CFP for ICA Preconf on Intersectional Imaginaries in Media, Religion & Gender

Call For for Papers for ICA 2020 Preconference on Intersectional Imaginaries in Media, Religion and Gender

On a global scale, negotiations over the expression of gender and sexuality have become central to political and social discourse and have been framed in terms of religious tradition and imagery. Some prominent examples include the debates centered around limits to contraception, transgender access to bathrooms, who may wear religious covering in public, who may marry, drive, vote, get an eduction, etc. At the same time as awareness is being raised about rampant sexual harassment and assault of women, non-white, indigenous and queer individuals, hyper-masculine leaders (Trump, Duterte, Bolsonaro) are ascending to powerful positions as they boast about sexual assault and demean female competitors. While digital media facilitate global networks of political activism related to gender justice issues as well as creative expressions of resistance, they also enable white nationalist movements, men’s rights groups, incel networks, anti-Muslim hate crimes, and the circulation of misogynistic and racist memes. Throughout these debates and conversations religion and religious symbolism are used as rhetorical touchstones and expressive performances in unexpected ways.

This preconference will explore how religion and media function as dual and intertwined modalities through which identities and their various intersections are expressed or contested. We will take up questions of gender, race, sexuality, class, ability, indigeneity and the way that they are performed and understood in, through, and alongside religion and media. We welcome papers that consider religion, media, and gender as complex, multivalent categories that mutually constitute one another. And we anticipate a conversation that is global in scope and welcome projects with a focus on the Global South and indigenous contexts.
The preconference will include an opening plenary session with experts in the field, including Sarah Banet-Weiser from the London School of Economics, Zala Volcic from Monash University in Australia, and Pradip Thomas from University of Queensland in Australia The remainder of the preconference will be devoted to panels made up of submitted proposals and a final roundtable discussion.

Papers or abstracts of 250 words maximum should be submitted to the organizers at cmrc@colorado.edu by December 15, 2019. Acceptances will be emailed at the time of the overall ICA acceptances in January.

Preconference organizers and contacts:
Stewart M. Hoover, University of Colorado hoover@colorado.edu; Johanna Sumiala, University of Helsinki johanna.sumiala@helsinki.fi; Andrea Press, University of Virginia apress@virginia.edu; Heidi Campbell, Texas A&M University heidic@tamu.edu; Sarah McFarland Taylor, Northwestern University smcftaylor@gmail.com; Jenna Supp-Montgomerie, University of Iowa jenna-supp-montgomerie@uiowa.edu; Corrina Laughlin, Loyola Marymount University Corrina.Laughlin@LMU.edu; Kristin Peterson, Boston College petersub@bc.edu;

Endorsing ICA Divisions: Philosophy, Theory, and Critique; Global Communication & Social Change; Feminist Scholarship Division