CFP PreConference at ICA: Intersectional Imaginaries in Media, Religion and Gender

*ICA 2020 PreconferenceAnnouncement and Call for Papers Intersectional
Imaginaries in Media, Religion and Gender*
On a global scale, negotiations over the expression of gender and sexuality
have become central to political and social discourse and have been framed
in terms of religious tradition and imagery. Some prominent examples
include the debates centered around limits to contraception, transgender
access to bathrooms, who may wear religious covering in public, who may
marry, drive, vote, get an eduction, etc. At the same time as awareness is
being raised about rampant sexual harassment and assault of women,
non-white, indigenous and queer individuals, hyper-masculine leaders
(Trump, Duterte, Bolsonaro) are ascending to powerful positions as they
boast about sexual assault and demean female competitors. While digital
media facilitate global networks of political activism related to gender
justice issues as well as creative expressions of resistance, they also
enable white nationalist movements, men’s rights groups, incel networks,
anti-Muslim hate crimes, and the circulation of misogynistic and racist
memes. Throughout these debates and conversations religion and religious
symbolism are used as rhetorical touchstones and expressive performances in
unexpected ways.

This preconference will explore how religion and media function as dual and
intertwined modalities through which identities and their various
intersections are expressed or contested. We will take up questions of
gender, race, sexuality, class, ability, indigeneity and the way that they
are performed and understood in, through, and alongside religion and media.
We welcome papers that consider religion, media, and gender as complex,
multivalent categories that mutually constitute one another. And we
anticipate a conversation that is global in scope and welcome projects with
a focus on the Global South and indigenous contexts.

The preconference will include an opening plenary session with experts in
the field, including Sarah Banet-Weiser from the London School of
Economics, Zala Volcic from Monash University in Australia, and Pradip
Thomas from University of Queensland in Australia The remainder of the
preconference will be devoted to panels made up of submitted proposals and
a final roundtable discussion.

Papers or abstracts of 250 words maximum should be submitted to the
organizers at [email protected] by December 15, 2019. Acceptances will be
emailed at the time of the overall ICA acceptances in January.

Preconference organizers and contacts:
Stewart M. Hoover, University of Colorado [email protected]; Johanna
Sumiala, University of Helsinki [email protected]; Andrea Press,
University of Virginia [email protected]; Heidi Campbell, Texas A&M
University [email protected]; Sarah McFarland Taylor, Northwestern University
[email protected]; Jenna Supp-Montgomerie, University of Iowa
jenna-supp- [email protected]; Corrina Laughlin, Loyola Marymount
University [email protected]; Kristin Peterson, Boston College
[email protected];

Endorsing Divisions: Philosophy, Theory, and Critique; Global Communication
& Social Change; Feminist Scholarship Division

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