cfp

Call for Proposals

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Rhetorics | Rights | (R)evolutions

The Department of English, together with Program in Women’s and Gender Studies, the College of Arts and Sciences, and University Libraries at the University of Dayton (UD) invite proposals for the Eleventh Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference to be held at UD October 4-7, 2017.

Our conference theme, Rhetorics, Rights, (R)evolutions, draws attention to the significance of our field, of history, and of rhetorical practices at a time in which human rights – especially among women and people of color – are threatened on a daily basis. Meanwhile, civic discourses and public forms of democratic deliberation are in a state of upheaval as arguments based on reasoning and evidence matter little in the face of might-makes-right ideological triggers. Our theme draws attention to

  • the local, national, and global uses of feminist rhetorical practices for social justice, advocacy and activism;
  • the realities, problems, and possibilities of rhetoric as a human right;
  • the ways feminist scholarship and social advocacy overlap;
  • the roles feminist rhetorical practices and education play in democratic participation;
  • and the past and future of the CFSHRC and Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference as an organization advancing human rights.

This meeting also marks the 20th year of the Feminisms and Rhetorics conference, and our conference theme marks this milestone. As participants consider together the past, present and future paths of the great variety of feminisms, rhetorics, and social practices of our scholarship, we also invite participants to consider the historical, contemporary, and future trajectories of the conference in particular. Thus, the theme of the conference is meant to explore the broad impact of the history of the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, relations between the conference and activism within and outside of the academy, and how the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference might shape future directions of scholarship, teaching, and activism.

We invite proposals that engage conference participants in the history and tradition of Feminisms and Rhetorics, as well as its commitments to challenging those histories and traditions and valuing collaborative, multi-vocal, multi-modal works. To that end, we encourage and are open to a variety of presentation styles, in roughly 75-minute segments, including but not limited to

⧫ Individual Paper or Panel Sessions  (3-4 papers followed by discussion/questions) ⧫ Workshops/Maker Sessions (directed, applied or “hands-on” work on an object/ practice)
⧫ Collaborative/Interactive Sessions (Presenters collaborate on a topic, perhaps with readings circulated in advance) ⧫ Roundtables (exchange works-in-progress prior and prepare questions for a session)
⧫ Multimodal/Digital Presentations (Presentations that employ modes beyond print/alphabetic/oral) ⧫ Seminar sessions (exchange readings prior to session and discuss with a seminar leader in preparation for a project)

We also encourage you to submit your activist related projects to our Morning Meeting sessions.

As with previous conferences, the 2017 meeting will include both one-on-one mentoring workshops as well as time and space for Writing Mentors Office Hours for attendees interested in receiving feedback on a publication project. Registration for one-on-one mentoring and Writing Mentors Office Hours will be forthcoming.

For this twentieth anniversary of the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, we invite proposals that explore a vast range of topics including, but not limited to:

Possible topics:

  • History of women’s rhetoric and/or rhetorical scholarship
  • Evolutions and revolutions in feminist rhetorical scholarship
  • Women’s/human rights’ activism and advocacies
  • Rhetorics of advocacy and activism
  • Human rights rhetorics and rhetoric as a human right
  • Intersections of rhetorical scholarship and rhetorical practices
  • Social justice pedagogies and teaching as advocacy
  • Intersections of academic freedom and social justice/human rights
  • Relations between women’s academic and non-academic rhetorical practices
  • Feminist activism within and outside the academy
  • Methods of historicizing, archiving, and “accounting for” women’s social justice rhetorics
  • Critical inquiries of the past, present, and future of the CFSHRC & FemRhets conference
  • Evolving categories of “women” as a condition for “rhetorics” and “rights”

Submission Guidelines: 
750-word limit for panel and roundtable proposals, or seminar session proposals
500-word limit for collaborative/interactive sessions, multimodal presentations, workshop/maker sessions
250-word limit for individual proposals

Submissions will be blind reviewed. Abstracts must not contain any information that will identify presenters or speakers. At the top of the submission abstract, indicate the presentation style. Upon acceptance, look for forthcoming information on the conference’s edited essay collection.

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2017
Notification of acceptance & Registration begins: April 15, 2017 May 1, 2017