Call for Chapters: Feminism, Cyberstudies, Pedagogy, Cultural Studies

Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies, and Social Action

Kristine Blair, Bowling Green State University,
kblair@bgnet.bgsu.edu,

Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University,
radhik@bgnet.bgsu.edu,

Christine Tulley, University of Findlay,
tulley@findlay.edu

Although current manifestations of cyberfeminism are visible in various digital, computer-mediated environments, some of these seem to imply that the only concern for cyberfeminists should be the setting up of a feminist counterculture in the form of spaces merely in opposition to the presumed masculinist hegemony online. Yet if cyberfeminist agendas are indeed to produce subversive countercultures that are empowering to women and men of lesser material and socio-cultural privilege the world over, it is important for us to examine how individuals and communities are situated within the complex global and local contexts mediated by unequal relations of power.

To address these issues, Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice: Communities, Pedagogies, and Social Action, will feature an interdisciplinary collection of voices that address both the possibilities and constraints of female and feminist identity, community, and social/educational transformation in cyberspace. Contributors are encouraged to submit abstracts to the appropriate section editor for a 20-25 page chapter. Our proposed text is organized into three sections:

Section I. The Everyday Life of Borderwork (Section Editor, Christine Tulley)

What do female web spaces look like when they operate in opposition to or distinctly from standard borders/communities (for example, classroom and community spaces, political arenas, or cultural centers)? What happens to women who design cyberspaces that dont necessarily fall under the category of feminist? Some potential areas to investigate for this category might include:

The practice of shopping for women in cyberspace
Communities with a traditionally feminine focus
Cybercommunities for moms
Websites for women devoted to specific feminist interest
Dating websites or profiles

We are open to other areas for investigation as well, especially those projects that examine practices of women using the net that cannot be easily labeled or operate on or beyond borders previously established by other fields of study.

Section II. Classroom and Community Networks (Section Editor, Kristine Blair)

Essays in this section will focus on the role of technology in fostering feminist teaching and learning communities, including community action and service learning projects and the gender and power dynamics that evolve as more and more women enroll in distance education or seek access to communication networks as part of their academic, professional, and social lives. Possible questions to guide the section include:

In what ways do feminist theory and critical cultural pedagogies intersect with classroom and community e-space to foster reciprocity, dialogue, and social activism?

How do women, as educators and activists, construct and sustain virtual spaces that potentially subvert cultural views of technology as male?

Rather than align ourselves with uncritical views of technology as liberator, contributors should theorize the role of technology in classroom practice and social action projects, acknowledging the possibilities and constraints of virtual spaces in subverting traditional intersections among gender, power, and identity to foster social and political transformation both locally and globally.

Section III. Building Cyberfeminist Webs (Section Editor, Radhika Gajjala)

For this section of the book, the authors solicit essays that develop and analyze strategies and tactics for building cyberfeminist webs. Even as women are displayed visibly in relation to various technological contexts, the complex gendered, raced, classed, embodied - in short the socio-cultural and economically situated nature of technological design and practices - are not acknowledged often enough; thus we seek engagement with the following questions:

What are women allowed to use these technologies for and why?
Which women are allowed, and under what conditions?
Where and how can we locate agency in relation to these spaces and practices?

At the same time there exists a mediated visibility of gender in relation to computers and cyberspace, much discourse surrounding new technologies implicitly assumes the transparency of these technologies. Thus this section will include various critical theoretical perspectives that practically form the necessary collaborations to design and produce dialogic electronic networks.

Deadlines:

500-Word Abstracts: April 15, 2004
Selection of Abstracts: June 15, 2004
First Version of Manuscripts: September 15, 2004
Feedback to Authors: November 15, 2004
Final Versions: January 15, 2005