[URBANTH-L]CFP: Panel on Transnational Sex Trade and Gringo Desire for Ethnographies of Gender and Globalization Conference (Amsterdam)

Veissière, Samuel, Dr. sveissiere at ucn.ca
Sun Nov 4 14:33:28 EST 2007


Dear Colleagues, 

 

I would be interested in putting together a panel on transnational sex work and Gringo desire for the Ethnographies of Gender and Globalization Conference in Amsterdam (that could possibly be turned into an edited collection) 

 

My own work looks at what I call the "transnational political economy of desire, violence, and suffering" in the streets of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Specifically, I am interested in the political conscientization of subaltern women in Brazil who make the "choices" to reject the oppressive Eurocentric beauty-regimes of their country and strategically perform colonial fantasies of blackness of mulataness to become objects of desire and potential transnational marriage in the "gringoscapes" of the tourist industry. I am also interested in the postindustrial disempowerment of the (usually older) gringos who come to Brazil seeking eroticized and essentialist colonial fetishes of femininity and negritude and of their own masculinity. I have written about this nebulous "zone" where the "incommensurable forms of despair and suffering" of gringos and subaltern women intersect under the false pretense of eroticism. As a gringo ethnographer, thus (albeit a young one), I also look at my own suffering, and at my own desire as one of the many fuels of the violence and suffering of this transnational spectacle of mutual exploitation. 

 

I would like to put together a group of papers that look at similar issues in Latin America and beyond. I am especially interested in experimental pieces that incorporate critical autoethnographic perspectives: i.e., I find it really problematic when gringo ethnographers write about their sex-worker informants with the usual contemptuous comments about their German clients, without critically examining their own desire and behaviour....) 

Anyone working on the following topics?

 

*	Ethnographies/Autoethnographies of Gringo/Farang/Gwai-lo colonial desire in a comparative perspective
*	Ethnographies of "what happen on the other side" of post-sex-trade transnational marriages and relationships in the North/West (I am planning a follow-up research trip to Italy)
*	Ethnographies of the strategic performances of commercialized/eroticized version of their "racial" identity by subaltern women in search of transnational channels of "mobility"

 

Looking forward to hear from some of you, 

 

Cheers, 

 

Samuel Veissière, Ph.D. 

 

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Community-Based Program, Bunibonibee Cree Nation

Faculty of Arts

University College of the North
504 Princeton Drive
Thompson MB R8N 0A5

sveissiere at ucn.ca <mailto:sveissiere at ucn.ca>  

Tel: (204) 538 2270

 

________________________________

[forwarded from SEA-L]

 

Dear all,

 

LOVA organizes an international conference on Ethnographies of Gender and Globalization, July 3-4, 2008, Amsterdam. Please don't hesitate to distribute this call for papers widely.

 

See you in Amsterdam,

Warm wishes,

Annelou Ypeij

Chair LOVA

 

-----------------

 

LOVA

International Conference

3 - 4 July 2008, Amsterdam

 

Ethnographies of Gender and Globalization

 

Call for panels and papers

 

Globalization is the result of the rapid exchange of ideas, peoples, goods, capital, information and technologies, and the general compression of distances and time. Globalization processes have a large impact on people's everyday lives. Even in the most remote parts of the world, people and locations are being connected to each other. This interconnectedness can be seen as the core feature of globalization. In turn, people respond to new challenges and opportunities offered by globalization. Their daily actions produce, transform and determine the specific directions that globalization processes may take.

The last decade, anthropology and other social sciences have produced an impressive body of literature on globalization. Globalization from a gender perspective, however, is still an exciting and innovative area to explore. 

Gender and feminist anthropology is a discipline par excellence that can make understandable how globalization and everyday life are interrelated, especially through its ethnographical methodology. Feminist scholarship has shown that globalization is not a gender-neutral phenomenon. Globalization has different outcomes for women and men. It challenges them in different ways and offers them different opportunities. Gender constructions shape globalization processes, which in turn confirm, construct and change gender notions. These developments result in profound changes in family life, family composition, cultural expressions, gender relations, and the way people interact with each other.

With this conference LOVA wishes to create a forum for anthropologists, social scientists and other experts who study the interweaving of gender and globalization from an ethnographical perspective. How do women and men understand globalization and how do they experience globalization processes in their everyday lives? What are the challenges they face and what opportunities open up to them?  How does globalization confirm and reconstruct existing gender and other social inequalities? Does it have a potential for the empowerment of women and men and their social mobility or not? How does globalization influence constructions of femininity and masculinity and how do these constructions in turn give direction to processes of globalization? And, last but not least, is globalization still a useful theoretical concept or have we entered a new, post-globalization era and are we in need of new conceptualizations?

 

Participation and registration

LOVA invites social science scholars to participate in this international 

conference by presenting their research in an individual paper or panel. We 

particularly encourage participants to submit audio-visuals and other 

alternative ways of presenting their research.

 

Participants may register through sending individual paper or panel 

proposals to LOVAnetwork at hotmail.com before February 1, 2008.

 

Individual paper proposals consist of a short abstract. Please also mention 

affiliation, address, email-address and discipline. Panel proposals include 

a short panel abstract, various paper abstracts and names of 

organizers/chairs, presenters and possibly a discussant. Please also mention 

affiliation, address, email-address and discipline of all participants.

 

A number of papers will be selected for publication.

 

Preferred panel format:  Panels last 1 hour and 45 minutes. Panel organizers 

have a certain freedom in the number of papers they wish to present and the 

length of the presentations. Nevertheless, we encourage 15-minute paper 

presentations. For example, a panel may include 5 paper presentations of 15 

minutes each or 4 papers and a discussant. This leaves time for general 

discussion and questions of 30 minutes.

 

Participants will be informed whether their papers and panels are accepted 

as soon as possible and not later than February 15, 2008.

 

To complete their registration, all participants pay the registration fee of

? 90,- before April 1, 2008. Students pay a reduced fee.  More information 

will follow.

 

Language

The conference will be held in English.

 

Program

The program will be made available in April 2008.

 

Location

The conference will be held in the centre of Amsterdam. The location will be 

announced as soon as possible. Please visit our website: www.lovanetwerk.nl

 

Hotel accommodation

Hotel accommodation can be arranged through internet. We kindly refer you 

to: www.book-a-hotel-in-amsterdam.com.

 

 

The conference is sponsored by CEDLA, Centre for Latin American Research and 

Documentation.

 

 

LOVA is the Netherlands Association for Gender and Feminist Anthropology and 

provides a professional network for its members since 1979. 

 

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