Opportunities in Women’s Studies

Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Research Opportunities in Women’s Studies at the University of Limerick

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Women’s Studies at UL is located across disciplines and departments, which makes for a lively interdisciplinary research environment. We currently offer courses at certificate, diploma, bachelor and masters degree levels and have strong PhD and post-doctoral programmes. Our research strengths are represented by our two research groups: Women and global belonging: migration, multiculturalism and human rights and Memory, narrative and modernity. Post-Doctoral Research. The Women’s Studies post-doctoral fellowship programme greatly augments our research profile within the university and beyond. We are now inviting applications for a one-year post-doctoral fellowship starting in October 2005. Applications are welcome from candidates with a PhD in Women’s Studies, Sociology, Literature, History, Politics, or other related subject areas. Applicants must have completed their PhD and defended their thesis within the five-year period prior to June 1, 2005. The successful candidate will be have a background in Women’s Studies/feministscholarship and will be expected to contribute to the Women’s Studies research culture at the University of Limerick in a variety of ways includingpresentation and publication of their own work, co-ordination of seminars andconferences, and limited teaching hours. We are particularly interested in candidates whose research might contribute to our research group themes. Full applications (including a completed application form, PhD researchproposal and two academic references) should be submitted by 20 May, 2005. Salary: ª31,743 An application form and further particulars can be obtained from: Human Resources University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland Tel: +353-61-202700 Fax:+ 353-61-331881 Email: humanresources@ul.ie
Informal enquiries regarding the post may by directed to:Dr. Breda Gray Department of SociologyTel: +353-61-234207 Email: breda.gray@ul.ie

PhD Research Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for two PhD scholarships in Women’s Studies at the University of Limerick. Research in Women’s Studies at UL spans the disciplinary areas of sociology, literature, history, cultural studies, and management and clusters mainly in the areas of our research themes of ‘gender and memory’ and ‘women, migration, ‘race’, ethnicity and globalisation’. Preference will be given to PhD applications in these areas. PhD scholarships include full fee remission for EU students (partial fee remission for non-EU students) and a stipend of ˆ12,700 per annum for a period of three years. Closing date for applications: 20 May, 2005. An application form and further particulars can be obtained from: Niamh Lenahan, College of Humanities, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland Tel: +353-61-202945
Email: niamh.lenahan@ul.ie

For more information on graduate studies at UL see: www.graduatestudies.ul.ie For more information on Women’s Studies at UL see: www.ul.ie/womensstudies/
Niamh Reilly PhD Postdoctoral Fellow Women's Studies and Politics University of Limerickniamh1reilly@yahoo.com

Beyond the Canon

Final announcement
International Conference - Rotterdam, the Netherlands 16-17 June 2005

BEYOND THE CANON: HISTORY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Organised by the Faculty of History and Arts, Erasmus University Rotterdam in collaboration with Utrecht University (OGC), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)

CONFERENCE THEME
Although it would be exaggerated to proclaim the end of the nation in the near future, it cannot be denied that nations have become porous and contested. Consequentially, the practices of cultural transmission and education based upon them have likewise become precarious. After a half-century of decolonization, migration and postcoloniality, feminism and the gendering of historical discourse, the received canon of national history and political thought no longer commands the 'natural authority' it once possessed. Even so, we have to confront the paradox that, despite the vast amount of criticism leveled at it, the canon is still being recycled over and over again in textbooks and publications aimed at a broader public. Educators and public moralists frequently recommend the canon as the only alternative to the postmodernist maze of relativism and contingency. The conference BEYOND THE CANON sets out to discuss various dimensions of this paradox of de-canonization, such as gender, postcoloniality and migration, equality and the Enlightenment, situating them in the shifting balance of national, European and World History. It will investigate the feasibility of revised, multiform and more open 'canons', and the role they might playin cultural transmission in the twenty-first century.

A detailed conference programme is available at :http://www.fhk.eur.nl/onderzoek/paradoxes/beyondthecanon.html

HOW TO REGISTER
The number of tickets available is limited because of size limitations of our venues. Therefore we recommend that you make your registration as early as possible. If you wish to register for the conference, please download the registration form fromhttp://www.fhk.eur.nl/onderzoek/paradoxes/Registration%20form.doc and send your request by e-mail to : beyondthecanon@fhk.eur.nl

CFP: 'Gender and History'

Call for papers: Essays for special issue of 'Gender and History'

Translating Feminism in China, Dorothy Ko and Wang Zheng, editors.

Special issue editors: Wang Zheng,Women's Studies, University of Michigan wangzhen@umich.edu and Dorothy Ko, History, Barnard College dko@barnard.edu

Deadline for submission is May 15, 2005. Please send inquiries and submissions to the journal (gnh@umich.edu ), with copies to the two editors (email address above).

"Feminism" is a bad name in China today in and out of the academy, connoting the image of a polemical man-hating he-woman. This misrecognition conceals a century long process in which feminism has been deeply entangled in China's political, cultural, and social transformations, itself a symptom of feminist troubles rooted in the particular dynamics of modern China in globalization. As a result, the meanings of "feminism" and its place in the history and women's movement in modern China have been woefully neglected or maligned. The goal of this special issue is to reopen a line of inquiry for both China studies and feminist studies by creating a space for an interdisciplinary conversation on the problems and possibilities involved in translating feminism. First, we welcome contributions on the tumultuous history of the introduction of feminism to China. Feminism emerged in modern China as a response of elite men and women to imperialist colonization and capitalist globalization. Examples of topics that require critical examination include the tensions between nationalism and globalism or the contradictions between educated women and their working-class counterparts. Second, we welcome essays that focus on the linguistic and discursive formulations of feminisms in modern and contemporary China. The careers of such categories as "agency," "liberation" and "gender" require critical investigation, as do alternative views of body, self, and identity that do not take the enlightenment male subject as presumed norm. Third, we welcome contributions from non-specialists of China on the political and cultural dynamics of "translation" or "translingual practices" in an "intercultural zone." The fate of feminism in the semi-colonial context of the first half of the twentieth century, the communist statist context of the third quarter of the twentieth century, and in the global capitalist economy of the last quarter of the twentieth century provides fruitful ground for comparative analyses. A special issue on China highlights the importance of local and ethnographic knowledge in our re-conceptualization of "global feminism." The linguistic specificity of Chinese also instructs us on the parochialism of Anglophone discourses. In looking to the past century and to China, this special issue hopes to contribute to the articulation of the terms and politics of a post-colonial feminism that would remain relevant to our globalized future. This call for papers is issued in tandem with an international conference on"Feminism in China since The Women's Bell" held in Shanghai to commemorate the centennial of one of China's most influential feminist texts. Originally scheduled for June 2003, it took place in June 2004. Articles for the special issue (Fall 2006) will be selected from both responses to this call for papers and the conference papers.

Call for proposals Asia: Female Deficit in Asia

Female Deficit in Asia: Trends and Perspectives
International conference, Singapore
5-7 December 2005

Organized by CEPED-CICRED-INED

Hosted by the Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis


CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS
The conference will be held in Singapore at the Asian Metacentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis on 5-7 December 2005. Centers and scholars working on population are invited to communicate to the conference secretariat a proposal on this theme. All centers and scholars working on population are invited to communicate to the conference secretariat a proposition of communication on this theme. The conference is organized by CEPED, CICRED and INED in order to promote South-South and North-South exchange with support from the Asian Meta Centre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis, Singapore.

Paper topics relating to all social and demographic aspects of female deficits in Asia are welcome.

Please note that due to this high level of interest, and the fact that our budget will be limited, funding will be mostly limited to participants from research centers located in developing countries and we anticipate that the selection of papers will be very competitive. No more than one participant per research centers may be sponsored.

Conference-related correspondence should be addressed to: seminar1205@cicred

For further details please visit the conference's website http://www.cicred.org/Eng/Seminars/Femaledeficit.htm

CFP: Resources for Feminist Research

RESOURCES FOR FEMINIST RESEARCH/DOCUMENTATION SUR LA RECHERCHE FÉMINISTE

CALL FOR PAPERS

Decolonizing Spaces
Feminist negotiations of communities, territories and borders have led to various debates regarding the gendered character of spatial relations.These debates have included spatial constructions such as the public/private split; the historical and contemporary bifurcations of colony/metropole; and transnational oppositions of citizen/foreigner. More recently, some of these anti-racist, anti-colonial feminist challenges have taken shape under the name of transnationalism: as a set of concerns with migration and movement of bodies; as attention to economic globalization; as an analytic framework; as community activism. In this issue, we hope to consider: what happens when we think of space transnationally? What does this pairing do to work fighting opposition to public housing, to struggles for status and citizenship, to kiss-ins as responses to queer bashing, to First Nations land claims? We encourage submissions from community organizations, such as reports on current and upcoming strategies, and analysis of past organizing. How and where do we engage in decolonizing spaces? Where are the linkages, the border zones, the spatialized relations, the points of tension produced through the above sites? How are they constructed – socially, politically, economically, artistically, and how do they engender the spaces and the subjects who inhabit them? The Editorial Board of RFR invites submission of original manuscripts for publication; we are interested in considering the contradictions, complexities, and interdependencies of the above spatialized constructions. Topics may include, but are not limited to: *Activism in communities: new and emerging *Specific sites: neighbourhoods and communities transnationally *Diaspora: migration, travel, roots, remittances, border crossings,nostalgia *Spatial Legacies: colonial, historical, transformative *Urban identity: belonging and exclusion; producing and contesting spatial difference Urbanization and globalization *Claims to citizenship and public space (sexual, social, legal) *Disciplining public space (criminalizing homelessness; surveillance and containment)*Representing, re-imagining and reclaiming public space

Send 4 hard copies of articles, in English or French, 3000-5000 words,with a short (125 word max.) abstract and biographical note on a separate sheet, to:

Editors,
RFR/DRF, OISE,
University of Toronto,
252 Bloor St. West, Toronto M5S 1V6
Canada.Deadline: September 15, 2005
rfrdrf@oise.utoronto.ca

Workshop: Chinese women in Diaspora

WOMEN'S STUDIES RESEARCH CENTRE & THE CENTRE OF ASIAN STUDIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG cordially invite you to the 2005 Spring Workshop:

"Chinese Women in Diaspora: Independent Film/Women's Visions and Voices"

Date/Time: Saturday, 23 April 2005/ 9:30 am - 1:00 pm
Venue: The Reading Room, Centre of Asian Studies, Tang Chi Ngong Building, Room G-4 (Ground Floor)
for more details, check the Website:
http://www.hku.hk/cas/wnew.html

Fellowship opportunity

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General Federation of Women's Clubs
Women's History & Resource Center Researcher Fellowships, 2005
Contact: (Suzanne Gould) sgould@gfwc.org
Website: http://www.gfwc.org

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The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) announces the establishment of the Women's History & Resource Center Researcher Fellowship Program. The purpose of this program is to assist potential researchers with funding for travel, housing or other living expenses while utilizing the collections in the Women's History & Resource Center (WHRC).
The WHRC consists of an archival collection containing the records of GFWC since 1890, and a library that documents the historic social contributions of women volunteers.

Awards of up to $1,000 each will be granted to two individuals. Applicants should send a one-page description of their research proposal, explaining how the WHRC collection can assist them in their research, a resume and one letter of reference. The letter of reference should come from someone qualified to judge the significance of the research. Applicants will be evaluated on how effectively the WHRC collections would assist them with their research proposal, considering both the subject of the research and the potential to utilize a wide variety of WHRC materials. All application materials should be postmarked by June 1, 2005. Notification will be given by June 15, 2005. Upon completion of their research, fellowship winners will be asked to write a brief summary describing how GFWC has impacted women's history with regard to their subject area and to provide a written overview of the original materials that assisted them with their research. For more information about the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the Women's History & Resource Center, please visit the web page at http://www.gfwc.org/ , or contact Suzanne Gould, WHRC Director at sgould@gfwc.org

Suzanne Gould
Director,
Women's History & Resource Center
General Federation of Women's Clubs
1734 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.347.3168, ext.139 (phone)
202.835.0246 (fax)

Roundtable: Research on Women's History in Modern China

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"RETHINKING MODERN CHINESE HISTORY: An International Conference to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Institute of Modern History"

Venue: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Date: 29 June-1 July 2005
Website: www.sinica.edu.tw/imh

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Roundtable: "Transcending the Boundaries of Research on Women's History in Modern China"
Chair: Lu Fang-shang
Date: 30 June 2005

Presenters:
Lin Li-yue "Gender and Change Within Tradition: Research on Women's History in Ming China in the Last Twenty Years"
Hu Siao-chen "Pluralistic Perspectives of Research on Women's History in Qing China"
Gail Hershatter "Rethinking Chinese Modern Women's History"
Jin Jungwon "Research on Women's History in Modern China in Japan and Korea"
Yu Chien-ming "Research on Women's History in Modern China in Taiwan"
Yip Hon-ming "Research on Women's History in Modern China and Its Future Development in Mainland China and Hong Kong"

Members are welcome to visit the above website for a full conference programme and abstracts.

CAS Seminar Announcement

"Chinese Women in Diaspora:Independent Film/Women's Visions and Voices"


You are cordially invited to attend the following spring workshop jointly organized by the Centre of Asian Studies and Women's Studies Research Centre, the University of Hong Kong.

2005 Spring Workshop

Chinese Women in Diaspora: Independent Film/Women's Visions and Voices

Date / Time: Saturday, 23 April 2005 / 9:30 am - 1:00 pm

Venue: The Reading Room, Centre of Asian Studies, Tang Chi Ngong Building, Room G-4 (Ground Floor)

Abstract: This year we have invited Ms. Weimin Zhang to show a documentary film that she directed and edited, The House of Spirit (2000), which won a prize at the Betty Thomas Filmmaking Awards. It has also been selected for the Vancouver Asian Pacific International Film Festival, and the Chicago Asian American International Film Festival. Zhang is one of China's sixth generation filmmakers and she graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in Cinematography in 1991. From 1997 she studied at Ohio University and completed an MFA in film production and an MA in Multimedia Design. She was an award winning filmmaker in the short film competition at 2000 Cannes International Film Festival. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University, Department of Cinema & Television. The House of Spirit is an intimate portrait of the life of artist, designer, educator and philanthropist Shao Fang. With ties to many cultures - primarily China and the United States - Shao Fang's story is symbolic of many women in diaspora who "compose lives" in response to trauma, loss, and migration. In the late 1940s, Shao Fang and her late husband were invited to apprentice with Frank Lloyd Wright, a famous American architect. Blending women's history, autobiography, and anthropology, Zhang illuminates the way Shao's character and spirit provide strength and perspective to live "the positive and productive life." As a woman, as a Chinese, and as an artist, Shao Fang, now in her eighties, has led a highly unusual life. This documentary is a personal documentary of this indomitable soul and her spiritual house. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion. Discussants include Mable Au, Nicole Hess, Amy Lee and Dr. Gina Marchetti. The workshop will also feature a short interactive session on a Nushu Multimedia CD-ROM, Nu Shu - The Secret Language of Women.

Please email: hkusua.hwomensrc@ku.hk if you wish to attend.
Please visit http://www.hku.hk/cas/wnew.html for forthcoming activities.