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Friday, March 10, 2006

"The Body in Feminist Theory and Practice"

In April, the Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies (NOV) organises the PhD course entitled "The Body in Feminist Theory and Practice".

Dates: April 13, 18, 20, 21, 2006 (full days)
Location:Utrecht University
Teacher: Prof. dr. Rosi Braidotti
Language: English
Credits: 7,5 ECTS - only awarded after an accepted written paper. (Students not requiring any credits will receive a certificate of attendance.)
Details: Tuition fee for external PhD students

The idea for this course emerged in the wake of the recent upsurge of interest in the body in society at large, in public/political debates, and within contemporary feminist scholarship. It has two aims. The first is to explore some of the ways in which the body can become a subject of feminist inquiry, as well as to address the possibilities and problems involved in doing research on the body from a feminist perspective. The second aim is to discuss and interrogate the ways in which our own embodiment as researchers impinges on the work we do. None of us -whether feminists or not- are the idealized disembodied subjects of Enlightenment mythology or disinterested rational agents in search of objective/neutral knowledge about the bodies of others. Learning to take our own bodies - bodies which are marked by sex, sexuality, ethnicity, age, and more - into account is not only 'politically correct'. It is integral to producing embodied and passionate knowledge -the cornerstone of any feminist inquiry. In this course, scholars from different disciplinary and theoretical backgrounds will describe how they approached the body as research object in their own inquiry, discussing some of the methodological 'ins' and 'outs' of doing research on the body from a feminist and/or critical perspective. They will also address the effects of their own 'embodiedness' on their actual research practices. Special emphasis will be given to poststructuralist theories of embodiment and to psychoanalytic notions of the body. Participants will be required to interrogate their own research along similar lines: how can they treat the body as an object of critical (feminist) inquiry and how can they situate themselves as embodied researchers.

Deadline for registration: March 24, 2006.

For more information on fees and registration: nov@let.uu.nl or 030-2536001 (mention the name of your promotor and institute and your mailing address).

Nederlandse Onderzoekschool Vrouwenstudies/Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies
Muntstraat 2A,
3512 EV UTRECHT
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0) 30 - 253 6001
Fax: +31 (0) 30 - 253 6134
nov@let.uu.nl --- www.let.uu.nl/nov