Gender Matters is an academic conference highlighting research on gender,women, and sexuality across all disciplines and historical periods. Conference planners seek to bring together students, activists, and researchers to discuss the ongoing role of gender in structuring society. We invite submissions for individual papers or pre-constituted panels.

This years theme, Gendered Borders, focuses our attention on borders in all contexts--virtual, geographical, physical -- or any other delineating marker that serves to exclude, encircle, or expand the concept of borders as gendered sites and sites of gender.  While conference planners invite work on all matters of gender, we are particularly interested in work that explicates the shifting relationships between gender, sexuality, space, and place in our world. Potential topics for papers or panels include, but are not limited to: public/private spheres; feminist geographies; globalization; postcolonial feminism; new media; gendered, racialized, and sexualized bodies; social justice; futurity and queer temporalities; performativity; intersectionality with ethnicity, race, and/or citizenship; health disparities; sexual subcultures; activism; queer intimacy and kinship; transgender rights; queer(ed) histories and historically queer; feminisms; drag performance; masculinities; gender and/or sexuality as studied in any field.

Richard T. Rodríguez, Associate Professor of English, Latina/Latino Studies, Gender and Women¹s Studies, and Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will deliver this years keynote address.

Submission guidelines and forms can be found at: http://www.govst.edu/gendermatters  Please note that only submissions adhering to the stated guidelines will be accepted.

For individual papers, please submit a title page with complete author contact information, and an abstract of 250 words. For panels, please submit a 500 word rationale and description of the panel, type of panel (paper panel, roundtable discussion, performance), contact information for all panelists; and 250 word abstracts for each presenter.

Please direct inquiries to: gendermatters@govst.edu