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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula March 28, 2005  Updated March 29, 2005 Press Release and logo © 2005 Humanities Dept., Michigan Technological University. Reprinted with permission.

MTU to host "Affirming diversity" Conference Oct. 5-8, 2005

HOUGHTON -- The Department of Humanities at Michigan Technological University will host the fifth Biennial Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Conference, Oct. 5-8, 2005, sponsored by the Coalition of Women Scholars and Rhetoricians. 

This interdisciplinary conference affirms diversity, especially variation in the rhetorical strategies, language use, research methods and literacy and communication practices of women from different races, classes, cultures and historical eras. Possible sites of rhetorical and linguistic diversity include, but are not limited to, history, ethics, new media, pedagogy, law, literature, cultural studies, economics, environmental studies, science, communication studies, technical communication, philosophy and engineering.

Proposals for papers, presentations or performances are due by April 1, 2005. Each individual proposal may use a total of no more than 100 words to describe a paper or performance. Each proposal for a session may use a total of no more than 500 words to describe the session topic and each speaker or performer's presentation or role. 

Keynote speakers will include Donna Haraway, Min-Zhan Lu, Andrea Abernethy Lunsford, Jacqueline Jones Royster and Helena Viramontes.

Some possible topics include identification of language patterns, rhetorical strategies and contributions of women from a particular race, culture, historical era or academic field; literacy practices of women in under-represented groups (including lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transsexual); cross-cultural investigations of gendered reading, writing or speaking; new directions for alternative rhetorics; feminist critiques of traditional rhetoric; postcolonial feminisms; comparisons of language patterns or rhetorical strategies of women and men from a particular race, culture, historical era or academic field; representations of gender in film and new media; the rhetoric of whiteness; examinations of the intersections of gender and technology; feminist studies of communication within families; rhetoric and homelessness; workplace literacies; rhetorics of disability; international perspectives on feminist rhetorics.

Send paper abstracts to: Elizabeth A. Flynn, Department of Humanities, Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Dr., Houghton, MI 49931-1295. Send electronic versions to femsrhet@mtu.edu. 

For more information consult the Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Conference Web site.

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