National Conference on Knowledge, Affect, Power: Feminism in Social Justice Discourse and Practice

UGC-Sponsored National Conference

on

Knowledge, Affect, Power: Feminism in Social Justice Discourse and Practice

Department of English, St. Xavier’s College

Ahmedabad, 4th - 5th September, 2015

Recent theorizing within feminism and in related areas has begun to emphasize the role of passion,  

feeling, the emotions, bodily experiences of these (all under the term ‘affect’) in processes of knowledge creation. This conference is an attempt at dialogue among people from a variety of backgrounds, who share a concern with social justice and the role of affect and power in consolidating and maintaining but also in challenging and re-creating what counts as knowledge, especially in the lives of marginalized individuals and groups.

Some of the issues which emerge are as follows:

• Feminism and the shapes of knowledge: looking at questions such as ‘who is considered to know?’, ‘what is considered valuable knowledge? (from ‘old wives’ tales’ to recipes passed down through generations of women; from rewritings of the epics, to popular culture)’,  what purpose does knowledge serve in the context of gender—when gender itself is not a homogenous category, but one which acquires meaning in relation to caste, class, ethnicity, religious and sexual identity, race, ability, age etc?

• Dalit feminism and issues of affect and power

• Gender, disability, affect: trying to understand, in a context in which the body is used though not often acknowledged, as a tool of production, what responses the differently abled body

• Empathy, affect and the humanities: Finally, what role do the disciplines within the humanities play in the context of today?

• Power, affect and pedagogical practice

• Knowledge and affect in media representation

• Knowledge, affect, power and the text

• Reshaping reading, rethinking consumption

We invite abstracts of 400-600 words on any of the issues above or other issues related to the theme of the conference.

The abstracts should be emailed to knowledgeaffectpower@gmail.com by July 30, 2015.

The participants selected will be informed and sent the Registration Form by August 2,

Registration fees:

Outstation participant: INR 5000 (with accommodation on twin-sharing basis)
Outstation Participant: INR 2500 (without accommodation)
Local participant: INR 2500
Local participant (student): INR 1000

The registration fees will cover conference kit and meals. Paper readers will receive an honorarium.


Payments can be made by

• Cash: at the St. Xavier’s College Society Office
• Cheque/Demand Draft drawn in favour of ‘Principal, St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad’ and payable at Ahmedabad branches Cheques and Demand Drafts should reach the organizers by August 10, 2015.

Please send an email to knowledgeaffectpower@gmail.com with the registration form, indicating that the cheque has been sent.
For details and inquiries, please contact the organizers at: 9824651845

For updates, please check:
https://www.facebook.com/KnowledgeAffectPower?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

or email the organizers.