We play many roles in the transnational and transdisciplinary networks of emergent feminist knowledges. Creating, patterning, sharing, demonstrating, altering and using knowledges are some of the actions we participate in. We work together with and as part of worldly processes of many sorts.
So twice during the semester we work together in our own feminist conference, with presentations of our research -- on-going, tentative, and open -- so that we can all use it, consider collaborations, and open up our assumptions.
***FIRST SET OF CLASS CONFERENCES: many feminisms, many kinds of thought
From Tuesday, 21 October to 4 November
The first conferences address topics analyzing
• Forms in which feminist theory is shared and ways of classifying feminist theories.
Standpoint theory? Black feminist thought? Postmodernism and posthumanism? How do we describe the varieties of feminist theories and the forms they take? You, perhaps with a partner, will take up some of these issues, decided in email consultation with Katie, in either a presentation for the class or in a paper.
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Tuesday 21 October is our first plenary session of two focused on presentations. These will be followed the first week of November by paper sessions -- where paper writers will all offer themselves to discuss their topics and written results. For all sessions you should be sharing handouts for folks to use as jumping off points for interaction.
Some tips folks usually offer for what to do at a conference:
--Take the initiative and introduce yourself. Introduce others around you.
--Be socially generous. Invite others along, bring them into conversations, introduce them to colleagues, connect them to someone of common interests.
--Remind yourself that young scholars are important to any conference. They/We bring cutting edge research to the field. This is a breath of fresh air.
--While listening to presenters, offer non-verbal responses --frown, nod, take notes. Show you are listening actively. Prepare yourself to ask questions during the sessions, or one-on-one.
--Remind yourself schmoozing is important and okay. Be sure to let people know your reactions to their work, you want to know who they are, and you want them to know who you are.
--Consider how you might like to USE this work yourself. What role can it play in your own on-going projects?
--BE KIND. Everyone is in this together.
We will devote three class periods to our conferencing activities. Each time make notes on the CONTENT of the work, and also on CHANGES IN YOUR OWN THOUGHTS AND ASSUMPTIONS. You will need this second sort of material for your final learning analysis.
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