The Academic Feminist: Spring Break Roundup

With many universities and colleges in spring break mode, the Academic Feminist has decided to take a break from the regular interview series and offer a roundup of upcoming conferences, CFPs, recently-published books and journals, and other academic feminist links of interest. Reading something great over the break? Know of an interesting conference or CFP? Post in comments.

 The Academic Feminist will be back next time with an exciting two-person interview with scholars from both sides of the Atlantic working on mapping lesbian spaces. See you then!

Upcoming Conferences & Seminars

• The 8^th European Feminist Research Conference is in Budapest this year (May 17-20), and the topic is revisiting the politics of location.
• Urgent! A conference celebrating 40 years of Radical Feminist Action, is taking place on Saturday, March 17^th at The New School (Miriam Perez will be there!)
• Graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania are hosting a conference titled (Un)safe (with a keynote by Lauren Berlant!), in December.
• Thinking about using the break to work on transforming your academic research into a message that will reach mainstream media? The Op-Ed Project   has some great seminars coming up!

Calls for Papers

• The International Journal of Feminist Politics has a CFP for its upcoming special issue: Murderous Inclusions, guest edited by Jin Haritaworn, Adi Kuntsman, and Silvia Posocco.
• Though not technically a CFP, deadlines for several book prizes are coming up: the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize and the Sara A. Whaley Book Prize both have deadlines of May 1st, and the NWSA-University of Illinois Press First Book Prize has a deadline of June 1st. For directions on how to nominate someone (including yourself) for the prizes, visit the NWSA website.

Spring Break Reading List
Have a little time over the break to catch up on reading?

• The latest issue of GLQ, on Queer Studies and the Crises of Capitalism , is hot off the press. The issue, edited by Jordana Rosenberg and Amy Villarejo, features pieces from amazing academic feminists like  Lisa Duggan, Janet Jakobsen, Tavia Nyong’o, Jasbir Puar, Lisa Rofel, Dean Spade, Amy Villarejo, and many more. Whew!
• Gearing up for the (Un)safe conference and haven’t read Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism yet? You really should check it out.  There’s also a review in Bitch and one in The New Inquiry.
• If you’d like to catch up on some online academic feminist funtimes, I’ve been enjoying Social (In)Queery, a new group blog that includes one of my favorite queer feminist bloggers, Jane Ward, from Feminist Pigs. I’ve also been into The Feminist Spectator, and the long-running, ever-brilliant, Tenured Radical.  And, just for fun (and because I love her), I’ve been watching some Donna Haraway’s recent lectures on Playing Cat’s Cradle with Companion Species .
• In need of more of a ‘beachy’ read? I recommend the dystopian novel When She Woke.  The Washington Post’s review  of Hillary Jordan’s futuristic take on The Scarlet Letter describes it as a ‘lesbian-feminist road-trip thriller’ – need I say more?