APA 2008 Annual Meeting
Call for Papers for Panel Sponsored by the Women's Classical Caucus

GENDER AND SPACE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

Mireille Lee (Macalester) and Ann Suter (University of Rhode Island), Organizers
Date & Time, TBA
Location, TBA

One of the most useful concepts to emerge from feminist studies is the dynamic relationship between gender and space.  The Women's Classical Caucus panel for 2008 will explore this topic from a variety of perspectives:  philological, literary, and archaeological. We invite abstracts on any aspect of this subject from the ancient world.

Philological and literary investigations might include: the vocabulary of space and movement in space, and its implications for social relations (e,g. what does it mean that women's return to public life after a period of mourning is called an "exit" in the Gambreion law code?); the functions of space in different literary genres (e.g. why does all action on the dramatic stage take place out-of-doors?); the organization of cosmic space, and concepts of cosmic space in mythology (e.g. what is the relationship between the spaces of the cosmos and those of human society?).

Archaeological approaches might consider: the gendered organization of domestic, civic, and sacred space (e.g. is domestic space always feminine? under what circumstances do men and women share space?); the effect of spatial organization on the gendered individual, that is, the body in space (e.g. were male and female infants located in space in the same way? How does space construct gender?); how can we ?read? gender from spatial patterns in the landscape, architecture, or iconography? (e.g. how is gender constructed in cemeteries, houses, or vase-painting?).

We welcome proposals that engage a variety of approaches: symbolic, structuralist, ethnographic, psychological, and phenomenological. All papers should consider space as an arena for the performance of gender, as well as a reflection of the social negotiation of gender.

Please send abstracts to Patricia Salzman-Mitchell (Montclair State U) at salzmanp@mail.montclair.edu (not the organizers) by February 5, 2007.  Your abstract should be only ONE page in length.  Please follow the instructions for the format of individual abstracts in the APA Program Guide.