The East-West divide has entered the long series of “the differences within” feminism (white vs. black, middle class vs. poor, “straight” vs. “queer”, West vs. East). This particular difference gained a new importance after the 1989 fall of the socialist-communist regimes in the CEE, being theorized and examined by prominent researchers and theorists in Gender Studies (Gail Kligman, Susan Gal, Mieke Verloo etc.)
This new division inside feminism has re-opened a long list of questions (and sometimes fears), such as:
– Why and how are Eastern feminists (supposed to be) different, when the problems and challenges women have to face are (practically) the same?
– How is the socialist/ communist context supposed to have shaped the “Eastern” look of the feminism?
– How much difference and how much sameness are involved?
– Who can speak in the name of “Eastern” and/or “Western” feminist(s)?
The seminar has the aim to address the question on the impact of these (and other) phenomena, framing it into to “post” debate/divide/discussion.
The seminar is going to group a conference on the topic Gender and the (Post) East-West Divide and several workshops on related issues.
The expected outcomes of the seminar will be: a brochure with presentations of participants, their institutions and the presentation of their projects; plus a book with the most significant papers presented

Date and place of the event:
6th – 9th of May 2004 or 13th – 16th of May 2004; Cluj, Romania

Organizers:
Civic Education Project, Romania; Department of Philosophy, BBU Cluj

Partners/Sponsors:
Royal Norwegian Embassy; American Cultural Center; SACRI, Cluj; Limes Publishing House

Eligibility:
The conference is intended for:
– researchers in Gender Studies (from Romania and the countries from the CEE region: Moldova, Bulgaria, Albania, Poland, Serbia, Macedonia etc.)
– NGO representatives that activate in the field of gender studies
– Young academics/researchers/NGO representatives

Requirements:
Prospective participants are asked to submit the following documents via e-mail, by February 29, 2004 the latest. All documents are to be submitted in English.
– a completed application form (the application form will soon be available in a downloadable format on the conference website; for the moment, send a blank message having as subject “Application form” to conferinta_gender@yahoo.com)
– a recent CV or resume, including a list of publications;
– a letter of motivation (500 words), explaining the reasons for applying to the seminar;
– a 300-words-abstract of the paper;
– a 300-words-presentation of their submitting organization (optional).

The e-mail address where the documents are to be sent is conferinta_gender@yahoo.com
Participants are kindly asked to zip the documents that are bigger than 300 Kb J

A selection committee will evaluate the applications and will notify the participants by March 15, 2004.

Interested participants are kindly asked to note that in the event of being selected to participate in the conference, they will be asked to submit the full paper in advance. Deadline for submitting the papers: April 15, 2004. The length of the paper should not exceed 4000 words.

Important note:
The organizers have applied to different organizations in order to cover the costs of the event. However, potential participants are encouraged to seek for alternative funds (individual grants, institutional funds, own contribution etc.). We are not able to cover the accommodation and travel costs of participants coming from regions other than Central and Eastern Europe.

For supplementary information, please contact the seminar coordinators:

Teaching Assistant Theodora-Eliza Văcărescu, MA, University of Bucharest, CEP Lecturer
Email: theoeliza@yahoo.com, conferinta_gender@yahoo.com

Assistant Lecturer George Popescu, MA, University of Bucharest, CEP Lecturer
Email: georgepop@hotmail.com, conferinta_gender@yahoo.com

Assistant Lecturer Mihaela Frunză, Ph.D., Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, CEP Lecturer
Email: mihafrunza@yahoo.com, conferinta_gender@yahoo.com

Conference website: www.genderomania.ro