Call for Proposals for Conference on Women and Gender

Seton Hall University's Women and Gender Studies Program will host the annual Conference on Women and Gender on Friday, April 5, 2024. The conference committee is currently inviting presenters exploring any aspect of women and gender from all fields—including the humanities, diplomacy, social sciences, mathematics, and experimental sciences—and all professions, including but not limited to business, law, health care, education, and non-profit administration, to submit either individual paper proposals or proposals for fully formed panels.

Consistent with the principles and methodology of Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, and related fields, papers should be academic in nature, based on foundational concepts including the constructedness of gender, and joining critically in conversation with reliable, scholarly or edited sources. Papers should also be accessible to a general audience of undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, and members of the community. Participation by students, faculty, staff, and the public are welcome, with the proviso that graduate and undergraduate panels must have a faculty discussant. Individual papers should aim to be about fifteen minutes long.

This year we are also pleased to welcome Meghana Nayak, Ph.D., as our keynote speaker. Nayak is Professor of Political Science and Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies at Pace University. Her research focuses on gender violence, refugees, U.S. power and identity, and pedagogical approaches to international relations. She is the author of Who is Worthy of Protection? Gender-Based Asylum and U.S. Immigration Politics (Oxford University Press) and the forthcoming Tilt: A Novel About Intergenerational Trauma. Nayak’s talk, titled "The Feminist Politics of Trauma," will consider what it means to be a feminist researcher and travel alongside trauma: to name it, inflict it, repair it. She will discuss her research on gender violence and undocumented migrants in the U.S. and an unexpected journey to investigate intergenerational and historic trauma. She will also engage such questions as: What happens when feminist work opens the door to research that is "not in your field"? Why does feminist academia give us so many wounds? What should we do with the grief that our research gives us or inflicts on others?

The deadline for submission of proposals for the conference is Feb. 5, 2024. Single paper or complete panel proposals of 250-300 words should be emailed to Mary Balkun, Ph.D., and should include name(s) and affiliation(s) of each presenter, as well as paper or panel titles.

The conference will be open to all members of the Seton Hall community and to the public at no charge. Registration will be available several weeks prior to the conference through the conference website.

For additional information contact the conference organizer, Mary Balkun.

Categories: Arts and Culture, Education