intervening in the world?

The fourth issue of Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology seeks submissions that explore the concept of feminist, queer, digital media praxis. We welcome unpublished work from scholars of any discipline and background, including collaborative, non-traditional, or multimodal approaches that can especially benefit from the journal’s open access online status.

Topics and approaches might include, but are not limited to:

–       Affect, desire and disgust
–       Diffractive readings
–       Digital storytelling
–       Herstories, archiving and remembering
–       Feminist pedagogy
–       LGBTQ Youth
–       New media bodies
–       Imaginaries, futures and technological utopias
–       Radical art practices
–       Science, technology and social justice

We invite submissions for individual papers on any of the above themes or related themes. Contributions in formats other than the traditional essay are encouraged; please contact the editor to discuss specifications and/or multimodal contributions.

All submissions should be sent by 15th August, to A.Fotopoulou@sussec.ac.uk. They should be accompanied by the following information in the email message with your submission attachment:

–       Name(s), affiliation(s), email address(es) of the person(s) submitting.
–       Title of the text
–       Abstract of 400-600 words

Please note that Ada uses a two-level review process that is open to members of the Fembot Collective. For more information about our review policy, see these guidelines: http://adanewmedia.org/beta-reader-and-review-policy/.

Important dates:

– Deadline for abstracts: 15th August 2013
– Notification of accepted papers: 1st September 2013
– Deadline for full essays: 5th December 2013
– Expected publication date: May 2014

About Ada:

Ada is an online, open access, open source, peer-reviewed journal run on a nonprofit basis by feminist media scholars from Canada, the UK, and the US. The journal?s first issue was published online in November 2012 and has so far received more than 75,000 page views. Ada operates a review process that combines the feminist mentorship of fan communities with the rigor of peer review. Read more at http://adanewmedia.org/beta-reader-and-review-policy/. We do not ? and will never ? charge fees for publishing your materials, and we will share those materials using a Creative Commons License.

Information about the editors:

Aristea Fotopoulou is postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sussex, working at the intersections of media & cultural studies with science & technologies studies. She is interested in critical aspects of digital culture, emerging technologies and social change, and in feminist/queer theory. She has written about digital networks and feminism, and recently, on information politics and knowledge production, and on social imaginaries of digital engagement. She currently explores practices of sharing in relation to biosensors and other smart technologies, and also works with Kate to produce SusNet, a co-created platform of feminist cultural production, art and activism.
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> Alexandra Juhasz is Professor of Media Studies, Pitzer College. She has written multiple articles on feminist, fake, and AIDS documentary. Her current work is on and about YouTube, and other more radical uses of digital media. She has produced the feature films, The Owls, and The Watermelon Woman, as well as nearly fifteen educational documentaries on feminist issues like teenage sexuality, AIDS, and sex education. Her first book, AIDS TV: Identity, Community and Alternative Video (Duke University Press, 1996) is about the contributions of low-end video production to political organizing and individual and community growth.

Kate O?Riordan is Reader in Digital Media and Associate Professor of Art at the University of Sussex and the University of California Santa Cruz respectively. She is the author and editor of three books, most recently The Genome Incorporated: Constructing Biodigital Identity. Her interests and expertise range from gender, sexuality and digital culture to human cloning, genomics and other biodigital symptoms. She is currently engaged in work at the intersections of art, science and media about in-vitro meat, biosensors and smart grids and questions about sustaining knowledge in feminist art and activism.