International Female Masculinities Seminar
September 5 & 6, 2008
Amsterdam School for Social science Research
University of Amsterdam

The international Female Masculinities seminar is a two-day transdisciplinary conference convened by Prof. Saskia Wieringa (UvA) and co-convened by Prof. Evelyn Blackwood (Purdue University). We would like to take this opportunity to invite students, academics and activists to the seminar, which will take place on September 5 and 6 at the University of Amsterdam.

Researching Female Masculinities
Gradually a world wide academic interest in transgender issues has come into focus. However, gender ambiguity in women has generally been marginalized. These issues have hardly been studied from an interdisciplinary and cross cultural perspective.Female masculinity poses pertinent questions on identity, subjectivity, the body and gender, particularly on the dominant forms of gender binarism. This seminar aims to bring international specialists in the field of female masculinities together to share their knowledge and discuss future plans.

We hope to reflect on fundamental questions concerning heteronormativity in societies and the construction of dominant masculinities. Furthermore, the construction of femininity in relation to gender transgressive individuals and their negotiation of both masculinity and femininity in diverse cultural formations will come to the attention. In this way, we intend to look at gender and sexual ambiguity from a cross cultural, historical and interdisciplinary perspective.

Themes
The representation of female masculinity- Identity and subjectivity- The body, embodiment and health- Sexuality and violence- Female masculinity and same-sex relationships

Participants
The participants in this seminar are academics and/or activists in the field of (trans) gender studies. Among the speakers there are academics and activists in the field of anthropology, history, psychology, women's studies, culture and media studies. The fields of research and methodologies enclose ethnography, historical research, culture and media analysis, biographical research and juridical and medical discourses.The following participants will be discussants and/or presenting their paper:
Anna Tijsseling (NL) Antonia Young (UK) Arianne Dessens (NL) Busi Kheswa (SA) Evelyn Blackwood (USA) Franco Lai (USA) Geertje Mak (NL) Gloria Wekker (NL) Gwen van Husen (NL) Joke Swiebel (NL) Judith Halberstam (USA)Judith Schuyf (NL) Karen Kelsky (USA) Kellee Weinhold (USA) Maya Sharma (IND) Myriam Everard (NL) Saskia Wieringa (NL) Serena Owusua Dankwa (GH) Sinta Situmorang (ID) Sybille Ngo Nyeck (CM) Zethu Matebeni (SA)

Language
All presentations and discussions will be in English.

Admission
Free of charge. Lunch not included.

Registration
Registration on beforehand is required (maximum 100 visitors).

Deadline for registration:
Friday the 1st of August 2008.

In order to register, please send an e-mail to: Dewi Vrenegoor female.masculinities@iiav.nl. After registration further information on the seminar (i.e. programme and location) will be provided by e-mail.

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