How has research in pre-colonial gender studies affected current research? How have approaches to gender and feminism on the continent changed over time? This panel invites abstracts that explore African gender systems, African feminism, African queer theory, and the shifting status of gender in contemporary research. This panel welcomes multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary contributions engaging diverse methodologies and sources including but not limited to literature, historical archives, film, visual arts etc. If, as Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí claims in The Invention of Women, the “woman” question is the wrong lens for viewing African societies, what is? If, as Sylvia Tamale argued in Decolonization and Afro-Feminism, the “meaning” of gender is central to the struggle of African feminists, how has the meaning of gender changed over time? This panel welcomes papers that explore gender, sexuality, and feminism in the precolonial, colonial, and/or contemporary periods.
Please send your 200-word abstract to jesuseyi@stanford.edu, along with the title of the paper, your email and phone number, your institutional affiliation, and a brief one-paragraph bio. Please send your submission by March 6. Thank you!
