International, interdisciplinary conference

GENDERED WAYS OF KNOWING?
GENDER, HUMANITIES AND NATURAL SCIENCES

Trento (Italy), Fondazione Bruno Kessler
December 1-4, 2010

The aim of this congress is to push the question about the
epistemological function of the category ³gender² further, in
particular from the perspective of multi-disciplinary and
interdisciplinary research. Since the "rupture epistemologique" of the
late 18th century science has fabricated tools for sexualizing the
objects of the world, while modern anthropology and biology have
contributed to the universalization of gender cosmologies and the
ontologization of binary gender codes. While gender studies have
challenged this binary construction, they have also had a share in the
naturalization of gender by using it as an independent variable. In
recent years, however, the critique of gender studies has contributed
to a self-critical reflection about methodologies and presumptions
underlying research activities in different fields (including gender
studies themselves), questioning the notion of knowledge itself.

The conference is organized into four topic areas of particular interest:

1. Developments: The history and philosophy of sciences
Gendering science and disciplining gender; the historicity of both gender 
and natural and human sciences; historical developments in both areas 
of research; how we arrived at the methods and categories we take for
granted today.

2. Profiles: Research and researchers
The issue of gender, knowledge and science(s) with regard to specific 
disciplines; importance and consequences of ‘objectivity/subjectivity’, need 
to ‘produce’ and to ‘re-present’ knowledge; methodologies of gender 
classification and reinforcement of binaries (or not); reflections on the “ideal 
researcher” and gender aspects in his/her construction; presentation of 
particularly important/significant figures.

3. Effects: Social, cultural and individual consequences
How do representations and visualizations of scientific results (e.g. brain 
scans, anatomic drawings, genetic codes, statistics etc.) contribute to social 
and cultural perceptions of gender, and influence the communal and individual
experience of bodiliness? What are the consequences on the level of biopolitics 
and the organization of culture and society? Effects of medical visualiziation 
on everyday self-perception and processes of normalization.

4. Perspectives: Politics and the organization of research
European policies for research; inter-/transdisciplinarity as a focus; issues in 
biopolitics; gender issues in politics of employment, contracts, working conditions.

We invite proposals for papers on any of the above topics. 
Abstracts of not more than 600 words should be sent by email to
[log in to unmask] by April 30, 2010. 

Please indicate the topic area your paper relates to. Authors of papers
that have been accepted will be notified in July. Full versions of selected 
papers will be published after the conference.

Conference languages are Italian and English.

For further information and updates of the program please consult our webpage: 
http://gender2010.fbk.eu 
or send an email to 
[log in to unmask]

Planning Committee
Dr. Fernanda Alfieri (FBK-Isig)
Prof. Dr. Antonio Autiero (FBK-Sr)
Dr. Valentina Chizzola (FBK-Sr)
Dr. Giovanna Covi (Centro Studi Interdisciplinari di Genere/Univ. of Trento)
Dr. Stefanie Knauss (FBK-Sr)
Dr. Lucia Martinelli (Fondazione E. Mach)
Dr. Anna Perini (FBK-Cit)
Dr. Liria Veronesi (FBK-Sr)
Prof. Dr. Theresa Wobbe (University of Potsdam).

Online registration for the conference opens on May 1, 2010, and is 50
Euros (30 Euros for students).

Please feel free to forward the call for papers to other institutions
or persons interested in these topics.

*******************
The German Studies Call for Papers List
Editor: Stefani Engelstein
Acting Assistant Editor:  Olaf Schmidt
Sponsored by the University of Missouri
Info available at: http://www.missouri.edu/~graswww/resources/gerlistserv.html