We are hoping to put together a panel for NWSA 2020 (Minneapolis, November 12-15, 2020). 

The inhibiting technology of scholarly publishing doesn’t allow for the development of a truly transnational feminist scholarly landscape. In our panel proposal, titled, Grabbing Tea: Conversations in Queer Academia, we propose using the concept of the “queer conversation” as an alternative technological format with an aim to loosen the tight confines of the US-based academic scholarly publishing landscape as well as a response to the structures of authority and format. Queer theory, queer identity, and the scholarship of gender and sexuality in academia are deeply rooted in academic publishing while also reflective in our teaching, pedagogy, research, tenure and promotion, interpersonal experiences, community engagement, and institutional affiliation. 

We invite other librarians/archivists, grad students, faculty, scholars, activists, and community workers to submit papers of 12-15 minutes where the use of conversations of varying forms such as interviews, oral histories, discussions, unconferences, annual review, podcasts, and other examples of the scholarly campfire, as they relate to experiences of queer academia have attributed to, and may be considered as examples of, a shift in scholarly publishing.  

Send a paragraph of your proposed topic and a short bio to shawnta.smith-cruz@nyu.edu and Sahoward@princeton.edu by February 18th. Also send any advance questions you have about the topics or themes.

The 2020 NWSA conference theme, “The Poetics, Politics, and Praxis of Transnational Feminisms,” seeks to open up conversation about the evolution of transnational feminisms.  Rooted in the pioneering scholarship of Jacqui Alexander, Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan, and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, among others, transnational feminism has been a subject of feminists study, theorizing, and discourse for decades. It has contributed immensely to decentering Western, especially US, scholarship and generated new forms of anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and decolonial feminist praxis and epistemologies that cross national boundaries. 

More info on website: https://www.nwsa.org/cfp