Contemporary Women’s Writing Association 2018 Conference

Writing Wrongs Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK 20-21 September 2018 Keynote speakers: Professor Clare Hemmings (London School of Economics, UK) & Ruvani Ranasinha (Kings College London, UK) How do we right wrongs? And how do we write these wrongs? The organisers of the 2018 CWWA international conference warmly invite submissions for 20-minute presentations that examine how women in the contemporary period have used writing to highlight injustices and interrogate inequalities. Welcoming papers that analyse women’s writing in any of its diverse forms – from poetry, prose, drama, and print journalism to spoken word, online periodicals, websites, blogs, and social media feeds – Writing Wrongs will explore the limits and possibilities of writing as a political act. In light of the environmental, political and economic disasters and crises of the past fifty years, to what extent can we right wrongs by writing wrongs? How, for example, are historical violations and/or triumphs mediated in contemporary women’s writing? How do women use fiction and/or non-fiction to expose inequalities in the public and private spheres? In what ways do social movements shape what and how women write? And what is the relationship between writing and activism? We especially welcome contributions exploring the relationship between feminism and critical race studies, disability studies, ecocriticism, lesbian and gay studies, postcolonial studies, queer theory and transgender studies. We are excited to hear from contributors working on any aspect or genre of women’s writing from the 1960s to the present day. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following: • The legacies and limitations of the historic civil rights movements (Women’s Liberation, Civil Rights, Black Power, Gay Liberation) • The uses and abuses of identity politics in neoliberal contexts • The changing landscape of rights and responsibilities • ‘New’ formations of identity, community and activism • The future of feminism on campus, in academia and beyond • Remembering, recording and archiving histories of women’s activism • Hate crimes, conflict, terrorism, war and genocide • Free movement, forced migration and statelessness • Human and natural disasters, climate change and environmental activism • Globalisation, financial crises and economic precarity • Protest movements (anti-war campaigns, the Arab Spring, Occupy, Black Lives Matter, the Women’s March, Standing Rock) • Hashtag activism (#WhyIStayed, #BringBackOurGirls, #ShoutYourAbortion, #MeToo) • Women’s memoir writing, auto/biography and blogging • Women’s periodicals, zines and digital publishing Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words (for 20-minute presentations) to Dr Rachel Carroll (Teesside University) and Dr Melanie Waters (Northumbria University) at writingwrongs2018@gmail.com by 1st March 2018. Panel proposals are also welcome.