April 19-20, 2013
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

The Japanese program of the Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures (REALC), Emory University, invites paper proposals for a two-day conference on Sex, Gender, and Society: Rethinking Modern Japanese Feminisms, to take place April 19-20, 2013. We seek to include presentations by Japanese Studies specialists from fields across the humanities and social science disciplines who are engaged in innovative research intended to further our understanding of the diversity and evolution of Japanese feminist thought and activism, from the Meiji period to the present day. Proposals from graduate students and junior scholars, as well as scholars based outside North America, will be especially welcome. Some funding is available to help defray the travel expenses of scholars without access to institutionaltravel funds.

The first day of the conference will be open to the public, and will primarily consist of four panel presentations of two hours each, with a maximum of four speakers allotted 20 minutes each to present their research. The remaining 40 minutes of each panel will be devoted to questions and comments from the audience and panel discussants. Each panel will be organized around one of four themes that are dominant concerns of feminists and feminist theory in Japan: motherhood and family, sexuality, politics, and education and employment. Organizers will strive to include papers that address each theme from a variety of perspectives—activism, artistic production, theoretical or philosophical writing, transnational exchanges of culture and ideas, etc. Panels will not be concurrent, so as to allow all participants to attend all presentations. Panel members will make their papers available to participants and attendees two weeks prior to the conference, so as to encourage thoughtful
commentary during the discussion sessions.

This day will then culminate in a keynote panel discussion by four prominent scholars of Japanese feminism who represent a variety of viewpoints and disciplines: Vera Mackie, historian and Professor of Asian Studies and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at University of Wollongong; Mizuta Noriko, Chancellor and President of Josai International University and noted scholar of Japanese literature; Barbara Molony, Professor of Japanese History at Santa Clara University; and Ueno Chizuko, Professor Emerita of Sociology at Tokyo University.

The second day of the conference will be limited to panel participants, and will consist of intensive small-group discussions among participants in the morning, and a plenary session in the afternoon. The small-group discussions will be organized around the four themes that structure the conference. This format will allow participants to provide one another with more extensive feedback and to explore connections between papers in a less structured setting, with the ultimate aim of shaping papers for inclusion in an edited collection.

Interested participants are encouraged to send a 250-word paper abstract and curriculum vitae to Laura A. Hunt, REALC Program Coordinator, at laura.a.hunt@emory.edu<mailto:laura.a.hunt@emory.edu>. Applicants who are requesting assistance with travel funding should also submit a letter from their department chair in support of their request for assistance. Independent scholars may write on their own behalf. The deadline for paper proposals is August 17, 2012.

For further details, please see the conference website at http://halleinstitute.emory.edu/research/events_conferences/japanese_feminisms.html.

Inquiries about this conference should be directed to Julia C. Bullock, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies, Emory University, at jbullo2@emory.edu

This conference has been made possible by the generoussupport of the Provost’s Conference Center Subvention Fund of Emory University, the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, Emory’s Hightower Fund, the Halle Institute for Global Learning, the East Asian Studies Program, and the Departments of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Emory University.