CALL FOR PAPERS

‘Feminist Bodies Now! an intersectional corpus,’ is a study of how bodies are contesting gender oppression, and the further possibilities for resistance. It will explore how far corporeal feminism has come, thinking about race, sexuality, disability, binaries and class in new ways, and ask how far feminism still has to go.

Feminist Bodies Now! is a symposium which will happen in Central London on Saturday the 9th of April 2016. It will be innovative with a strong emphasis on sub-culture and pop culture; bodies that break binaries and play with gender performance. Papers already confirmed include; the crossings and dwellings of the trans body, the disabled body in resistance, roller derby as a queer trans-feminism and Niki Minaj as a feminist body.

Papers from the symposium will be collated and published in book form.

Feminist Bodies Now! will situate real bodies within philosophical feminist discourses. Contributions are encouraged to be accessible for a wider audience, but have a strong theoretical framework, and think about current and relevant bodies through an exciting academic lens.

Other ideas for papers might include theoretical analyses of any subculture in which you are involved; or discussions of how women are subverting mainstream institutions from within.

Presentations should be in English, and will be allocated 20 minutes each, plus 10 minutes for discussion. Prospective participants are invited to submit abstracts of 200-250 words in Word. Proposals must include name, institutional affiliation (if relevant), a short bio (no more than 100 words) and an e-mail address. Abstracts should be sent to Sian.Bride1@winchester.ac.uk by the 15th of January 2016.

https://feministbodiesnow.wordpress.com/

Never has the relationship between our Students’ Unions and Trade Unions been more important.  With the recent Trade Union bill aiming to remove the potency of the organisation who are there to defend workers rights, and the Green Paper on Higher Education contextualising Students’ Unions in light of this, we can only expect the situation to get worse with regards to the organisation put in place to defend our rights.

Magnetic Ideals are working on a research project in collaboration with Students’ Unions, National Union of Students and Trade Unions Congress that will look at the current activities happening between Trade and Students’ unions and how they will work together in the future.

We are interested in case studies of how this has happened locally, and interest from any Students’ Unions or Trade Unions in helping us construct a survey on this topic that will help us better understand the current climate of joint working between these different groups and how they can work together better in the future.

If you are interested in being involved please contact heather@magneticideals.org

Further information on the project aims, objectives and timescales available here.