Feminism with/out Gender (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
BABEL Working Group
Organizer Name
Robin Norris
Organizer Affiliation
Carleton Univ.
Presider Name
Damian Fleming
Presider Affiliation
Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ.-Fort Wayne
Paper Title 1
"Ic ane geseah idese sittan": Old English Verse and the Bechdel-Wallace Test
Presenter 1 Name
Alexandra Reider
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Yale Univ.
Paper Title 2
"Þus oððe bet": Writing, Gender, and Anglo-Saxon Textual Practice
Presenter 2 Name
Thomas A. Bredehoft
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Chancery Hill Books and Antiques
Paper Title 3
Feminist Scholarship and Embodied Experience
Presenter 3 Name
Irina A. Dumitrescu
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Univ. Bonn
Paper Title 4
Why Do I Bake for Department Meetings?
Presenter 4 Name
Marian Bleeke
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Cleveland State Univ.
Paper Title 5
Working as (if) a Man: Relative Genders in the Academic Workplace
Presenter 5 Name
Suzanne Conklin Akbari
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Univ. of Toronto
Paper Title 6
A Voice of One's Own: In Our Own Skin at Work
Presenter 6 Name
Alexa Huang
Presenter 6 Affiliation
George Washington Univ.
Start Date
11-5-2017 3:30 PM
Session Location
Fetzer 1045
Description
What part does the performance of gender roles play in our professional, academic, and personal environments? How does the performance of femininity, in particular, intersect with the relations of power and privilege found in academic institutions and scholarly organizations? While masculinity as a social construct and a set of culturally enacted performances has received much critical attention, the performance of femininity – by those of any gender – has received less attention, especially in the context of academic life. To what extent do we (of any gender) find ourselves obliged to (or choosing to) perform femininity in the professional world? This might include performance of socially constructed norms such as listening rather than speaking, offering care or hospitality to the group, taking responsibility for community formation, or allowing others to take ownership of one’s spoken or written contributions. To what extent do we do the same in our personal or creative worlds? Writing practices, for example, are sometimes characterized in terms of gendered activity, such as the ‘woven text’ associated with women’s arts of the body. How does our commitment to feminism (in terms of a broader commitment to access) intersect with other kinds of commitments, perhaps especially including those that arise from trans issues, but also considering other intersectional commitments that engage with race, ethnicity, and religious identity? This roundtable will endeavor to take stock of how gender continues to inform daily life in our academic environments, within both institutional settings and scholarly organizations, and to consider how our communities might develop a more robust feminist ethics that facilitates access and makes space for other voices.
Robin Norris
Feminism with/out Gender (A Roundtable)
Fetzer 1045
What part does the performance of gender roles play in our professional, academic, and personal environments? How does the performance of femininity, in particular, intersect with the relations of power and privilege found in academic institutions and scholarly organizations? While masculinity as a social construct and a set of culturally enacted performances has received much critical attention, the performance of femininity – by those of any gender – has received less attention, especially in the context of academic life. To what extent do we (of any gender) find ourselves obliged to (or choosing to) perform femininity in the professional world? This might include performance of socially constructed norms such as listening rather than speaking, offering care or hospitality to the group, taking responsibility for community formation, or allowing others to take ownership of one’s spoken or written contributions. To what extent do we do the same in our personal or creative worlds? Writing practices, for example, are sometimes characterized in terms of gendered activity, such as the ‘woven text’ associated with women’s arts of the body. How does our commitment to feminism (in terms of a broader commitment to access) intersect with other kinds of commitments, perhaps especially including those that arise from trans issues, but also considering other intersectional commitments that engage with race, ethnicity, and religious identity? This roundtable will endeavor to take stock of how gender continues to inform daily life in our academic environments, within both institutional settings and scholarly organizations, and to consider how our communities might develop a more robust feminist ethics that facilitates access and makes space for other voices.
Robin Norris