From the FLP mailbox:
This call for papers seeks submissions for the University of Baltimore School of Law’s upcoming Feminist Legal Theory and Feminisms Conference. The conference will begin with a keynote address by Gloria Steinem the evening of Thursday, March 6, 2008. On Friday, March 7, 2008, the conference will continue with a day of presentations by legal academics, practitioners and activists regarding current scholarship and/or legal work that explore the evolution of feminism and feminist legal theory and its application to current legal theory and practice.
This conference begins with three questions: What wave of feminism currently exists, how is it affecting society and effectuating change, and how is it linked to the past waves? This conference will attempt to address these questions from the perspectives of activists, practitioners and academics. The conference will provide an opportunity for participants and audience members to exchange ideas about the current state of feminist legal theories and feminisms and how those theories are being actualized in practice. From the conference, we hope that a new discourse about the future of feminist legal theories and feminisms will begin. In addition, the conference is designed to provide presenters with the opportunity to gain extensive feedback on their papers.
Practitioners’ and activists’ papers need not follow a strictly academic format. Papers should address the questions listed above and might consider some of the following issues as well:
How do we define feminism and feminist legal theory? Is it even possible or desirable to do so?
What types of legislation are being proposed and/or enacted that reflect third wave feminism and feminist legal theory?
What activism on behalf of women is currently occurring? Is such activism traceable to feminism and feminist legal theory?
What new feminist legal theories are being developed and how are they affecting lawyering, legislation and other advocacy?
How does feminist legal theory relate to other social justice movements and how is that relation reflected in practice?
How has popular culture’s adoption of the language of third wave feminism to justify certain events like”The Search for the New Pussycat Doll”impacted feminism and feminist legal theory?
How has feminist legal theory colored the scholarship and practice in a particular area of the law, such as domestic violence law, welfare law, employment law, corporate law, bank lending, reproductive justice law, international human rights law, criminal law, and family law? How does third wave feminism affect the current understanding of that area?
Abstracts for the papers should be sent by 5 p.m. on October 15, 2007 to Professor Margaret E. Johnson (majohnson@ubalt.edu). Abstracts should be no longer than one page. We will notify presenters of selected papers no later than November 15, 2007. Working drafts of papers, which can include works-in-progress, completed drafts, and papers already scheduled for publication elsewhere, are due no later than February 15, 2008. All abstracts and working drafts will be posted on the conference website to be shared with other participants and attendees. For those interested, the University of Baltimore’s Law Forum, which is a law journal with a circulation of 10,000, has agreed to offer publication to accepted papers. The deadline for final drafts of papers to be published would be set by the author and the Law Forum. Finally, please note that a limited amount of money may be available to presenters for travel expenses.
