[Air-l] CFP

[Radhika Gajjala]

Sorry for crossposting - please fwd to all who may be interested.

r


Call for Chapters: Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies, 
and Social Action



Kristine Blair, Bowling Green State University, 
<mailto:kblair at bgnet.bgsu.edu>kblair at bgnet.bgsu.edu,

Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University, 
<mailto:radhik at bgnet.bgsu.edu>radhik at bgnet.bgsu.edu,

Christine Tulley, University of Findlay, 
<mailto:tulley at findlay.edu>tulley at findlay.edu



Although current manifestations of cyberfeminism are visible in various 
digital, computer-mediated environments, some of these seem to imply that 
the only concern for cyberfeminists should be the setting up of a feminist 
counterculture in the form of spaces merely in opposition to the presumed 
masculinist hegemony online. Yet if cyberfeminist agendas are indeed to 
produce subversive countercultures that are empowering to women and men of 
lesser material and socio-cultural privilege the world over, it is 
important for us to examine how individuals and communities are situated 
within the complex global and local contexts mediated by unequal relations 
of power.



To address these issues, Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, 
Pedagogies, and Social Action, will feature an interdisciplinary collection 
of voices that address both the possibilities and constraints of female and 
feminist identity, community, and social/educational transformation in 
cyberspace. Contributors are encouraged to submit abstracts to the 
appropriate section editor for a 20-25 page chapter. Our proposed text is 
organized into three sections:



Section I. The Everyday Life of Borderwork (Section Editor, Christine Tulley)



What do female web spaces look like when they operate in opposition to or 
distinctly from standard borders/communities (for example, classroom and 
community spaces, political arenas, or cultural centers)? What happens to 
women who design cyberspaces that dont necessarily fall under the category 
of feminist? Some potential areas to investigate for this category might 
include:



The practice of shopping for women in cyberspace



Communities with a traditionally feminine focus



Cybercommunities for moms



Websites for women devoted to specific feminist interest



Dating websites or profiles



We are open to other areas for investigation as well, especially those 
projects that examine practices of women using the net that cannot be 
easily labeled or operate on or beyond borders previously established by 
other fields of study.



Section II. Classroom and Community Networks (Section Editor, Kristine Blair)



Essays in this section will focus on the role of technology in fostering 
feminist teaching and learning communities, including community action and 
service learning projects and the gender and power dynamics that evolve as 
more and more women enroll in distance education or seek access to 
communication networks as part of their academic, professional, and social 
lives. Possible questions to guide the section include:



In what ways do feminist theory and critical cultural pedagogies intersect 
with classroom and community e-space to foster reciprocity, dialogue, and 
social activism?



How do women, as educators and activists, construct and sustain virtual 
spaces that potentially subvert cultural views of technology as male?



Rather than align ourselves with uncritical views of technology as 
liberator, contributors should theorize the role of technology in classroom 
practice and social action projects, acknowledging the possibilities and 
constraints of virtual spaces in subverting traditional intersections among 
gender, power, and identity to foster social and political transformation 
both locally and globally.



Section III. Building Cyberfeminist Webs (Section Editor, Radhika Gajjala)



For this section of the book, the authors solicit essays that develop and 
analyze strategies and tactics for building cyberfeminist webs. Even as 
women are displayed visibly in relation to various technological contexts, 
the complex gendered, raced, classed, embodied - in short the 
socio-cultural and economically situated nature of technological design and 
practices - are not acknowledged often enough; thus we seek engagement with 
the following questions:



What are women allowed to use these technologies for and why?



Which women are allowed, and under what conditions?



Where and how can we locate agency in relation to these spaces and practices?



At the same time there exists a mediated visibility of gender in relation 
to computers and cyberspace, much discourse surrounding new technologies 
implicitly assumes the transparency of these technologies. Thus this 
section will include various critical theoretical perspectives that 
practically form the necessary collaborations to design and produce 
dialogic electronic networks.



Deadlines:



500-Word Abstracts: April 15, 2004

Selection of Abstracts: June 15, 2004

First Version of Manuscripts: September 15, 2004

Feedback to Authors: November 15, 2004

Final Versions: January 15, 2005








_____________

http://www.cyberdiva.org


blogs: http://www.cyberdiva.org/cyberdiv/october

research and teaching: http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik