[women-rights] International Conference "Eastern Europe in Transition: The Role of Working Women" (Bulgaria, 4-6 April 2003)

CALL FOR PAPERS:
International Women&s Conference In Bulgaria
Eastern Europe in Transition:
The Role of Working Women
April 4-6, 2003   Bulgaria

Eastern Europe is moving through a time of extensive, even
spectacular, transition. Contemporary processes of change touch
all areas of personal and collective life, shaping fresh
possibilities even as they write new boundaries across a
constantly shifting professional landscape. This situation poses
a unique challenge to understanding the praxis of women at work
in this variable setting. As Eastern European women reposition
themselves in relation to these movements, from militarization to
globalisation, between the making of policy and the disruption of
economies, from hybridity and diaspora to transnational
identities, and between migration and exile, the question arises,
what insights might they offer, to help chart their reality?
Where the term (Eastern& has heteroglot, politicised meanings,
women in this region experience some communal concerns, and a
certain collective ambivalence about the reality of the changes.
This conference aims to explore the impact of this transitional
sociopolitical climate on these women&s working lives, and offers
an opportunity for scholars and students to share research and
discuss the changing roles and opportunities for women in a wide
variety of settings in Eastern Europe.

The American University in Bulgaria welcomes submissions for
conference papers and panel discussions from scholars and
students studying the professional lives of women in Eastern
Europe. Significant attention will be paid to research on and
discussions about women working in the areas of business, health,
media, education, government, the military, and religion. Papers
are also sought from intersecting areas, including but not
limited to theorizations, practical applications, contributions
from area studies such as gender, ethnicity and women&s studies,
papers exploring lived experiences or work lives, or of women&s
work as it is affected by discourses such as nationalism,
colonialism and hegemony.

The official languages of the conference are English and
Bulgarian, with simultaneous translation provided.

Please send an Intent to Submit by January 31, 2003.  Information
about abstracts and submissions will be forwarded upon receipt of
Intent.  (Abstracts and proposals are due by February 5, 2003,
with full papers due immediately after the conference for
inclusion in Proceedings.)

Materials should be sent to:

Dr. Lucia Miree and Dr. Christina DeCoursey, Coordinators
American University in Bulgaria
1 Georgi Izmirliev Square, Blagoevgrad 2700, Bulgaria
Telephones: 359-73-88451 (Miree)  or 359-73-88404 (DeCoursey)
fax: 359-73-80828
lmiree@aubg.bg or cdecoursey@aubg.bg