C(h)ristian’s Blog

CfP (Extended DL to 10/09/14): From Where We Stand: Intersections of Gender, Ethnicity/‘Race’, Social Class and Sexuality in the aftermath of State-Socialism

Convenors: Ov Cristian Norocel (Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN), University of Helsinki) and Oana Baluta (Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences, University of Bucharest)

The present panel is intended to be part of the 2015 Conference of the Society for Romanian Studies (SRS), titled ‘Linking Past, Present and Future: The 25th Anniversary of Regime Change in Romania and Moldova (1989/1991)’, hosted by the Faculty of Political Science, the University of Bucharest (17–19 June 2015, Bucharest, Romania).

The panel aims to provide a forum for interdisciplinary critical investigations of the socio-political transformations that Romania witnessed since the violent overthrow of the Ceausescu dictatorship in December 1989 up until the presidential elections in November/December 2014. We are particularly interested in intersectional analyses from a variety of disciplines – anthropology and ethnography, gender and sexuality studies, linguistics, media studies, political sciences, and sociology – that examine and critically interrogate the post-1989 transformations of the public and political domain towards an updated form of patriarchal structuring and the crystallization of a male-dominated politics marked by nationalist obsessions, and consequently juxtaposing the political marginalization of women to that of ethnic minorities.

With this in mind, possible topics may include, but need not be limited to the following:

-          From left to right building a European Romania: intersectional analyses of ideological manifestations in Romanian politics (gender, ethnicity/‘race’, social class and sexuality in ideological constructions of the Romanian national construct within Europe).

-          Moldova and the Romanian project: intersectional analyses of Romanian nationalist projections and conceptualizations of the Republic of Moldova/Bassarabia (gender, ethnicity/‘race’, social class and sexuality in ideological constructions of the Romanian national project).

-          Mediating ‘Romanianness’: intersectional analyses of media and their impact on Romanian society (gendered, ethnicized/‘racialized’ and class-based media representations).

-          In God we trust: intersectional analyses of religion, politics and traditionalist advances in Romanian society;

-          Out of sight, out of mind: intersectional analyses of marginalization and exclusion (gendered, ethnicized/‘racialized’ and class-based exclusion);

-          All roads lead to Rome: intersectional analyses of migration (gendered, ethnicized/‘racialized’ and class-based patterns of migration).

The language of panel presentations is planned to be English. Interested researchers, both senior and more junior scholars, are invited to submit their proposed paper titles, abstracts of up to 350 words, and short bios (200 words) in English to BOTH panel organizers Ov Cristian Norocel (cristian.norocel[at]helsinki.fi) and Oana Baluta (oana.baluta[at]fjsc.ro) – [at] to be replaced by @ – before 28 July 2014. We have decided to extend the deadline until 10 September 2014. Please write ‘SRS15 submission’ in the title of your e-mail.

Tags: gender, Gender research, intersectionality, Moldova, Romania, Romanian nationalism, Romanianness

Call for Papers: Can Others Become Part of Us? Questions of National (Im)Purity. Workshop 19 at XLII Annual FPSA (11-12.03.2010 University of Helsinki & Tallinn University)

In an ever more integrated and diverse Europe, marked by a plethora of interactions between traditions, languages, and ethnic identities, the traditional understandings of nation-states and their role in societal structuring face new challenges. In a world where individuality and flexibility are norm, we witness the twin processes of widening up the traditional definitions of nation, with direct implications on that of citizenship, countered by the inward-looking, conservative attempt to contain and restrict the allowed definitions of the concept. What emerges is a continuous and fluid differentiation of “Us” from the “Other,” emphasized by the dual process of containing the generic “Us” to a coherent, indivisible and monolithic category; at the same time, the “Other” is crystallized to embody its symbolic and ever allusive counterpart.

Distinctions and borders are construed across various dimensions, and “purity” is a poignant concept for the definition of national, in-group belonging. Hierarchies of gender are elaborated to enforce heteropatriarchies as sole domains of national intelligibility. In this context, fears of masculine feebleness or sexual deviancy, thus failure to accomplish the task of national reproduction, are seconded by that of national “pollution,” of allowing the infestation of national body through the inclusion of male immigrant “Others.” Another dimension is that of a vaguely defined common European identity, which comes forth to strengthen European national specificities. These are projected as “European” and thus belonging to a transnational common “Us,” and embody a set of stable “traditions” and a “pure” culture that needs to be preserved against menacing, yet ubiquitous religiously different and racialized “Others.”

Paramount to all these dimensions is a preoccupation with maintaining an illusory “purity,” of a constant fear of “pollution” that is used to justify an ever closer policing of hierarchies, borders and bodies.  These fleshes out problems raised by a type of “second class of citizenship” allotted to immediate “Others,” based on differences of language, religion, ethnicity and race, and last but not least differences of gender and sexual orientation. With this in mind, authors are encouraged to submit papers inquiring into the apparently dichotomous distinction that separates the categories of “Us” as opposed to “Others,” as constitutive lubricant narratives of political discourse. Analyses of how gender and sexuality, ethnicity, religion, race, and obsessions of national preservation and reproduction are intersecting to create (new) mythologies of purity and pollution are particularly welcomed.

Kewords: (im)purity, nation, Other, Us.

The workshop will be part of XLII Politiikan tutkimuksen päivät/ XLII Annual Meeting of Finnish Political Science Association to be hosted by the University of Helsinki (Finland) and Tallinn University (Estonia) (11-12 March 2010). For information on the FPSA conference (updated constantly). The workshop is planed to take place in Helsinki, Finland. The language of the workshop panel will be English. Interested authors should submit their abstract (max. 300 words) accompanied by 5 keywords to the panel organizer by 29.01.2010:

Ov Cristian Norocel:  cristian.norocel(@)helsinki.fi

Tags: (im)purity, Finnish Political Science Association, gender, Helsinki, heteronormativity, heteropatriarchy, immigration, masculinity, nation, Other, politiikan tutkimuksen päivät, Tallinn, Us

Call for Conference Panelists: ESHHC 2010 Panel; New DL: 22.04.09

Call for Conference Panelists: ESHHC 2010 Panel

My colleague from Stockholm University, Helena Tinnerholm Ljungberg, and I are setting up a panel within The Sexuality Network of the European Social Science History titled (Re)-Producing the Nation, Histories of (Re)-Defining the Family? (Re)-Conceptualizations of Society’s Nuclear Structuring in a Global Age (a short description of the panel bellow). The panel will be part of the bigger European Social Science History Conference 2010 to take place in Ghent (13-16 April 2010).

Interested authors should submit their abstract (max. 300 words) accompanied by 5 keywords to both panel organizers. We have extended the call until the 22 April 2009:

O Cristian Norocel
cristian.norocel(@)helsinki.fi

Helena Tinnerholm Ljungberg
helena.tinnerholm-ljungberg(@)statsvet.su.se (remove parantheses).
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(Re)-Producing the Nation, Histories of (Re)-Defining the Family? (Re)-Conceptualizations of Society’s Nuclear Structuring in a Global Age.

In an evermore interconnected world, marked by a full spectrum of interactions between traditions, languages, and ethnic identities, the family understood as the heteropatriarchal unit for societal structuring faces new challenges. In a world where individuality and flexibility are the norm, we witness the twin processes of widening up the traditional definition of the family, concomitantly with the inward-looking, conservative attempt to contain and restrict the allowed definitions of the concept.

Thus, queer and feminist activism and scholarship offer new perspectives and interpretations of the family concept, and call for inclusion of new family constellations in the mainstream debate. In the recent history, the right for same sex marriages, the right for assisted insemination for same sex couples, and the right for adoption by same sex families are just a few examples of painstakingly won rights in countries in the Western hemisphere.

These coexist, however, with appeals for moral reform and an increasing legal regulation of sexualities across the globe. Recently enforced constitutional amendments in various countries stipulate the family as exclusively heterosexual, and political actors across the political spectre (re)-invent traditionalist interpretations of the family concept. Conservative entities call for a defence of the traditional family and claim virtuous histories, refuting any non-heteronormative definitions of the family. Concomitantly, even more permissive legal regulation of sexualities restricts the (re)definitions of family to a monogamous relationship between two parts. From a historical perspective, the task of (re)producing the nation has relied strongly on a certain view on the family, but its actual (re)definition requires a (re)conceptualization of the two.

With this in mind, we welcome papers inquiring into the apparently monolithic definition of the family as the constitutive unit of society throughout history. We are particularly interested in exploring historically the (re)definitions of the family concept, in the questioning of the regulatory sexualities (be them hetero- or homosexual) and their impact on how society is perceived to be structured around the model of nuclear family. We encourage historically aware analyses of how gender, ethnicity, and obsessions of national preservation and reproduction are intersecting to create (new) mythologies of the family.

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Tags: ESSHC 2010, family, gender, Ghent, heteropatriarchy, histories, nation

Equality á la Finland

There are at times things that puzzle me, like for instance the apparently harmless toilet sign attached.

Men go to the right (because this is how it is right, right?!?) and all Others (women, disabled and those with babies, read other women) to the left (because they cannot be right, right?!?).

As I said, it is an interesting thing this equality, right?!? Or should I start worrying for spending too much time in Sweden, where toilets appear more neutral and yeah, more equal when it comes to gender distribution?

Tags: equality, Finland, gender