Subject: CFP: Feminist Media Studies
From: "Sujata Moorti" <smoorti-AT-odu.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 17:48:06 -0500


CFP: Gender and the Information Society
Feminist Media Studies 3(3) Criticism and Commentary Section

Deadline:    23 May 2003
Length:     1,000-1,500 words (5-6 pages typed, double-spaced)

      The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) is holding its first
meeting later this year in Geneva, with a follow-up conference in Tunisia
in 2005.  Working under the aegis of the United Nations, this global body
seeks to address issues that are of immediate relevance to scholars in the
field of communication: the 'new world order' created by global flows of
information, the impact of IT on the first world-third world configuration,
the information gap and its effects on practices of democratic governance
and civil society formations, and numerous other related topics.
      Given this timely consideration of the role and place of IT in our
lives, we now seek to identify the various ways in which gender is
implicated in this brave new world, using the criticism and commentary
section to highlight gender as a crucial variable in this debate.  Too
often discussions of such global topics are enveloped by wide-ranging and
global policy concerns, where such a focus tends to ignore the real and
material effects that policy has on the lives of women and men.  Therefore,
we want to highlight the ways in which gender is implicated in both
information technology processes and in the access to and use of IT. In
other words, through a focus on gender we want to render visible the
opportunities and challenges afforded by the development of the Information
Society and explore the ways in which the rhetoric of empowerment masks the
perpetuation of existing gender hierarchies.
      We are seeking short papers which address any aspect of gender and
ICTs, along the lines of our interest identified above. There are numerous
examples from developing world countries that highlight the positive
outcomes of information technology on individual women's lives.  For
instance, the Grameen Phone initiative in Bangladesh has offered new
avenues of economic empowerment for rural women.  Similarly, téléboutiques
in Senegal and Morocco, and phone shops in Ghana have helped some women
bridge the digital divide and participate more actively in male-dominated
arenas of civil society.  Notwithstanding the utopian vistas opened up by
new information technologies, especially in the economic arena, there are
numerous difficulties which the WSIS must also confront.  These include the
obstacles to women's access to ICTs, the specific ways in which women are
mobilized within circuits of cyber-trafficking and pornography; and the
impact of new information-gathering techniques on women's work (women's
participation in data entry jobs, teleworking, the digital glass ceiling,
etc.).  Issues of universal and equitable access and the use of IT in
public health, particularly around HIV/AIDS, gain new salience in
discussions of democratic governance in the Information Society.

The deadline for this call is 23 May, 2003  ? please submit your
contributions by email attachment to both of us.  If you would like to
discuss submitting a contribution to this volume, please email us at:

k.ross-AT-coventry.ac.uk
smoorti-AT-odu.edu

We look forward to receiving your essays in May.  Please pass on this CFP
to anyone you think might be interested in contributing.  As always, please
feel free to submit book or film reviews which you think would be of
interest to the FMS readership.  The following website contains the style
guideline for Feminist Media Studies:
http://tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/r-authors/fmsauth.pdf


Sujata Moorti
Associate Professor
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529

757.683.3823




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