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CFP Submission by January 22nd, 2021

The year 2020 ushered in the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated many unprecedented global crises. We have witnessed destruction of communities -- often Black, Indigenous, immigrant, poor -- and their habitats: the fires across the Amazon rainforest, the Dakota Pipeline construction, the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, and Indigenous communities ravaged by COVID. Major conflicts have worsened in these times of COVID-19, resulting in unspeakable suffering and violence in communities, from the threat of extinction of Indigenous populations, to the desecration of Indigenous lands and sacred spaces, to climate strikes and the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit people, and trans women of color.

How do feminists and their communities, Indigenous and settler colonial, cis, queer, and trans, address these issues/crises/problems, resist, and heal their communities? How have feminists and activists creatively strategized against or used the existing power structures to reverse the fragmentation of peoples and break down hierarchies? In pursuit of peace and justice, what are feminist activists doing within their communities to combat the pandemic, stop the divisions and violence while countering the hatred and demonization against the othered? How do we imagine peace and justice at this juncture? How might we move towards justice through the intersectional and transnational coalitions across genders, races, classes, sexualities, cultures, religions, nationalities?

The 2021 Women’s & Gender Studies (WGS) Conference at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), rescheduled due to COVID-19, offers a critical space and place for a two-day virtual inquiry across differences and communities into the intersections of gender, race, community, and conflict. For three decades, since 1991, the feminist collective at SCSU has been hosting continuously conferences that reach across communities and bring together activists, academics, artists, and feminist practitioners from diverse backgrounds for a feminist feast.

We invite and re-invite proposals that investigate the past, the present, and the future of the intersections of gender, race, and community that showcase feminist interventions in the tackling of conflicts. In what ways can feminist practices and movements counter the negative consequences of hate and white supremacy? What can we do to support communities struggling to align with the feminist agendas of peace, justice, and unity while honoring differences? How is the feminist body involved in community, conflict and the pursuit of peace and justice? How does feminism contribute to the pursuit of equity and equality? How has feminist storytelling narrated these struggles and contributed to/reshaped intellectual discourse? What can we do to ensure a more just and equitable world?

Submissions are invited to address the topics including but not limited to the following:

Please submit proposals to WGS@southernct.edu, with attention to Conference Committee. If you have any questions, please E-mail WGS@southernct.edu or call the Women’s & Gender Studies Office at (203) 392-6133. Include name, affiliation, E-mail, and phone number. Proposals should be no longer than one page (250-400 words). Panel proposals are encouraged.

The Women’s & Gender Studies Conference at SCSU is self-supporting; all presenters can pre-register at the discounted presenters’ rate. More information, including the registration, is forthcoming.  For more information about the SCSU WGS conference and its history, please visit www.southernct.edu/academics/womens-gender-studies.