Reply to: Muraleedharan Tharayil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> International Seminar on EXPLORING MASCULINITIES 19 & 20th February 2007 Venue: Hotel Pearl Regency, Trichur
Organized by the Post Graduate Department of English, St. Aloysius College, Elthuruth and Aakar, New Delhi The concept of 'masculinities', informed by recent feminist thought and the women's movement, has emerged as a means of renewing feminist discourse by encouraging a more relational approach to masculinities and femininities. This also allows for the investigation, problematization and interrogation of masculinity equally with femininity. Not withstanding these enabling possibilities, however, "gender" is still essentially deployed in contemporary social science discourse as a synonym for women, its relational aspect obscured and the invitation to interrogate masculinities largely ignored. This is unfortunate because a textured understanding of the diversity of South Asian men's experiences, attitudes, beliefs, practices, situations, sexualities and institutions is essential to not only challenging the social dominance of men over women but for building a more humane world. This seminar on masculinities has been conceived from the position that the study of masculinities is important in that it is 'simultaneously a place in gender relations, the practices through which men and women engage that place in gender, and the affects of these practices in bodily experiences, personality and culture.' (Connell R.W, 1994:71). An important concern of the seminar is to examine issues of conflict and gender. Perhaps the most significant facet of conflicts that engulf us across south Asia, if we were to implicate gender into their reading, is the fact that men are the central actors of this entire spectrum of violence. Why do men invariably find themselves at the centre of violence? The reality is grim to say the least but international research has demonstrated that there exist those gaps, openings and fractures where ideas of gender equality and non-violence can find the space to breathe within the suffocating structures of masculinities. But for this to happen there have to be concerted attempts from all parts of the civil society - academics, activists, artists, writers, development practitioners, film makers - to unearth, validate, recognize and make visible men's behaviour patterns that stand in direct conflict to the violence prone, hegemonic patterns of masculinities. As with the women's movement there will be two elements to this effort - of theorizing, understanding and unravelling and of simultaneously developing a praxis of challenging, confronting and constructing alternatives to hegemonic masculinities. Besides various other issues this is also a battle of ideas that need to enter young minds and be nurtured into a vision of a world of equality that shuns violence as the only means of resolving conflicts, of settling differences. The seminar is mainly for members of faculty, researchers and post graduate students. Kindly register your names in advance, as we can accommodate only 100 participants. There is no registration fee. Lunch and refreshments will be provided to the registered participants. Paper Presentations: 1. Radhika Chopra, Dept. of Sociology, University of Delhi 2. Shankar Ramaswami, University Of Chicago 3. Nicola Perera, University of Peredeniya, Sri Lanka 4. Dr. Sanjay Srivastava, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia 5. Rumman Hameed, University of Delhi 6. Dr. Jani De Silva, ICES, Colombo 7. Imtiaz Saikh, Dept. of Women and Gender Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh 8. Ratheesh Radhakrishnan, CSCS, Bangalore 9. Prof. C. S. Jayaram, Cochin Discussants: 1. Dr. A. K. Ramakrishanan, School of Social Sciences, MG University 2. Dr. Praveena Kodoth, CDS, Trivandrum 3. Dr. Meena Pillai, Dept. of English, Sree Sankara University 4. Dr. Narayanan, Miyazaki International University, Japan 5. Dr. Janaky, Dept. of English, Calicut University 6. Dr. Gopinathan, Dept. of Philosophy, Calicut University 7. Mini Sukumaran, Dept. of Women's Studies, Calicut University Contact: Dr. Muraleedharan T, Head, Dept. of English, St. Aloysius College, Elthuruth, Trichur, Kerala 680 611 Office: (0487) 2360 748 Home: (0487) 2387383 Cell: 09447350091 E Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala run by Global Alternate Information Applications (GAIA) To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
