Thinking Gender 2019:
Feminists Confronting the Carceral State
DATE: February 22, 2019
LOCATION: Luskin Conference Center, UCLA
Call for Proposals
Deadline: Sunday, October 28 at 11:59 PM (PDT)
The UCLA Center for the Study of Women invites submissions of graduate student paper, roundtable presentation, and poster proposals, and undergraduate student poster proposals for our 29th Annual Thinking Gender Graduate Student Research Conference.
This year’s conference theme, Feminists Confronting the Carceral State, will focus on gendered regimes of captivity, state violence, and incarceration, emphasizing feminist, queer, trans, abolitionist, and intersectional interventions. The conference will feature a keynote panel of scholars and activists, including:
- Beth Richie, Professor of African American Studies and Criminology, Law and Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago
- Alisa Bierria, Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside
- Colby Lenz, Organizer, Survived and Punished and California Coalition of Women Prisoners; and PhD Student, American Studies and Ethnicity, USC
- Romarilyn Ralston, Program Coordinator, Project Rebound, California State University Fullerton
Much of the policy and research on punishment in the United States has focused on men. Yet, the history and contemporary reality of women’s subjugation to systems of punishment also runs deep and warrants further exploration. Many young women and girls, especially Black, Brown, and Native girls, are ensnared in the carceral state where they are criminalized and surveilled in schools, foster systems, and in their communities. Moreover, transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals are particularly vulnerable to policing and incarceration and state-sanctioned violence.
Feminist abolitionist Angela Davis has illuminated the carceral state’s gendered structure, elaborating the numerous ways that women and LGBTQ communities are made vulnerable to violence, oppression, and harm. In addition to examining the complex range of regimes that constitute the carceral state, and the modes of violence therein, Feminists Confronting the Carceral State heeds Davis’s call for abolition democracy, including broad societal change: the “demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance” (Davis, 2003, pg. 107). This begs the question: how do feminists lead this modern abolitionist movement and rebuild a society deeply scarred by its own criminal justice system?
Feminists Confronting the Carceral State invites presenters to think through approaches that consider the social contexts in which the carceral state operates in feminist, queer, intersectional, and critical ways. Given recent re-commitments to “tough on crime” beliefs and policies, feminists must be at the forefront of resisting and dismantling the carceral state in all areas of society.
We invite proposals for papers, roundtable presentations, and posters from graduate students, and posters from undergraduate students. Successful submissions will center analyses of sexuality, gender, and/or feminism. This is an interdisciplinary conference and we encourage submissions from all fields of study. Topics may include but are not limited to the following:
- State-sponsored violence
- Racialized policing and surveillance
- Studies of specific institutional modes of power, such as prisons, jails, and detention centers
- Processes of carceral expansion
- Immigration and detention
- Anti-carceral art
- Transformative justice
- Cultural logics of white supremacy, settler colonialism, and xenophobia
- Cultural/media representations of incarceration
- Historical and contemporary abolitionist, feminist, and queer anti-carceral activism/organizing
- Histories of captivity and imprisonment
- Youth/Girlhood
- Political repression
- “Gender responsive” punishment and carceral feminism
- Prisons, toxicity, and the environment
- Reproductive justice
- Criminalization of gender and sexual nonconformity
- Political economies of punishment
- Social institutions and carceral control (i.e. education, foster care, mental health, housing, health care)
- Transnational and diasporic analyses
Submission Guidelines
Eligibility
Registered graduate students from any institution are eligible to submit paper, roundtable presentation, and poster proposals.
Registered undergraduate students from any institution are eligible to submit proposals for poster presentations only.
Individuals may present in only one capacity at the conference, although you may submit an application to be considered in all presentation categories.
Unpublished papers are preferred for submission. Recently published and forthcoming papers will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Registration Fee
To participate in Thinking Gender, successful applicants will be required to pay a registration fee of $50, the entirety of which will go towards covering conference costs.
Deadline for Proposal Submissions
Deadline for Paper and Poster Proposals: Sunday, October 28, 2018, at 11:59PM PDT
Once submissions are reviewed and accepted, all participants in the paper panel sessions will be required to submit a draft of their paper by January 28, 2019, for pre-circulation among their co-panelists and faculty moderator.
Online Application Form
All proposals must be submitted using the online application form: https://csw.ucla.edu/tg19-app
Modes of Research Participation
**GRADUATE STUDENT APPLICANTS ONLY: If you would like your application to be considered for more than one type of presentation, please follow the submission guidelines for Paper Panel Presentations.**
Graduate Paper Panel Presentations:
Paper Panels will be comprised of graduate student paper presenters and a faculty moderator who will read and provide detailed feedback and questions on each paper. Paper presentations will be 12 minutes long. Panelists will be required to submit their paper drafts by January 28, 2019, for pre-circulation among their co-panelists and faculty moderator.
Panel Presentation application requirements:
- Paper proposal (2-3 double-spaced page maximum) that includes a thesis/research question, discussion of methodology and theoretical framework, explanation of your argument and supporting data, and conclusions or anticipated conclusions
- Works Cited or Reference List (1 page maximum)
- CV (2 page maximum)
Graduate Roundtable Sessions:
Roundtable sessions will provide presenters and attendees the opportunity to interact and engage with one another’s scholarship in a less formal setting than a Paper Panel. Graduate students with papers in development who are not yet ready to present on a paper panel are encouraged to apply for a roundtable presentation. Presenters will each have 5 minutes to present their work and 5 minutes for feedback, to be followed by general discussion with roundtable participants. Accepted proposals will be grouped by shared themes and interests, and assigned to a roundtable chair who will facilitate the discussion.
Roundtable application requirements:
- Proposal abstract (200 words maximum) that includes a thesis/research question, discussion of your argument, and anticipated conclusions
- Works Cited or Reference List (1 page maximum)
- CV (2 page maximum)
Graduate and Undergraduate Poster Session:
Graduate and Undergraduate students will present visually compelling research posters. During the poster session, each presenter will be present with their poster for discussions and questions with circulating attendees. Posters will remain on display throughout the conference.
Poster Session application requirements:
- Poster proposal (1-2 double-spaced page maximum) that includes a thesis/research question, discussion of methodology and theoretical framework, explanation of your argument and supporting data, and conclusions or anticipated conclusions
- Works Cited or Reference List (1 page maximum)
- CV (2 page maximum)
All materials must be submitted online: https://csw.ucla/edu/tg19-app
Deadline for Paper and Poster Proposals: Sunday, October 28, 2018, at 11:59PM PDT
Only complete submissions received by the deadline will be considered.
Questions?
Contact Shena Sanchez, 2019 Thinking Gender Conference Coordinator, at thinkinggender@women.ucla.edu.
