8th European Feminist Research Conference, CEU Budapest, May 17-20 2012‏

Women and men in Europe in the first decades of the 21st century are
confronted with acute social, political, cultural, economic and
environmental concerns, including increasingly racist politics and
nationalist discourses across Europe, huge cutbacks in social services
and education, strengthening conservative gender discourses, and an
overall climate unfavorable if not hostile to feminist, queer, and other
progressive movements. In striving to address these concerns on
regional, national and international levels, feminist scholars are
re-assessing their theoretical and political toolbox. The ‘politics of
location’, coined by Adrienne Rich in 1976, continues to play a crucial
role in these debates. Women’s and gender studies cannot do without
reflecting on the politics of their locations, but how to use this tool
now that locations are constantly shifting? When the locations we
inhabit are perceived to be multiple, paradoxical and (in)comparable?
The 8th European Feminist Research Conference invites scholars,
students, activists and policy makers to re-visit their politics of
location in the light of current crises in Europe and beyond, and to
reflect upon the ways in which feminist scholarly tools can be used for
understanding and for changing the world.
Reflecting the diversity of women’s and gender studies European Feminist
Research Conferences represent cutting-edge scholarship. The 8th
European Feminist Research Conference is organized by the Central
European University, Department of Gender Studies and AtGender, the
European Association for Gender Research, Education and Documentation.
The European Feminist Research Conferences usually have more than 500
participants from both inside and outside Europe. The Conferences have a
track record of presenting innovative feminist scholarly work with
critical perspectives on contemporary Europe and its histories. The
previous European Feminist Research Conferences were held at the
universities of Ålborg (1991), Graz (1994), Coimbra (1997), Bologna
(2000), Lund (2003), Łódź (2006) and Utrecht (2009).
This one will be held in Budapest, Hungary, May 17 - 20, 2012.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Hana Havelkova (Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech
Republic)

Clare Hemmings (Gender Institute, The London School of Economics and
Political Science, United Kingdom)

Andrea Pető (Central European University, Budapest, Hungary)

Fatima Sadiqi (International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fez,
Morocco)

Call for Papers
The 8th European Feminist Research Conference welcomes papers that keep
in focus the connections among a number of relevant axes that frame
current researches in the field. We have in mind connections between
disciplines and interdisciplinarity; the past, the present and the
future; gender and intersectionality; activism and power; local and
global; margin and center. The strands listed below indicate the main
lines of inquiry around which the Conference will be structured.
Participants must indicate the strand their paper addresses; it is also
possible to indicate a second strand that will be addressed in their
contribution. Based on these indications the Conference Board will
create intersecting panels across different strands.

Conference strands
Women’s and Gender Studies between Neo-discipline and
InterdisciplinarityRooting and Shifting (in) Feminist Research:
Assessing the ‘Turns’ in Feminist TheoryTeaching ‘Gender’ across the
Borders of the Human, Social, Natural and Biomedical SciencesLocated at
Crossroads of Race and Gender: Intersectional Analysis in Women’s and
Gender StudiesShifting Sexualities, Masculinities and Femininities:
LGBTQIRevisiting ‘Equality vs. Difference’: Feminism in the 21st
CenturyTriple Helix of Social Inclusion: Connecting Activism,
Policy-making and Gender ResearchFeminist Legacies, Feminist Futures:
Generating FeminismsThe Politics of Migration: Transnational
Feminisms?Re-Imagining ‘Europe’: Imperialism, Post-State Socialism and
Multiculturalism in the 21st CenturyViolence Revisited: Security,
War and Peace NarratedReligion Revisited: Spirituality, Gender and the
Post-SecularCreativity Reconsidered: Rethinking Feminist Art, Media
and Technological Practices
Abstracts should have not more than 300 words and can only be uploaded
at http://www.8thfeministconference.org.
Abstracts must be submitted before July 31, 2011.
The conference organizers also welcome proposals for whole panels as
well as presentations by women’s centers, libraries, documentation
centers, networks or publishers.
The conference fees and other relevant information are posted on the
conference website http://www.8thfeministconference.org.