Call for Papers

for Joint SSS/ESAC/CWSA Session at Congress -- to be held at the University of Toronto/Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 29-June 1, 2002 (please circulate).

Session Title: What is Happening to Socialist (Eco)Feminism?

Session Coordinator: Regina Cochrane

Abstract:

Socialist feminism’s synthesis of radical feminism with socialism seems to be coming undone. Many socialist feminists have become postmodernists or postmodern “materialists.” Others, especially socialist ecofeminists, are drifting into cultural feminism. Some are calling for a move from socialist to Marxist feminism. Is socialist feminism necessarily “totalistic” and “essentialist”?  Does postmodern feminism really defend “difference” and eschew grounding politics in “nature”? Is postmodern materialist feminism a coherent project?  Is postmodern feminism anarchist? Is cultural feminism the “feminist” feminism? Is it “radical”? Can the domination of women and nonhuman nature be adequately addressed by Marxist feminism? How is the shift to postmodernism in theory affecting feminist practice, political engagements, and research?

Please send completed conference form (below) and 100-word abstract, by

rcochran@ucalgary.ca

or to:

Regina Cochrane
Faculty of Communication and Culture
Social Sciences Building
University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, AB T2N 1N4

Presenters should be members of either SSS, ESAC, or CWSA. I hope to get several panels on this topic including at least one focusing specifically on ecofeminism.