Cosmopolitanism, Women's Writing & Biography Conference
2015 Conference
13 - 14 July 2015
More than forty papers will be presented over the two days of the Conference
Conference Rooms
- Building 39A: room 208 and room 209 (plenaries and registration)
- Building 37: room 208
Confirmed keynote speakers:
- Professor Sneja Gunew (University of British Columbia)
- Associate Professor Nicole Moore (UNSW, Canberra)
- Dr Jeanine Leane (ANU)
- Professor Jeanette Hoorn (University of Melbourne)
- Professor Gina Wisker (Brighton University)
Registration Closed
- Student/Concession $130 / Staff $230
- Download conference abstracts
- Download conference program
Selected papers from the Conference will be published.
Studies of the global, the transnational, the cross-cultural and the postcolonial have (re-)emerged in recent years as part of a broader interest in the ways we speak to each other across and within boundaries of space and time. The term “cosmopolitan” is one that can be used to capture the divergent meanings raised by these in different contexts – “in its wide and wavering nets,” Carol Breckenridge has argued, cosmopolitanism “catches something of our need to ground our sense of mutuality in conditions of mutability, and to learn to live tenaciously in terrains of historic and cultural transition” (Cosmopolitanism). Susan Stanford Friedman has also discussed some of the problems of “aspirations for a cosmopolitan world citizenship,” and how far these can be addressed by a “cosmofeminist” approach (‘Wartime Cosmopolitanism’).
This Conference seeks to investigate aspects of the current state of biography (broadly defined) in relation to women; its uses, and how it might currently be theorised. It will also consider how the cosmopolitan might be used in critical study of women’s biography; from comparisons of writers from diverse backgrounds, to changing contextual emphases, to the particular times and places which appear in women’s writing about themselves and others.
- Intersecting genres: Life Writing; Biography; Autobiography; Auto/biographical Fiction
- Indigeneity in relation to women’s biography and autobiography
- Memory and recoveries of the past
- Literary biography about female subjects
- Fraught editions – posthumous changes to women’s auto/biography
- The intersections between fiction and non-fiction in women’s biography
- Auto/biography in its relation to women’s literary production
- Representations of female artists in women’s artistic production
- New approaches to archival research on women writers
- Theorised debates about biography and its iterations
- The gender(ing) of women’s writing
- Literary auto/biography emerging from multilingual contexts
- Queer(ing) questionings
- Cases of literary influence (especially international/cross-cultural)
- ‘Cosmofeminism’ and its relationship to class, ethnicity, nation(alism)
- Ethnicity and women’s biography
- Literary auto/biography emerging from multilingual contexts
- Secrets and silences in Writing Lives
- International/transnational connections and comparisons
Accommodation:
Nearest to the St Lucia Campus
- 63 Jephson Street, Toowong
- 07 3736 4400
- 2 Gailey Road, St Lucia
- 1800 637 662
- enquiries@stluciagardens.com.au
Nearest to Brisbane City
- 152 Alice Street, Brisbane
- 07 3221 3411
- 435 Coronation Drive, Auchenflower
- 07 3371 4000
Transport
- Buses: there are two main bus hubs on the UQ St Lucia Campus - UQ Lakes, and UQ Chancellor's Place. If you are staying near St Lucia, you will arrive via Chancellor's Place on the 402, 411 or 412 bus.
- Ferry:there is a ferry stop on the UQ St Lucia campus.
- Train: the closest train station is Toowong; you will need to catch an additional taxi or a bus in order get to St Luica campus.
- Details for these options can be found via the Translink Website: http://translink.com.au/
- Taxi: if catching a taxi, inform the driver to take you drop you off on Campb
We would like to acknowledge our generous sponsors:
