CATR extended deadline for seminar participation

[Jenn Stephenson]

The leaders of Seminar 1: Women and Science in Performance have offered to
extend the deadline for submissions to participate in this CATR conference
seminar. The new deadline for submissions is December 15th. Details are
appended below and in the pdf attachment. 

Please contact Jenn Stephenson (jenn.stephenson at queensu.ca) or the seminar
leaders Lourdes Arcinega and James Lange (emails below) if you have any
questions.

 

 

Seminar 1: Women and Science in Performance

Lourdes Arciniega (University of Calgary) and James Lange (University of
Calgary)

 

Abstract

Over the years countless plays have used science to rationalize patriarchal
ideologies and the staging of women as ‘naturally’ compassionate, nurturing,
emotional, weak, and subordinate. Because of this, feminists have
traditionally been suspicious of any recourse to the question of science,
particularly the biological and medical sciences. However, recent feminist
theorists, such as Elizabeth Grosz and Donna Haraway, have called for a
reevaluation of the ways that science has been, is being, and can be
deployed to critique conventional “relations of domination and subordination
between races and sexes” (Grosz 33). Responding to this challenge, theatre
scholars have begun to look back to historical plays and performances to
develop a more nuanced understanding of the ways that science has been
molded to align with the ever-changing roles of women in society. Likewise,
contemporary playwrights and performers have deployed science in their own
work explicitly to critique traditional patriarchal ideologies and redefine
gender identity.

For this seminar we welcome papers concerning the general topic of women and
science in performance. We are particularly interested in papers that
examine how science is deployed by twentieth-century playwrights and
performers in their representations of women, femininity, mothers and
motherhood, women’s “nature,” fertility, reproduction, and relations between
men and women. We also welcome papers that expand on current Feminist
Science Studies, including the challenges of multi-disciplinary research.
Keeping in mind the conference theme of “Interconnected knowledge,” we are
interested in ways that plays or performances participate in the
dissemination and debate of scientific theories that explicitly concern
women and “women’s issues.” 

 

Questions

1.       To what ends have feminist playwrights and performers deployed
science in their work?

2.       How have theories of evolution been used in the representations of
women?

3.       How have plays or performances either questioned or supported
traditional scientific thinking about “women’s nature”?

4.       How do artificial reproduction technologies impact the performance
of the female in contemporary drama?

5.       How is the perception of “motherhood” affected by new reproductive
technologies?

 

 

Working Plan

Interested participants are asked to submit 250-word abstracts to Lourdes
Arciniega ( <mailto:mlarcini at ucalgary.ca> mlarcini at ucalgary.ca) and/or James
Lange ( <mailto:jlange at ucalgary.ca> jlange at ucalgary.ca) by December 1, 2009.
The seminar leaders will choose ten participants who will be notified of
their acceptance by January 20, 2010. Seminar participants will then be
asked to submit an 8-10 page paper on a topic relevant to the discussion by
March 22, 2010. The seminar leaders will also submit papers. The papers will
be posted on a wetpaint.com webpage designed specifically for this seminar.
Participants will be required to familiarize themselves with the other
participants’ papers prior to the conference, and all will be invited to use
the wetpaint.com site to comment on individual papers, discuss issues and
topics arising from the papers, and propose topics for discussion at the
conference. The seminar leaders will prioritize and distribute topics for
discussion two weeks prior to the conference. At the conference itself the
seminar will be organized as a roundtable and we will discuss and debate the
topics and issues that emanate from the papers.

 

 

Jenn Stephenson

Associate Professor, Drama

Queen's University

Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6

 

Phone. (613)533-6000 x78597

Email.  <mailto:jenn.stephenson at queensu.ca> jenn.stephenson at queensu.ca

Web.  <http://www.queensu.ca/drama/jstephenson>
www.queensu.ca/drama/jstephenson

 

"There is no theory that is not a fragment, carefully prepared, of some
autobiography" --Paul Valéry 

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

 

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