[csaa-forum] CFP: gender, race, religion and the making of communities

[Tanja Dreher]

New conversations: gender, race, religion and the making of communities

<>A national conference sponsored by Trans/forming Cultures: Key Centre 
for Communication and Culture, UTS <> 
Sunday, 10 December 2006
University of Technology, Sydney <> 

Call for Papers:  <>
Despite a decade of 'race debates' in Australia, analyses of the 
intersections between gender, race and religion remain all but absent in 
the public sphere. In recent years Muslim women in particular have been 
subjected to intense public scrutiny, yet these controversies have 
largely been limited to provocative comments on the hijab and sharia 
law. Such narrow debates have served to silence the experiences and the 
concerns of Muslim women and of scholars and community workers who 
engage the intersections of gender, race and religion. <> 

This conference seeks to establish a space for constructive dialogue 
around the perspectives which are marginalised in public discussions, 
focusing on how gender, race and religion shape notions of belonging and 
exclusion in Australia. Ideas around gender, race and religion have long 
been deployed in the construction of Australian national identity, and 
are particularly evident in current representations of 'aggressive' and 
'misogynistic' Islam as the ultimate alien other in 'tolerant' 
Judeo-Christian Australia. In minority communities, questions over 
community leadership, representation, and responses to racism have often 
revolved around constructions of culture, faith and gender roles. <> 

The organisers seek papers and presentations from all disciplinary 
perspectives in order to build a conversation across spectra of belief, 
scholarship and community.

Rather than another 'hijab debate', the conference will explore the 
intersections of gender, race and religion in regards to:

-         public space and public safety

-         health, housing and education

-         security and belonging

-         employment and unemployment

-         social inclusion and exclusion

-         media and public debate

-         the dynamics of community

-         the politics of representation

-         advocacy and activism

-         feminisms

-         nationalism and national identity

-         'law and order' and representations of crime

<> 
Full papers may be submitted following the conference for inclusion in a 
refereed publication. <> 

Deadline for abstracts: Monday 31 July. Please send 200 word abstracts 
and a brief biographical note to tanja.dreher at uts.edu.au <> 

For more information, contact

    * Dr Tanja Dreher: tanja.dreher at uts.edu.au
      <mailto:tanja.dreher at uts.edu.au>, 02-9514-2757 or
    * Dr Christina Ho: christina.ho at uts.edu.au
      <mailto:christina.ho at uts.edu.au>, 02-9514-1946

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://bronzewing.cdu.edu.au/pipermail/csaa-forum/attachments/20060516/f95c16ad/attachment.html