Feminist Alternative Media in the long 1970s

Feminist Alternative Media in the long 1970s
Co-chairs: Karen Alexander and Agatha Beins

42nd Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 7-10, 2011
New Brunswick , NJ Hyatt New Brunswick

Host Institution: Rutgers University

How did the burgeoning women's beration movement in the 1970s change women's involvement in, creative use of, and relationship to new and existing media? This panel seeks papers that examine the ways feminists embraced the opportunities presented by both technological changes and the political changes wrought by struggles for equality to create and control representations of themselves, reality, and politics through the production of alternative media. Attention to the materiality of feminist media reveals the ways that they are sites of struggle not only in content but also in production. Therefore, examinations of feminist alternative media must take into account the debates and dialogues in the finished products as well  as who had access to the tools required to produce them and the way these tools both afforded opportunities and entailed constraints. We welcome articles that discuss women's video and film; feminist serial and ephemeral publications; women artists, alternative exhibition spaces, and art collectives; performance pieces; and feminist publishers and distributors. Authors may consider addressing questions related to how feminist media presented revisions of the past and visions of a feminist future, created material and ideological spaces for feminism, and challenged conventional conceptions of aesthetics. We prefer papers that take a gender analytical approach and that are grounded in historical research

Deadline:  September 30, 2010

Please send an abstract and brief CV to Karen Alexander: kalexander AT signs.rutgers.edu

Please also include:

Name and Affiliation

Email address

Postal address

Telephone number

A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee with registration

The 42nd Annual Convention will feature approximately 360 sessions, as well
as pre-conference workshops, dynamic speakers and cultural events. 
Details and the complete Call for Papers for the 2011 Convention will be posted in June: http://www.nemla.org

Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session
; however panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar).  Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable. Do not accept a slot if you may cancel to present on another session