Day 1 of Women's History Month - Feminist Hero

Ms. Pac Man: Feminist Hero - watch more funny videos

Women's Day 8 March 2010

What are you doing for Women's Day?

Housmans Radical BookShop is hosting the following events:

Housmans, Peace House, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London, N1 9DX

Focus on Feminism

To celebrate International Women ’s Day on the 8th March, Housmans bookshop are proud to present a series of feminist and woman-positive events encompassing history, environmental activism, and social commentary.Throughout March there will also be relevant photographs from Cynthia Cockburn and Alex Brew on display within the shop.

‘Feminism Today’ with Nina Power and Lindsey German
Saturday 6th March - 5pm to 6.30pm

Author and academic Nina Power joins veteran socialist campaigner Lindsey German to discuss the state of contemporary feminism, with a focus on the rise of ‘consumerist feminism’. Nina Power’s latest book, ‘One Dimensional Woman’ charts the rise of ‘consumer feminism’, the cultural phenomenon according to which the height of female achievement consists of “the ownership of expensive handbags, a vibrator, a job, a flat and a man.” But how has it come to this?, she asks. Did the desires of twentieth-century women's liberation achieve their fulfilment in the shopper's paradise of 'naughty' self-pampering, playboy bunny pendants and bikini waxes?

Socialist activist and London mayoral candidate Lindsey German similarly examines women’s places within a consumer-capitalist economy in her 2007 publication ‘Material Girls: Women, Men and Work’, in which she argues that women’s relatively recent admission to the world of work has left them exposed to the worst exploitations of capitalism.

Join the authors in conversation at Housmans bookshop for a discussion of feminism’s possible futures.

Zed Books present ‘Glamour: Social History, Women and Feminism’
with Carol Dyhouse
Wednesday 10th March - 7pm to 8.30pm 


How do we understand "glamour"? Has it empowered women or turned them into objects? Once associated with modernity and the cutting edge, is it now entirely bound up with nostalgia and tradition?

Dyhouse’s latest publication tells glamour‘s story. It explores the changing meanings of the word, its relationship to femininity and fashion, and its place in twentieth century social history. Using a rich variety of sources - from women's magazines and film to social surveys and life histories , the author examines with wit and insight the history and meaning of costume, cosmetics, perfume and fur. She disentangles some of the arguments surrounding femininity, appearance and power, directly addressing feminist concerns.

The book explores historical contexts in which glamour served as an expression of desire in women and an assertion of entitlement to the pleasures of affluence, finally arguing that glamour can't simply be dismissed as oppressive, or as male fantasy, but can carry celebratory meanings for women.

Join us at Housmans to hear Prof. Dyhouse discuss her publication. There will be an opportunity to meet the author and to have books signed. 


'
Resolution 242 + Jonny One Lung +
The Ruby Kid + Captain of the Rant 
Saturday 20th March  - 6pm to 9pm 


No Sweat regularly host the best nights in politically-charged music, with all proceeds going towards fighting sweatshop bosses around the world.
This evening No Sweat bring a selection of their favourite artists to Housmans, all playing in an unplugged style. The fantastic line up includes:

Resolution 242 – sharp as nails acoustic folk punk reggae
Jonny One Lung - emotive and outspoken songs
The Ruby Kid – political rap, a cappella style
Captain of the Rant - spot-on slam poetry

…plus anti-sweatshop speeches, drinks and a raffle.http://www.nosweat.org.uk


‘Women and Activism’
with Maya Evans and Tamsin Omond 
Wednesday 24th March - 7pm to 8.30pm
Activists Maya Evans and Tamsin Omond will be discussing womens’ roles in contemporary peace and environmental movements.


Maya Evans was the first person to be convicted under the 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act; her offence was to stand in front of the Houses of Parliament, reading out the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq. Since her conviction, she has campaigned against Islamophobia and the Afghan war, and for civil liberties.

Tamsin Omond is a high-profile environmental activist and founder of Climate Rush, an all-female climate change awareness movement inspired by the struggles of the Suffragettes, who advocate peaceful civil disobedience to inspire change.

Maya and Tamsin will be discussing the roles played by women in contemporary peace and green movements, and examining questions of gender and class identity in activism. 



‘Dissenting Women of the Eighteenth Century’
with Jennifer C. Kelsey
Wednesday 31st March - 7pm to 8.30pm 

Throughout the eighteenth century, from childhood to old age, women from all strata of British society faced the same prejudice because of their sex. Not all women, however, were prepared to accept their lot; some openly objected to a double standard which placed them under far more restrictions - physical, intellectual, financial and social - than men and boys.

Even for those who did accept the status quo, there were ways to make use of, or even exploit, the situations in which they found themselves in order to better their positions and claim some autonomy. Kelsey’s new publication is a study of women’s resistance both explicit and subtle.

Join the author for a discussion of ‘A Voice of Discontent’ as well as an opportunity for questions and answers and book signing.
All events are susceptible to last minute changes, so please keep checking the website or contact the shop for confirmation and more info. 



Housmans, Peace House, 5 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London, N1 9DXshop@housmans.com • 020 7837 4473 (int'l +44 20 7837 4473) • fax 020 7278 0444 (int'l +44 20 7278 0444)
Copyright © 2008 Housmans

The IGRS Grad Forum - Women

The IGRS (Institute of German and Romance Studies) Grad Forum meets once a month. The group is led by post-grads and only post-grads attend. I'm one of the coordinators this year. I think it might be interesting to host a summer day conference for those working on any area of women-oriented studies that is in any way connected with Modern Languages. Generally, the group hears a lot of literature based work, but I'd like to see more philosophy, critical theory and science. I can only suggest a summer day conference to my co-coordinators, if there is interest in the topic. So, to that end, I'm asking those in or near London (or those who want to come to London in the summer) for abstracts. If we get enough interest, we'll set a date and take over a room in Senate House.


Send abstracts to: forum.igrs@sas.ac.uk

CFP: SWIP UK Panel at the 2010 Joint Session (Deadline: 1st March)

I really wish SWIP UK would put on a conference every year.  I suppose they don't because of lack of resources.  In any case, they do have a panel at the Joint Session.  Here is the CFP:

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS


SOCIETY FOR WOMEN IN PHILOSOPHY (SWIP UK) PANEL AT THE 2010 JOINT SESSION OF THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY AND THE MIND ASSOCIATION

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, 9TH - 11TH JULY 2010
At the 2010 Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, there will be a SWIP UK panel of papers devoted to topics in any area of interest to women in philosophy.

We solicit full papers,(2500 words) plus 250 word abstract, suitable to be delivered in no more than 20 minutes with a further 10 minutes for discussion. We encourage submissions from graduate students. (As with

all the open sessions, papers accepted for this session will not be published in the Supplementary Volume of the Aristotelian Society.)

The closing date for submissions is *1st March 2010*. We expect to confirm which papers have been accepted by the end of March.
Please make sure that your submission is suitable for anonymous reviewing and attach a separate document with your name and contact details. Email submissions are preferred; please send your full paper, with an abstract, as either .doc or .pdf attachment to Dawn Phillips, at dawn.phillips@warwick.ac.uk or send a hard copy to: Dr Dawn Phillips, Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK.
For information about SWIP UK, see http://www.swipuk.org

For information about the Joint Session at UCD, see http://ucdjointsession2010.com/Speakers must be or become subscribing members of either the Aristotelian Society or the Mind Association, and register as a delegate for the Joint Session.

For details on how to join the Aristotelian Society, see http://www.aristoteliansociety.org.uk/subscriptions/index.html.

For the Mind association, see http://www.oxfordjournals.org/mind/access_purchase/price_list.html

Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html. Prolonged discussions should be moved to chora: enrol via http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/chora.html. Other philosophical resources on the Web can be found at http://www.liv.ac.uk/pal.

CFP: FEMINIST THEORY AND THE QUESTION OF FEELING

Affecting Feminism:

Feminist Theory and the Question of Feeling

Newcastle University, U.K.

10-12 December 2010

Keynote Speakers: Ann Cvetkovich, Kate Chedgzoy,

Ranjana Khanna, Alison Light, Patricia Waugh

Over the past decade, there has been a notable turn to feeling or emotion across the humanities, social sciences and neurosciences.Affecting Feminism brings into focus the particular impact that feminist theory has played in this work on feeling and considers emotions from the mediaeval to the modern.

This conference addresses two points of central importance. The first is a recent identification of the tendency to distinguish between good and bad feelings.  What are the implications of privileging emotions such as happiness, compassion and empathy over more negative affective states?  Has recent work on ‘negative’ emotions such as melancholia, shame, grief or disgust sought to challenge or revise such perceptions? The second point concerns the historicisation of affect.  Our modern understanding of feeling has its roots in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century discourses of sentiment, sympathy and passions. Does the prominence of these discourses of affect obscure earlier languages of feeling? How can feminist scholarship act to recover and interpret such discourses? What can feminist theory learn from attending to historical accounts of emotions and how are they, in turn, re-inflected by and through contemporary debates?

Topics may include but are not limited to:

v     Historicising language and feeling

v     Emotion and embodiment

v     Sexuality and affect

v     Histories and cultures of feeling

v     Positive and negative affects

v     Affect and the nonhuman

v     The neurobiology of emotion

v     Feminist theory and affect

v     Emotion in feminist histories

v     Feeling and technology

This conference marks the launch of the journal Feminist Theory  the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University.
Conference Organisers:  Stacy Gillis, Robin Stoate and Anne Whitehead

We invite paper or panel proposals that will address these questions across different cultural and historical contexts and forms of media, including literature, film and visual cultures, as well as engaging with a range of affects or feelings.  Please send 300-word abstracts for 20-minute papers (or 900-word panel proposals), with a brief bio note (50 words), to affect-conf@ncl.ac.uk.  The deadline for submissions is 15 May 2010 (with notification of decision by 1 June 2010).

'LACAN, Jacques, son modernisme s'abille a Pompei'

Hello blogland.  Will one of you much-smarter-than-I folks please translate this for me:  'LACAN,Jacques, son modernisme s'abille a Pompei'.  It may be that s'abille should be s'habiller.  In which case, can someone tell me what dressing like Pompeii has to do with anything?

French illiterate,

Elisha

Herstoria Magazine

Just came across the new magazine HerStoria.  It's a UK publication that promises to uncover the lives of women - offering a history of women where none has done before.  The website link is here:

http://www.herstoria.com/

Without doubt, it's about time!  And aside from the rather plonky name and look to the thing, it seems interesting. Reviews thus far have said it's glossy and well-researched.  I might check it out at the library before sending the £16 for a subscription. I'm a student.  I'm cheap.