Tuesday, June 02, 2009

In An Ideal World ...

Neither academic papers nor conferences titled 'Beyond ... ' or 'Towards ...' would exist. What does 'beyond' actually mean here, apart from implying (falsely in this case) some notion of progression ? What about 'different from' ?

BEYOND CITIZENSHIP: FEMINISM AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF BELONGING
An international, interdisciplinary conference

30 June - 2 July 2010
Birkbeck, University of London

Confirmed Speakers
- Sara Ahmed
- Davina Cooper
- Antke Engel
- Katherine Gibson
- Julie Graham (a.k.a J.K. Gibson-Graham)
- Rebecca Gomperts
- Ranjana Khanna
- Gail Lewis
- Lynne Segal
- Margrit Shildrick
- Birte Siim
- Gloria Wekker
- Anna Yeatman

I haven't got time to do the Googling, but I would be amazed if any of these people are NOT funded by the taxpayer in whatever country. I see that as well as Dave Public, the Nowegian government is putting some of those oil revenues to good use by supporting this event. There's a doctoral thesis to be written, if not a whole research arm of a think-tank, in tracking the tax revenues diverted towards the cultural Left.

The language of citizenship has, in recent years, been mobilized by feminists to articulate a wide range of claims and demands.
And the language of English has beem mobilised by feminists likewise, but for a whole lot longer. Nothing wrong with that, mind.

The notions of economic, political, social, cultural, sexual/ bodily, and intimate citizenship, for example, have all been developed and explored in terms of their normative potential and their actual realization.
Zzzz ....

In Europe, in particular, there has been a strong steer from research funders and policy makers towards research agendas which address the question of citizenship in the context of increasingly diverse and multicultural societies.

Aka 'they're crapping themselves about the future' - hence conferences on 'the future of Britishness', Gordo wrapping himself in the Union Jack, and worry about/attempts to rebuild the notion of Britishness.

I must say it's going to be entertaining to watch the feminist response to the cultural challenge of an 'increasingly diverse and multicultural society'. This theme will run and run. I hope the proceedings will be reported.





UPDATE - I'm amazed. It may be that two out of the 13 speakers are not tax funded, although it's hard to be sure :

- Sara Ahmed - Professor of Race and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths. Tax-funded.
- Davina Cooper - Professor of Law and Political Theory, Kent. Tax-funded.
- Antke Engel - Institute of Cultural Inquiry, Berlin, Institute for Queer Theory. Possibly privately-funded via a foundation. I can't find the ICI's accounts.
- Katherine Gibson - Australian National University. Tax-funded.
- Julie Graham (a.k.a J.K. Gibson-Graham) - Professor of Geography, Amhurst. Mass. Tax-funded, although there may be some endowment money, it being America.
- Rebecca Gomperts, abortion promoter and doctor of medicine. Funding unclear, can't find the accounts, but probably not tax-funded.
- Ranjana Khanna, Women's Studies, Duke. If the financial reports are to be believed, only 28% tax-funded. God Bless America.
- Gail Lewis - sociology, OU. Tax-funded.
- Lynne Segal - Gender Studies, Birkbeck. Tax-funded.
- Margrit Shildrick - Gender Studies, Queens Belfast. Tax-funded.
- Birte Siim - Social Sciences, Aarlborg, DK. Tax-funded.
- Gloria Wekker, Gender Studies, Utrecht. Link not work or child-friendly. Tax-funded.
- Anna Yeatman, Citizenship and Public Policy, Western Australia. Tax-funded.

18 comments:

staybryte said...

What in the name of gentle Jesus was that "cultural left" link to "Crerative (sic) practices beyond borders" about?

Please tell me it was some sort of joke and that people don't get public money for this.

A Man said...

Haha

In the long term feminists are doomed.

There was an amusing CIF piece and comment thread recently about the repeal of Civil Partnerships for gays in California. One or two commentators noted that this is really about demographics.

On this occasion, many of TheGays didn't like it up 'em.

I am indifferent to gays and lesbians and their issues but I did enjoy watching the liberals squirm.

On the subject of Feminists, I am currently about halfway through Steve Moxon's The Woman Racket. This is a MUST READ for all those who are looking for a better understanding of the modern world (the West), Feminism and bigotry and prejudice against men.

Feminism is evil bullsh*t and Steve Moxon rips it to shreds with the evidence from recent scientific research.

Yaffle said...

bet they're all munters too

JuliaM said...

"I must say it's going to be entertaining to watch the feminist response to the cultural challenge of an 'increasingly diverse and multicultural society'. "

Ignoring it completely has worked for them so far, hasn't it?

Mark said...

Lynne Segal is the Professor of 'Gender Studies' at Birkbeck, and , presumably in a spirit of feminist collegiality, has relegated herself to one of the 'confirmed speakers' at this gig.
A 'Womens Hour' profile of her on the BBC website makes interesting reading-
'Lynne Segal was a single mother when she migrated from Sydney to London in 1970, where she soon made her name as a feminist activist and writer.

She talks to Jenni (Murray) about her latest book called Making Trouble, in which she explores her personal journey into political activism – from the dutiful and compliant 1950’s of her childhood to the freedom and empowerment of the 60’s and 70’s with its free love and communal living arrangements.

As a socialist feminist, her views have enraged the radical wing of the feminist movement but as she looks back with no regrets, we’ll be discussing the forces behind the rise of feminism and asking how much her generation of activists have achieved'.

The conference itself is likely to spew out right-on verbiage on a volcanic scale, if Prof Segal's cv is anything to go by. The attendees are simply a cohort of our pampered academic elite indulging in a mixture navel gazing and displacement activity- at out expense.

Truly an 'umissable event'.

Homophobic Horse said...

Click here to read about the kind of gut fungus feminism creates

Laban said...

staybryte - the guy I believe actually holds the title (and salary) of 'professor'. He's been running/taking part in a whole series of 'No Borders'-style events, paid for by the 'Arts and Humanities Research Council' aka the taxpayer.

Admittedly he's at Goldsmiths, home of the English lecturer and "creative historian" Jerry Brotton.

Anonymous said...

A few of the contributors (courtesy of Google):

Antke Engel is director of the “Institute for Queer Theory” situated in Hamburg and Berlin (www.queer-institut.de). She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy at Potsdam University (Germany) in 2001 and held a visiting professorship for Queer Theory at Hamburg University between 2003 and 2005. The focus of her work is on feminist and poststructuralist theory, on conceptualizations of sexuality and desire, and on the critique of representation.

Ranjana Khanna works on Anglo- and Francophone Postcolonial theory and literature, Psychoanalysis, and Feminist theory. She has published articles on transnational feminism, psychoanalysis, autobiography, postcolonial agency, multiculturalism in an international context, postcolonial Joyce, Area Studies and Women's Studies, and Algerian film.

Professor Birte Siim, University of Aalborg Debates about Female Headscarves in Europe, “Specific Targeted Research Project” (STREP) under 6.Framework Programme, coordinated by Birgit Sauer, Vienna Universität. Project Leader of the Danish country study.

Gloria Wekker is a social and cultural anthropologist (MA: UVA 1981, PHD: UCLA 1991), specializing in Gender Studies, Sexuality Studies, African American Studies and Caribbean Studies. Wekker has held the IIAV-chair on Gender and Ethnicity at the Faculty of the Arts of Utrecht University from 2001 on. She is the coordinator of the one-year MA programme "Comparative Women's Studies in Culture and Politics" as well as the director of GEM, the expertise center on Gender, Ethnicity and Multiculturality in higher education at the same university.

Her research interests include the following themes: constructions of sexual subjectivity in the Black Diaspora; the history of the black, migrant- and refugee Women's Movement in the Netherlands; gendered and ethnicized knowledge systems in the Dutch academy and society; and Higher Education in the Netherlands. In April 2006, Columbia University Press published The Politics of Passion; Women's Sexual Culture in the Afro-Surinamese Diaspora for which she received the Ruth Benedict Prize of American Anthropological Association (2007). Another recent publication which she co-authored is Je hebt een kleur, maar je bent Nederlands. Identiteitsformaties van geadopteerden van kleur (with C. Asberg, van der Tuin, I. en N. Frederiks, Utrecht University 2007).

Wekker participates in the development of multicultural and anti-racist gender theory in the Netherlands. Within Gender Studies, she situates herself as a representative of intersectional and transnational gender theory. In addition, Wekker writes poetry and prose and is on the editorial board of several international journals in the fields of Queer and Feminist Studies and the Social Sciences.

Towards a definition of pointlessness? Discuss.

staybryte said...

Laban

Thanks.

Anon

Stupefying. Gloria Wekker in particular sounds a right riveting read. And Ranjana Khana's "postcolonial Joyce" must truly be a thing of wonder.

Homophobic Horse said...

The owl of minerva takes flight at dusk. I am already looking at the detritus of a vanished regime.

Anonymous said...

Bloody hell

People actually get paid to spout this crap!!

WTF is an Institute for Queer Theory anyway? Why am I dignifying it by using capitals? Sweet Baby Jesus it's like being in a Monty Python sketch.

I'd love to see their proposals for funding. I'd love to meet the people who approved these proposals and do all of us (including them) a favour by shooting them between the eyes and putting them out of their misery.

If a dog was that mad you would conclude it was rabid and euthanise it out of pity for the animal and to prevent the infection spreading.

Anonymous said...

FYI - Ive plodded through umpteen pages of various feminist/academic sites...five of the esteemed speakers seem to be white, four jewish, two asian and two partly black. Not sure what this tells us but one group is certainly punching way beyond its demographic weight.

A lot of their work referenced on the sites...does anyone actually read that stuff? The titles alone are enough to mangle any concept of meaning.

Maybe that's the idea, no-one is supposed to read them, lets face it, who would do so willingly.

Anonymous said...

Im sure many of laban's readers have heard of this post-modernist essay generator. There may be others.

Just reload the page and you will see how our thirteen little laydeez actually produce their work.

Rob said...

Given the preference of many of the Left's favourite multicultural groups to abort female foetuses in favour of male, it seems that feminists are doing their bit to agitate women out of existence.

Talk about unintended consequences!

Foxy Brown said...

Laban,

You've forgotten the label "We're not making anything."

Anonymous said...

Looking at the demographics of the thirteen wimmin (or should that be wymyn?).

Five seem to be white, four seem jewish. However the two who are black would both appear to be @ 50% white and one of the two asians could also be half white.

So in fact its pretty much a standard setup, a multicultural, diverse, international conference boils down to a lot of white and jewish liberal/lefties talking amongst themselves - as usual.

Laban said...

I'm not sure I want to know the answer, but how do you 'seem jewish' ?

TDK said...

Bit late to comment but Ranjana Khanna is a member of Duke's notorious Group of 88.