Conference of Workshops: Love in Our Time – A Question for Feminism

By Gunnel Karlsson on 22 Feb | 0 comments

Download the abstracts for the conference here.

Download the work in progress report here.

PROGRAMME (download as PDF here)

Thursday December 2nd

10.00-11.00     Registration

Plenary Session
Location: BIO, Forumhuset

11.15-11.30     Welcome

11.30-12.15     “Love Studies in Our Time – Mapping the Field”, by Anna G. Jónasdóttir, Professor Emerita, Gender Studies, Örebro University

12.15-13.30     Lunch

13.30-14.15     “Bread and Roses in the Commons”, by Rosemary Hennessy, Professor, Department of English and Director, Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA

14.15-15.00     “Love, Social Change and Everyday Heterosexuality”, by Stevi Jackson, Professor, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York, UK

15.00-15.30     Coffee

Workshops
Location: Room F 108, F 109 and F 110, Forumhuset

15.30-18.30     Workshops in three groups arranged by sub-theme

19.00               Dinner at the Faculty Club, Örebro University

Friday December 3rd

Workshops
Location: Room F138, F206 and F208, Forumhuset

09.15-11.15     Workshops in three groups arranged by sub-theme

11.15-11.30    Coffee

Plenary Session
Location: BIO, Forumhuset

11.30-12.15     “A Return to Love: A Caribbean Feminist Explores an Epistemic Conversation between Audre Lorde’s ‘the Power of the Erotic’ and Anna Jónasdóttir’s ‘Love Power’”, by Violet Eudine Barriteau, Professor of Gender and Public Policy, University of the West Indies, Barbados

12.15-13.30     Lunch

Plenary Session
Location: BIO, Forumhuset

13.30-14.15     “Love and the Issue of Solidarity”, by Ann Ferguson, Professor Emerita, Philosophy and Women’s Studies, University of Massachusetts, USA

14.15-14.30     Practical matters

Workshops     (coffee break included)
Location: Room F108, F109 and F110, Forumhuset

14.30-18.00     Workshops in three groups arranged by sub-theme

19.30              Dinner (“Smörgåsbord” in Swedish Christmas style), Wadköping

Saturday December 4th

Plenary Session
Location: BIO, Forumhuset

10.00-11.00     Reports from workshops
11.00-12.00     Discussion
12.00              Lunch

The conference will revolve around the the two main parts of the theme: I. Love Studies – mapping the field; or II. Love Studies – remaking the field. For the latter, we invite contributions, both critical and reconstructive, that specifically approach one of the following three sub-themes:

(1) Gendered interests in sexual love, for instance how (if at all) care practices relate to erotic agency

(2) Temporal dimensions of loving and love activities, preferably as compared with temporalities of working, or labour activities; or with thinking and action time. Is there a philosophy and politics of time that should be distinguished and developed about love, to understand better the social conditions, cultural meanings and political struggles of love in our time?

(3) Love as a strong force in the intersection between politics and religion and also as a useful key concept for a new political theory of global revolution. What is to be said and done from feminist points of view about postmodern revitalising of pre-modern ideas of passionate love?

Conference Workshop Format

The conference will begin on Thursday morning (2 December 2010) with three keynote addresses from leading scholars in the field (to be announced), followed by workshop meetings in the afternoon. Friday (3 December 2010) will be organized similarly with both plenary sessions and parallel workshop meetings. A final plenary will be held on Saturday morning (4 December 2010), where summaries of major research and discussion themes will be presented.

Workshops are designed to be a forum for discussion of research in progress precisely related to the conference sub-themes and to facilitate collaboration among junior and senior scholars. Each workshop will go on for two days and involve ten participants from several institutions. Only those scholars currently working in the field addressed by the workshop will be accepted to participate.

The workshop format is intended to enhance participation in a collegial atmosphere. Each participant presents a paper or research document for discussion, and takes part in the discussion of the other sub-theme papers presented. In addition, each sub-theme participant will be assigned the role of formal discussant on one paper. Each sub-theme will be assigned a coordinator, whose tasks will include maintaining the group’s schedule of presentation, summarizing research and discussion themes and presenting these summaries at the closing plenary.

We expect these workshops to lead to publications, as well as to continued collaboration between members.