[Reader-list] [Announcements] 2 Call for Contributors : cyberfeminism + cell phones

[Jeebesh Bagchi]

Call for Chapters: Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies,
and Social Action


Kristine Blair, Bowling Green State University,
kblair at bgnet.bgsu.edu,

Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University,
radhik at bgnet.bgsu.edu,

Christine Tulley, University of Findlay,
tulley at findlay.edu

Although current manifestations of cyberfeminism are visible in various
digital, computer-mediated environments, some of these seem to imply that
the only concern for cyberfeminists should be the setting up of a feminist
counterculture in the form of spaces merely in opposition to the presumed
masculinist hegemony online. Yet if cyberfeminist agendas are indeed to
produce subversive countercultures that are empowering to women and men of
lesser material and socio-cultural privilege the world over, it is important
for us to examine how individuals and communities are situated within the
complex global and local contexts mediated by unequal relations of power.

To address these issues, Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities,
Pedagogies, and Social Action, will feature an interdisciplinary collection
of voices that address both the possibilities and constraints of female and
feminist identity, community, and ocial/educational transformation in
cyberspace. Contributors are encouraged to submit abstracts to the
appropriate section editor for a 20-25 page chapter. Our proposed text is
organized into three sections:

Section I. The Everyday Life of Borderwork (Section Editor, Christine
Tulley)

What do female web spaces look like when they operate in opposition to or
distinctly from standard borders/communities (for example, classroom and
community spaces, political arenas, or cultural centers)? What happens to
women who design cyberspaces that dont necessarily fall under the category
of feminist? Some potential areas to investigate for this category might
include:

The practice of shopping for women in cyberspace
Communities with a traditionally feminine focus
Cybercommunities for moms
Websites for women devoted to specific feminist interest
Dating websites or profiles

We are open to other areas for investigation as well, especially those
projects that examine practices of women using the net that cannot be
easily labeled or operate on or beyond borders previously established by
other fields of study.

Section II. Classroom and Community Networks (Section Editor, Kristine
Blair)

Essays in this section will focus on the role of technology in fostering
feminist teaching and learning communities, including community action and
service learning projects and the gender and power dynamics that evolve as
more and more women enroll in distance education or seek access to
communication networks as part of their academic, professional, and social
lives. Possible questions to guide the section include:

In what ways do feminist theory and critical cultural pedagogies intersect
with classroom and community e-space to foster reciprocity, dialogue, and
social activism?

How do women, as educators and activists, construct and sustain virtual
spaces that potentially subvert cultural views of technology as male?

Rather than align ourselves with uncritical views of technology as
liberator, contributors should theorize the role of technology in classroom
practice and social action projects, acknowledging the possibilities and
constraints of virtual spaces in subverting traditional intersections among
gender, power, and identity to foster social and political transformation
both locally and globally.

Section III. Building Cyberfeminist Webs (Section Editor, Radhika Gajjala)

For this section of the book, the authors solicit essays that develop and
analyze strategies and tactics for building cyberfeminist webs. Even as
women are displayed visibly in relation to various technological contexts,
the complex gendered, raced, classed, embodied - in short the
socio-cultural and economically situated nature of technological design and
practices - are not acknowledged often enough; thus we seek engagement with
the following questions:

What are women allowed to use these technologies for and why?
Which women are allowed, and under what conditions?
Where and how can we locate agency in relation to these spaces and
practices?

At the same time there exists a mediated visibility of gender in relation to
computers and cyberspace, much discourse surrounding new technologies
implicitly assumes the transparency of these technologies. Thus this section
will include various critical theoretical perspectives that practically form
the necessary collaborations to design and produce dialogic electronic
networks.

Deadlines:

500-Word Abstracts: April 15, 2004
Selection of Abstracts: June 15, 2004
First Version of Manuscripts: September 15, 2004
Feedback to Authors: November 15, 2004
Final Versions: January 15, 2005
------------------------------

Message: 2

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR EDITED BOOK

THE CELL PHONE:
HISTORY, TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE

Edited by Anandam P. Kavoori and Noah Arceneaux
Dept of Telecommunications
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
The University of Georgia, Athens, Ga 30602

The Cell phone presents itself at the periphery of contemporary discourse
about media and culture.  TV cops use it as they rush to crime scenes,
teenagers use it to connect with their peers, terrorists are traced through
calls made on their cell phones, extra-marital affairs draw sustenance from
them.  Such images, however, do not do justice to the central role that cell
phones have begun to play in contemporary society. Cell phones lack the hype
of the Internet but are fast approaching the cultural impact of a mass
medium. They have begun to shape how we communicate; their use has created
new forms of media-centered relations; and in the marketplace they have begun  to influence patterns of media ownership and acquisition. In the developing world-the cell phone is often the first phone for the urban poor.  In their intersection with other technologies-text messaging, the World Wide Web and digital photography/video-Cell phones have changed how we look at an omnipresent cultural technology-the "telephone."

This edited book seeks papers that examines three overarching
issues-History, Technology and Culture-- as they relate to the Cell Phone.
Papers from all theoretical (social scientific, cultural, critical,
ethnographic, historical) perspectives are welcome.  Of special interest are
papers dealing with the impact of the Cell Phone in the developing world and
with issues of identity politics-race, gender, ethnicity  and sexuality.

Papers  may address one or more of these questions. These are suggested
research questions, not a complete template. You may wish to add to these.

History:
When did Cell Phones develop into a mass medium? What are the economic,
political and institutional factors that have had a major impact on the Cell
phone industry? What has been the relation between the history of the
Internet and the Cell Phone? What is the future of the Cell Phone as
compared to the history of other media technologies? What has been the
trajectory of Cell Phone use in the developing world as compared to the
West?

Technology:
What is the technology of the Cell Phone? How did it evolve and intersect
with other media technologies (Internet, Phone, Web, Texting)? How have the
design and architecture of Cell phones (size, texture, features, color)
influenced their growth? What are the current technological limits and
possibilities of the Cell Phone? How might Cell Phone technologies grow and
change in the next decade? How has it impacted minority cultures and the
developing world?

Culture:
What are the shifts in cultural sensibility that the Cell phone represents?
What kinds of normative and interactive models for communication does the
Cell phone represent? What forms of mass mediated relationships and Identity
politics does the Cell Phone configure? How do the aesthetics of Cell phones
impact behavior-- especially youth and business culture? How have Cell
phones changed the structuring of daily life? How do cell phones intersect
with issues with issues of identity-politics, especially those of race,
gender and sexuality. What
future impact can the Cell phone have as it merges with web and other
technologies? What
is the impact of the cell phone in developing countries? With changing
Geo-politics?

The deadline for paper abstracts is September 1, 2004.

Please send your queries via email to the corresponding editor, Noah
Arceneaux at
noahax at uga.edu or via mail to Dr. Anandam P. Kavoori, Associate Professor,
Dept of Telecommunications, Grady College of Journalism and Mass
Communication,
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.


End of morgue Digest, Vol 5, Issue 14
morgue at sarai.net
*************************************




_______________________________________________
announcements mailing list
announcements at sarai.net
https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements