PhD Course: "The Body in Feminist Theory and Practice"

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.

13, 18, 20, 21, 2006 at the Netherlands Research School in Women's Studies, University of Utrecht
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.

Registration Deadline: 24 March, 2006

Further Information: nov@let.uu.nl

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"For What Noble Cause? German & U.S. Witnesses about the War on Iraq & Germany's Role"

With:
Ikram Al-Moien, Florian Pfaff, Cindy Sheehan & Hart Viges
Moderator:  Wolfgang Kaleck, Attorney

March 15, 2006 in Berlin, Germany, 19:30 hours, St. Bartholomäuskirche, Friedenstrasse 1, Berlin (corner of
Otto-Braun-Strasse, near the Märchenbrunnen and Haus der Demokratie; S-Bahn and U-Bahn Alexanderplatz, Bus nos. 100, 200, 240, tram M 4)

Ikram Al-Moien is an engineer who fled Iraq with his family in 1994 and obtained asylum and citizenship in Germany. During a visit to relatives in Baghdad the summer of 2005, the family car was without warning fired upon by U.S. soldiers, permanently injuring Ikram and three of his children, Mahmoud, Hassan, and the young girl, Zainab. The U.S. Embassy sent an official to silence the Al-Moien family, but they have filed charges against the U.S. Army.

Florian Pfaff is a German Major who refused a command from the Bundeswehr to provide software in the spring of 2003, stating that it might be used by the U.S. for the illegal war on Iraq. He was reduced in rank, but appealed this decision to the German High Court for Administrative Law (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) in Leipzig. The court backed him up, and declared that, in the case of an illegal war, the NATO Treaties have no force.

Cindy Sheehan is a mother from California.  Her son Casey was a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004. On August 6, 2005, she challenged President George W. Bush to explain why he called the war in Iraq a "noble cause" that required the U.S. to "stay the course." She went near Bush's vacation ranch in Crawford, Texas, put a tent in
a ditch beside the highway, and refused to budge.  During the several weeks she was there, Bush did not come out, but over10,000 people traveled to the town of Crawford to support Ms. Sheehan.

Benjamin Hart Viges enlisted in the U.S. Military immediately after September11, 2001, to  protect his country from terrorists.  He was a soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division during the conquest of Baghdad. His experiences changed him, as he observed the wanton loss of Iraqi life as a result of U.S. military orders such as to fire upon
automobiles, even those that may be carrying civilians and children. In 2004, after completing his tour of duty in Iraq, Hart successfully filed for conscientious-objector status and release from military service. He is now working as a waiter in Texas, counsels veterans trying to overcome the psychological consequences of the war, and is an activist working to "Bring 'em Home!"

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Conference: "Forensic Futures: Interrogating the Posthuman Subject"

An international conference in cooperation with the Law School, Birkbeck College, the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and the Leverhulme Trust.

Convener: Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht University; Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor, Birkbeck

This conference explores the shifting boundaries between life and death in contemporary culture. The focus of the event is the shifting locations of the contemporary subject, with special emphasis on issues of embodiment. The conference will address the proliferation of practices about 'bio-power' after Foucault, not only in the sense of the government of the living, but with special attention to the practices of dying. The forensic shift in contemporary social theory and cultural sensibility will be explored from a number of perspectives. The common axis of reflection is bio-technology and the forms of bio-capitalism that support it. A renewed emphasis on the shifting boundaries between living and dying, surviving and becoming extinct, can be read in the context of a contemporary form of vitalism that affects also our relationship to possible futures.

This event aims to explore the phenomenon from a variety of intersecting angles. On the critical side it explores the forensic shift in contemporary culture. On the affirmative side, it assumes that contemporary bio-citizenship affects the very fibre and structure of the social subjects, creating the possibility for multiple ecologies of belonging. 'Forensic futures' focuses on the ethics of sustainable transformations and explores its implications for new, post-human social and cultural practices.

Conference fee: £100
Reduced student rate: £50 (please note numbers of reduced-rate student places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis)

16 - 18 March, 2006 in London, UK
Room 405, Main Building, Birkbeck, Malet Street, London WC1

Further Information: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/law/conferen/forensicfutures2006.shtml or contact Christine Weber; School of Law Birkbeck; Malet Street; London WC1E 7HX; c.weber@bbk.ac.uk

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Workshop: "Gender, Citizenship and Governance"

The second regional training workshop on gender, citizenship and governance is organized jointly by the Royal Tropical Institute - Amsterdam (KIT) and the Collective for Research and training on Development - Action (CRTD.A). The course will be held in both English and Arabic. It will address these and other related questions:

• Are women rights and gender equality inscribed in the new reform initiatives on the agenda of the Arab region
• Are the current radical changes in the Arab region conducive for gender equality?
• What is gender analysis and why are rights based approaches important in development in the Machreq/Maghreb region?
• How can we enhance women's political effectiveness in countries of the Machreq/Maghreb region?
• What is the role of civil society in holding governments accountable for gender equality commitments?
• How can marginalized groups be assisted to claim citizenship and equal rights?

3 - 11 April, 2006 in Beirut, Lebanon

Course leaflet and application form: http://www.iris-lebanon.org/inner/GCG-glipII2006.htm

Further Information: Contact CRTD.A at gcg@crtd.org; http://www.crtd.org/; http://www.iris-lebanon.org/

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An International Human Rights Education Institute on Women’s Human Rights: "Building a Peaceful World in an Era of Globalization"

Application deadline: 15 February, 2006

Director: Alda Facio
Faculty: Peggy Antrobus, Angela Miles, Monica Muñoz-Vargas

PURPOSE: The Institute brings feminist perspectives and an active orientation to the inextricably related issues of peace, human rights and life-sustaining development. Participants will gain an understanding of the local and global economic, ecological, legal, cultural, and political contexts of this practice, as well as the groundbreaking work that is currently being done and has been done over decades by women and men around the world.

Important milestones such as the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Security Council Resolution 1325, the Beijing Platform
for Action, and Women’s Action Agenda 21, will be featured. Women’s historical struggles for their adoption, their potential as resources for social change, and effective ways of using them as tools for education and practice will be explored.

GOAL: To raise awareness of the human rights standards set by the United Nations, with the objective of supporting participants to develop their projects within a human rights framework and engage in human rights education themselves. The Institute will serve those wishing to strengthen both their practice and their theoretical understanding of human rights and peace building.

PARTICIPANTS:  The course is designed for a wide variety of participants from all regions, including (but not limited to) human rights advocates in government and non-government organizations, teachers and educators, union representatives, practitioners, policy-makers, peace activists, feminists, development workers, movement activists, and students. Maximum of twenty participants

1 May - 9 June, 2006 in Toronto, Canada

Further Information and application forms: http://www1.oise.utoronto.ca/cwse/springinst_06.htm
Tel: +1(416) 923-6641 ext. 2204, E-mail: springinst@oise.utoronto.ca

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Workshop: "Revisiting Governing from Feminist and Queer Perspectives"

This workshop by the AHRC Research Center for Law, Gender and Sexuality at the University of Kent will explore the contribution feminist and queer theory can make to how we think about the character and practice of regulation and governance. It will focus in particular on governmentality, changing forms of governance, political and democratic values, and the relationship between affectivity and state power within post-industrial liberal states.

The day will include plenary talks by Marianna Valverde, Judith Squires, Janet Newman and Jon Binnie, alongside three consecutive sessions. Each session will be introduced by short presentations, highlighting key themes and issues, leaving plenty of time for discussion.

29 June, 2006 at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

Further information: http://www.kent.ac.uk/clgs/

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• Changing concepts and practices of citizenship in relation to gender issues in Europe
• Interrelations between concepts and structures of citizenship and European multicultural contexts defined as intersections of race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, nationality, religion, etc.
• Gender, science and technology and global citizenship
• Gender and participation in political and economic processes.

Summer School: "Transforming Gender and Power: Mediating Science/Fiction & History/Memory"

This course aims to introduce different articulations of new feminist theories about the complex interaction of gender, culture, and power today. Very interdisciplinary in orientation, this two-week course presents approaches from the humanities and the social sciences.

AIMS: This advanced training course offers a diversified, but coherent programme of study from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is meant for MA students and PhD students and it will provide special and separate seminars to these two groups.

THEMES / CLUSTERS:
The clusters of this year's Summer School are:
Week one: Science Fact, Science Fiction: Feminist Stories of Popular Media, Visual Culture and the Scientific Imaginary.
Week two: Mediating Memories and Histories: Gendered European Identities .
Both clusters investigate Women's Studies scholarship and use interdisciplinary approaches.

All participants are expected to participate in the entire programme during the two weeks

Deadline: May 1
Please note that you can only register online at the Web address below.

5 - 15 September, 2006 in Utrecht, the Netherlands

Further Information and Registration: http://www.let.uu.nl/womens_studies/summerschool2006 

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Conference: "The Production and Crisis of Hegemonic Occidental Modern Masculinity"

Organiser: PD Dr. Ulrike Brunotte (HU Berlin)

In co-operation with the “masculinity research team” of the ‘Graduiertenkolleg: Geschlecht als Wissenskategorie’ [Research Training Group: Gender as a Category of Knowledge] funded by the DFG [German Research Foundation] (HU Berlin): Dr. Ute Frietsch, Sven Glawion, M.A., Dr. Sabine Grenz, Elahe Haschemi Yekani, M.A., Jana Husmann-Kastein, M.A.

The conference focuses on the often quoted crises of hegemonic occidental masculinity, which came into sight in Modernity in response to the challenges by new knowledge productions (such as feminist theory or psychoanalysis) and new images of masculinity in the context of nationalism and war. It also invites investigations from the perspectives of cultural studies, the history of science and a socio-historical point of view questioning the discursive emergence of more and more fragile models of masculinity. From this point of view, the social movements of the time (youth movement, gay liberation etc.), scientific canonization and de-canonization as well as antimodern and
antidemocratic resistance in the form of utopian man unions [Männerbünde], racist and anti-Semitic research as well as the soldierly body armor [Körperpanzer] are of special interest.

8 -10 December, 2006 in Berlin, Germany
Humboldt-University Berlin

Further Information: http://www2.hu-berlin.de/gkgeschlecht/veranstaltungen/tagung.htm#Mann