Feminist Critical Analysis
Inter-University Center (IUC), Dubrovnik
May 30th to June 3rd, 2011
The Center for Gender and Politics of the Belgrade University (Political Science Department), Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers of the State University of New Jersey, and the Department of Gender Studies of the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest are pleased to announce the next annual postgraduate course in “Feminist Critical Analysis: Witnessing the Past, Remembering the Future”. The course will be held at the Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik (www.iuc.hr) from May 30 to June 3 2011.
The course is co-directed by Dasa Duhacek, Center for Gender and Politics, University of Belgrade, Ethel Brooks, Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Rutgers University and Allaine Cerwonka, Gender Studies Department, Central European University (CEU).
The course is built on the intellectual dialogue among a diverse body of scholars from different geographical locations and the participating faculty is drawn from different universities.
TOPIC
After more than a decade of our Feminist Critical Analysis courses, organized on a wide range of major themes, that resonated not only regionally, but also with a broader international academic community, in the year 2011 the course Feminist Critical Analysis: Witnessing the Past, Remembering the Future will address a number of issues that will both take us into the past – while critically assessing it – but will also allow us to look toward the future.
By addressing time, highlighting women’s time, and exploring the myriad, seductive and sobering ways that temporality plays out we will follow complex paths of discussion: we will continue to insert our concerns into the current debates of memory and witness studies; and, in the process, we hope to add yet more elements to the diverse and growing ‘feminist memoir projects.’
Memory has on the one hand been a part of the philosophical inquiry since its beginnings, but, on the other hand it has forcefully been placed on the agenda of contemporary theory by the unbearable weight of trauma, urgency of testimony and the necessity of witnessing – all brought about by the unimaginable horrors of genocides, feminocides, slavery… Since it is a truism that the history of memory has been male, despite the female figure of Mnemosyne (and Clio), attention will also be given to Lemosyne and the history of forgetting. The history of memory has introduced countless forms, figures and tropes: from a wax tablet to a blank paper, from an inscriptional mode to its designations through spatial metaphors, from loci memoriae to sites of commemoration. Memory has been a pathway to the inner self but has especially in the histories of the present introduced the complexities of collective memories; it has alerted us to “estranged conceptual prisms…” that painfully point to our failures “to contain and account for what has happened in contemporary history.”
Contemporary theory has through feminist theoretical contributions and other entry points, such as the issues of the body, space, and many others, highlighted the irreplaceability of the gender perspective; and, has, within this framework, appended memories of the past to the understanding of the future.
ELIGIBILITY
IUC courses are conducted at a postgraduate level. All postgraduate students interested in the topic may apply for participation. Participants should seek funds from their own institutions to cover travel and accommodation costs. Limited financial support is available for participants from Central and Eastern Europe. All meetings are conducted in English.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
A short narrative (up to 250 words) explaining your interest in the topic and your C.V. with your current complete contact information should be submitted by e-mail; deadline for application is Friday, January 21st 2011. Submissions will be reviewed by the selection committee and results will be announced by mid February. The number of participants is limited to 15 students from different countries.
Please send your applications to Center for Gender and Politics, University of Belgrade at <studijeroda@fpn.bg.ac.rs> with Dubrovnik 2011 in the subject heading.
