Gender and the Law Blog

Conference and CFP, Equal Justice Under Law?

American University, Annual Symposium, Equal Justice Under Law

CFP Deadline Jan. 3, 2023

2023 Annual Symposium: Equal Justice Under Law?

On February 3, 2023, the American University Law Review's 2023 Annual Symposium—Equal Justice Under Law?—will explore what is left of the Constitution after the 2021-2022 U.S. Supreme Court term. The Law Review is thrilled to announce that Dean Erwin Chemerinsky will be this year's Keynote Speaker. Dean Chemerinsky is a distinguished scholar and has authored fourteen books, including leading casebooks and treatises about constitutional law, criminal procedure, and federal jurisdiction. Additionally, the Law Review will host multiple Supreme Court practitioners as panelists this year to weigh in on the Court's recent term and the questions it raises moving forward.

Call for Papers: American University Law Review’s 2023 Annual Symposium

Download PDF Here!

The American University Law Review is placing a call for submissions of original legal articles and scholarly commentaries for its forthcoming Annual Symposium issue, this year dedicated to a review and response to the 2021 through 2022 Supreme Court term and the upcoming term. Specifically, the Law Review seeks submissions analyzing the rapidly evolving response to the Supreme Court’s decisions in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Carson v. Makin, Shurtleff v. City of Boston, and pending cases before the Supreme Court in the next term on affirmative action, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and free speech. Approximately four to six submissions will be selected, with a publication date slated for the spring of 2023.

CFP Big Feminism: The 50th Anniversary of Signs Journal

CFP Big Feminism: The 50th Anniversary of Signs

Signs was founded in 1975 as part of an emergent tradition of feminist scholarship and has been publishing continuously ever since, establishing itself as a preeminent journal in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. At the time of the journal’s conception, Signs’s founding editorial staff sought not only to raise consciousness and develop theories of women’s oppression but also to challenge the taken-for-granted and to strive for theoretical nuance and interdisciplinarity. To honor half a century of publication, our fiftieth anniversary issue aims to generate new questions and critical discussion about “Big Feminism” – about the role and power of feminist theory – today and into the future.

These fifty years have witnessed consequential feminist debates (over sexuality, over the category “woman,” over approaches to difference, over representations of “third-world” women) and the emergence of new analytical and theoretical frames (to analyze experience, identity, agency, desire, the body, violence, inequality, coalition, work, family, and relationships between self and other, and more). The Signs archive stands as a testament to the creativity, vitality, reach, and impact of feminists and feminist thinkers. Virtually no area of social life and no academic discipline has been untouched or unchanged by those who have contributed their work to the journal.

And yet, as the editors of a recent special issue have written: “The work in this field has never been richer, the future of our field never more imperiled.”[1] From the standpoint of 1975, 2025 may appear to be a feminist pipe dream. Rights that were once aspirational have been codified into law; there are women heads of state the world over; women have not only entered but have transformed the professions; LGBTQ rights, while very much a work in progress, have been achieved to a degree that even recently seemed unimaginable. At precisely the same time, the ground beneath our feet is collapsing. As we write this, we are facing the end of abortion rights and a global upsurge of fascism in which misogyny figures centrally. And,  #MeToo notwithstanding, violence against women continues unabated. From this moment of profound triumph and profound precarity, how do we, as feminists, imagine the next fifty years? What are our feminist visions (utopias and dystopias) for 2075? What work will it take to bend the arc toward gender justice?

This special anniversary issue of Signs seeks to engage with the big feminist questions that remain outstanding after all these years.

• How has the definition of feminism evolved, and what does it encompass now?
• How do we grapple with the relationships and nuances between feminism, gender, sexuality, race, and capitalism?
• How might we imagine a feminist vision for the future, from where we stand now? How might we get there?
• Whence the durability of patriarchy? Of violence against women? Of the denial of reproductive justice?
• What are the new forefronts of feminist theory? Compulsory heterosexuality, intersectionality, and gender performance (among others) are concepts that have shaped our feminist thinking over the past fifty years. What are the emergent feminist theories of the fifty years to come?
• Given the strength of the patriarchy in the 2020s, including but not limited to the shocking efforts to roll back long-standing reproductive rights, what will it take to dismantle this system?
• Over the past fifty years, feminists of color, queer feminists, and disabled feminists, among others, have transformed the movement with critical attention to race, sexuality, nationality, ability, and age—and yet these inequalities remain. How do we attend to these disjunctures? What inequalities remain unrecognized? How can we transform our own movement while still working for transformation in the wider world?
• Has the knowledge produced in field of women’s/gender studies managed to advance the work of social and political transformation?
• What will it take to build better, stronger bridges between academic feminism and feminist activism on the ground? What new coalitions should we be building, and how?
• How, finally, will feminist historians, writing in 2075, remember 2025? How do we understand our present from the standpoint of the (imagined) future?

Signs particularly encourages transdisciplinary and transnational essays that address substantive feminist questions, debates, and controversies without employing disciplinary or academic jargon. We seek essays that are passionate, strongly argued, and willing to take risks.

The deadline for submissions is February 1, 2023.

Please submit full manuscripts electronically through Signs’s Editorial Manager system at http://signs.edmgr.com. Manuscripts must conform to the guidelines for submission available at http://signsjournal.org/for-authors/author-guidelines/.

CFP Pandemonium -- Reflections on the Status, Health, Precarity and Promise of the Discipline of Feminist Studies

WSQ WOMEN'S STUDIES QUARTERLY SPECIAL ISSUE SPRING 2024

CALL FOR PAPERS: PANDEMONIUM

PRIORITY SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 2023

Scholarly articles should be submitted to WSQ.submittable.com.

GUEST EDITORS:

TRACEY JEAN BOISSEAU, Purdue University

ADRIANNA L. ERNSTBERGER, Marian University

This special issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly invites reflection on the status, health, precarity, and promise of the discipline of women’s, gender, sexuality, and feminist studies in light of our current state of pandemonium. By “pandemonium,” we point not only to those tragedies, inequalities, and disruptions to the university and higher education stemming directly from the Covid-19 pandemic but also to the crisis-roiled political context fomenting a barrage of assaults on feminist studies as a discipline in the United States and elsewhere that have been accelerating for several years prior to the pandemic and have only intensified since its outbreak.

Submissions should address ways our discipline--its individual practitioners and organizational institutions—have been affected by, or have encountered adversity and experienced struggle in the face of:

• The Global Pandemic and a panoply of consequences flowing from it
• Right-wing (white supremacist, anti-immigrant, anti- queer/trans, misogynist, etc.) movements
• Right-wing corporate media and social media
• Authoritarianism, illiberalism, and threats democratic institutions
• War, invasion, civil strife, and refugeeism
• Neoliberalism, corporatism, and commercialization
• Climate-change disasters, environmental degradation, and climate-change denial
• Impoverishment and the “austerity” measures and policies arising from the above

We are keenly interested in contributions that document and evaluate the ways that our discipline and its practitioners exercise and exhibit resistance, revolutionary praxis, and refusal to the above in the form of:

• Scholarly, pedagogical, and administrative strategizing
• Organizational-, institutional- and alliance-building (both inter- as well as intra-disciplinary)
• Public engagement, political activism, and direct action (both on- and off-campus)
• Escape hatches, off-ramps, and alternative social- cultural protest forms and modalities

We welcome contributions that recognize and share artistic and creative endeavors, performances, and cultural interventions offering insight and inspiration regarding the core themes of this issue.

Especially encouraged to submit are women; people of color; Black; Indigenous; gender-variant, LGBTQIA+; disabled people; and those whose work is located outside the United States or who collaborate cross-nationally.

PRIORITY SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MARCH 1, 2023

• Scholarly articles should be submitted to WSQ.submittable.com. Send complete articles, not abstracts. Remove all identifying authorial information from the file uploaded to Submittable. We will give priority consideration to submissions received by March 1, 2023. Scholarly submissions must not exceed 6,000 words (including un-embedded notes and works cited) and must comply with formatting guidelines at https://www.feministpress. org/submission-guidelines. For questions, email the guest issue editors at WSQEditorial@gmail.com.
• Artistic works (whose content relates clearly to the issue theme) such as creative prose (fiction, essay, memoir, and translation submissions between 2,000 and 2,500 words), poetry, and other forms of visual art or documentation of performative artistry should be submitted to WSQ.submittable.com. Before submitting, please review previous issues of WSQ to see what type of creative submissions we prefer. Note that creative submissions may be held for six months or longer. We do not accept work that has been previously published. (Simultaneous submissions are acceptable if the editors are notified immediately of acceptance elsewhere.) For questions related to creative prose submissions, email WSQCreativeProse@gmail.com. For questions related to poetry submissions, email the WSQ’s poetry editor at WSQpoetry@ gmail.com. For questions regarding other forms of artistic or creative work, email the visual arts editor at WSQvisualart@ gmail.com.

Feminist Legal Theory CRN Call for Papers for 2023 LSA Annual Conference in San Juan

The planning committee for the Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network has issued a Call for Papers for the 2023 Law & Society Annual Meeting. 

The Call for Papers and instructions are here.  

You can submit your proposal here. 

This year's planning committee is co-chaired by Aníbal Rosario Lebrón (Co-Chair) and Liz Kukura (Co-Chair). It includes Cyra Choudhury, Elizabeth MacDowell, Naomi Mezey, Nausica Palazzo, Yanira Reyes Gil, and Yiran Zhang.

CFP International Research Conference on Feminist Legal Theory, Gender and Law in Athens, Greece

International Conference on Feminist Legal Theory, Gender and Law

The International Research Conference Aims and Objectives

The International Research Conference is a federated organization dedicated to bringing together a significant number of diverse scholarly events for presentation within the conference program. Events will run over a span of time during the conference depending on the number and length of the presentations. With its high quality, it provides an exceptional value for students, academics and industry researchers.

International Conference on Feminist Legal Theory, Gender and Law aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of Feminist Legal Theory, Gender and Law. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Feminist Legal Theory, Gender and Law.

Call for Contributions

Prospective authors are kindly encouraged to contribute to and help shape the conference through submissions of their research abstracts, papers and e-posters. Also, high quality research contributions describing original and unpublished results of conceptual, constructive, empirical, experimental, or theoretical work in all areas of Feminist Legal Theory, Gender and Law are cordially invited for presentation at the conference. The conference solicits contributions of abstracts, papers and e-posters that address themes and topics of the conference, including figures, tables and references of novel research materials.

CFP AALS Annual Meeting Emerging Voices in Feminist Theory

The AALS Section on Women in Legal Education invites submissions for its program Emerging Voices in Feminist Theory at the 2023 AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego, California (January 3-6, 2023).

This works-in-progress session will give scholars writing on any topic concerning feminist theory the opportunity for engagement on a current project with others in the field. Each selected scholar will present a work-in-progress and receive comments from an assigned commentator, as well as from other participants. The session will provide selected scholars with a supportive environment in which to receive constructive feedback.

Full-time faculty members of AALS member and fee-paid law schools are eligible to submit works-in-progress. Visiting faculty (not full-time on a different faculty) and fellows are eligible to apply to present at this session. We especially encourage submissions from members of groups who are underrepresented in the academy, including people with disabilities.

Please submit an abstract (500 words or less). Scholarship may be at any stage of the writing process from early stage  to almost-completed article, but cannot yet be accepted for publication at the time of abstract submission. Each potential speaker may submit only one abstract for consideration.

To be considered, abstracts should be emailed to Professor Danielle C. Jefferis, University of Nebraska College of Law, at danielle.jefferis@unl.edu by Friday, September 16, 2022.

Submission review, selection, conference attendance: Abstracts will be reviewed by members of the Section's Works-in-Progress subcommittee, which also includes Katherine Macfarlane, Southern University Law School, Suzanne Kim, Rutgers Law School, and Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia School of Law. Selected presenters will be announced by October 1, 2022. The Call for Paper presenters will be responsible for paying their own AALS registration fee, hotel, and travel expenses. If paper presenters want anything beyond their abstracts discussed at the AALS session, then papers must be submitted by Dec. 15, 2022, to ensure distribution.

CFP AALS Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues Section, "New Voices"

AALS SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY ISSUES SECTION

Call for Papers on “New Voices on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues”

AALS Annual Meeting, January 4-7, 2023, San Diego, CA

The AALS Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues Section is soliciting papers and works in-progress on any sexual orientation and/or gender identity related legal issue by faculty members who have never presented a paper at the AALS Annual Meeting or are junior scholars in the legal academy (less than 5 years and pre-tenure, if applicable). We are open to receiving papers that explore these topics from alternative perspectives and disciplines.

The New Voices session will be held on Wednesday, January 4, 2023 from 8:00 am – 9:40 am. If you are interested in presenting, please submit an up to 500-word abstract (and paper draft, if available) along with a CV to Section Chair Kyle Velte at kvelte@ku.edu. Your proposal can involve one or two presenters. Please list all presenters in the abstract. The deadline for such proposals to be received for consideration is Friday, September 9, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. CDT.

The authors of the selected paper(s) will be notified by September 16, 2022. Selected presenters will be responsible for paying their registration fee, hotel and travel expenses. The AALS Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues supports and nurtures the careers of law professors at every stage, but we also seek diversity from members of underrepresented demographics.

CFP Centering Family Violence in Family Law

Call for Papers

Centering Family Violence in Family Law

Abstract Submission Deadline: July 22, 2022

from the Family Law Center, UVA School of Law and National Family Violence Law Center, GW Law School

We invite submissions to contribute to a roundtable about the place of domestic violence in family law and scholarship. Submissions should consist of a proposed abstract under 300 words. The roundtable will be held on January 20, 2023 at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Although evidence shows that family violence is endemic, family law continues to design doctrines and procedures around an image of families in which violence is exceptional. Significant new empirical research indicates that, despite extensive law reforms designed to require courts to address family violence, mothers in custody litigation who seek to protect their children from paternal abuse typically face resistance from judges, if not outright hostility. Moreover, most family lawyers are ill-equipped to effectively represent protective parents and at-risk children, especially in an unreceptive family court culture. Cf. Meier, Denial of Family Violence:  An Empirical Analysis and Path Forward for Family Law, 110 Geo. L. J. 835 (2022).

 

How would family law practice, scholarship, and teaching change if each centered the reality of family violence instead of treating it as exceptional? 

This roundtable will bring together a group of diverse participants to explore how the realities of family violence and judicial intransigence should affect core doctrines and practices in family law, such as allocating custody and establishing parenthood. Participants will also consider how concern for family violence should inform discussions of systemic reforms such as decriminalization, abolition of the child welfare system, and parenting after incarceration. The roundtable’s goal is to carve out new ways to think about how family law can respond to the failure of the law, scholarship, and the courts to appropriately deal with violence within American families. 

We offer the following “provocations” for new thinking about how to place family violence at the center of family law:

• Shared Parenting:  How might we talk about shared parenting and its appropriate place in child custody if we acknowledged the history of intimate partner violence and child maltreatment among many (possibly most) separating parents, both those that litigate and those that do not?
• Functional Parenting:  As we seek to expand parenting rights and recognition to functional parents, how can we ensure that abusive partners are not empowered to extend their abuse through parenting litigation (a well-documented problem among biological parents)?
• Pedagogy: How should we best integrate the realities of family violence in our teaching, particularly in broad courses such as Family Law, Criminal Law, and Child, Family & State?
• Formerly Incarcerated Parents:  As we work to reintegrate formerly incarcerated parents into the community and their families, how can we ensure that reintegration maximizes and protects healthy and caring parent-child relationships?
• The Child Welfare System:  As we work to reform the child welfare system and its known racial and class injustices, how can we best integrate the realities of family violence into such reforms to ensure they do not exacerbate the victimization of children or safe parents?
• A Supportive State:  As we develop state tools to affirmatively support familial stability and security, how should such policies change if family violence is pervasive rather than an aberrant imperfection? 

We are delighted to report that the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law has agreed to publish eight short (5,000-word) papers from this gathering. We will be requesting drafts (3,000-5,000 words) one week in advance of the conference so they can be circulated and read by all participants. 

We plan to host the event in person, although the format may change depending on public health considerations. We will supply meals, and we have some funding available. If you need funding to attend, then please provide an estimate of your travel costs.  

Thank you.  Please submit abstracts to centeringfamilyviolence@gmail.com.  And please let us know if you have any questions!

Con Law Scholars CFP The Future of Reproductive Rights at the Center for Constitutional Law

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW SCHOLARS FORUM
THE CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AT AKRON
Friday, October 28, 2022 (virtual)

The Future of Reproductive Rights

The Center for Constitutional Law at Akron seeks proposals for its annual Constitutional Law Scholars Forum. The Center is one of four national centers established by Congress in 1986 on the bicentennial of the Constitution for legal research and public education on the Constitution. Past program topics have focused on the history of race discrimination, LGBTQ rights, civil rights remedies, federal courts, and women’s suffrage. Presenters at the Center have included Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Justice Arthur Goldberg, Judge Jeffrey Sutton, Professor Reva Siegel, Professor Lawrence Solum, Professor Katie Eyer, Professor Ernest Young, Professor Julie Suk, and Professor Paula Monopoli, among many others.

The 2022 Forum brings together scholars to explore the question of the future of reproductive rights and justice. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon issue a monumental decision in the pending case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, altering the fifty-year constitutional consensus on protection for reproductive autonomy under the federal Constitution. What will the parameters of constitution liberty look like after this decision? Anticipating this change, states have already begun legislating for and against reproductive choice. Some of these cases, like those in Texas, have added justiciability hurdles to the debate before the Supreme Court. At the same time, women in the U.S. and abroad continue to seek affirmative rights related to pregnancy, surrogacy, and other reproductive interests. This Forum invites papers and presentations on any and all aspects related broadly to this topic of reproductive rights and justice.

The Forum will be held virtually on Friday, October 28, 2022. This virtual meeting allows for expanded access to scholars by reducing costs, balancing work/life/health demands, and reaching widely across geographic bounds. Papers will then be published in a symposium edition of the Center’s open-access journal, ConLawNOW (also indexed in Westlaw, Lexis, and Hein). Papers are typically shorter, essay style and publication is expedited within four to six weeks of final paper submission. The journal is designed to put issues of constitutional import into debate in a timely manner while they have the opportunity to impact the discussion and decisions.

Those interested in participating in the Constitutional Law Scholars Forum should send an abstract and CV to Professor Tracy Thomas, Director of the Center for Constitutional Law, at thomast@uakron.edu by August 30, 2022.

 

Download Constitutional Law Scholars Forum CFP 2022

CFP Symposium State Violence and Womxn - Defining the Reaches of Modern Policing

California Western School of Law, State Violence and Womxn: Defining the Reaches of Modern Policing

TOPIC SUMMARY

The protests against police killings during the summer of 2020 emphasized that race plays a critical role in understanding the nature of state-sanctioned violence. To date, much of the conversation regarding such violence has focused on Black and Latinx men. Nevertheless, there is much to be said about the topic as it relates to race and gender, particularly with respect to cis-women of color and trans women. Moreover, discussions regarding this issue often center around the actions of police, despite such violence also appearing in various law enforcement contexts such as, but not limited to, within prison walls and at border crossings.

To this end, the California Western Law Review is hosting a virtual symposium on March 24, 2022, for the purpose of facilitating a comprehensive discussion on the topic of state-inflicted violence against cis-women of color and trans women in various law enforcement contexts. Ultimately, the goals of the symposium are to identify and bring awareness to critical legal issues underlying this topic and to consider the possibility of positive change for all womxn by adapting current law enforcement practices to incorporate features of restorative justice.

Registration and additional symposium details are forthcoming.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

The Law Review Symposium Committee invites those interested in participating in the symposium to submit an abstract that introduces an article (hereinafter “manuscript”) related to the topic described above to be published in the symposium issue of the California Western Law Review.

Abstract Due Date: February 7, 2022
Final Paper Due Date: May 2, 2022

Abstract submissions should include:

• The title of the submitted manuscript;

• A 300 to 500-word abstract that discusses the proposed symposium topic and outlines the contents of the paper;

• The name and email address of the author;

• The curriculum vitae of the author; and

• A statement indicating whether the author would like their topic to be considered as a featured topic* for a discussion panel at the symposium.
  *Please see below for more details regarding discussion panel topics.

Final Manuscript Requirements:

• 10,000 maximum word limit (approximately 20 single-spaced pages);

• Citations must be contained in footnotes and conform to the most recent edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System

  of Citation;

• Manuscripts should be timely and provide an original in-depth analysis of the topic above;

• The title page should include the author’s full name, their academic/professional affiliations, and complete contact

  information where correspondence can be made.

Featured Topics for Discussion Panels:

The symposium will feature three discussion panels, each consisting of no more than three panelists. To determine the topic for each panel, the committee will select four abstracts/manuscripts to be featured as discussion topics. The respective authors will also be invited to participate as panelists for the panel that features their topic.

Author-speakers will receive an honorarium for their contributions.

Prior to the symposium, the four authors will submit a “Symposium Draft” consisting of a general overview of the author’s ideas to be featured in their manuscript as well as potential talking points. This document will be provided to the moderator and fellow panelists for reading. The reason for this is to ensure robust and consistent dialogue during each panel. As a result, the authors and audience members alike will benefit from the overall discussion and engagement that follows. Moreover, all authors will have the opportunity to revisit their manuscripts with potentially new insights and ideas to incorporate in their final drafts due May 2, 2022.

How to Submit:

Please submit abstracts to jacisneros@law.cwsl.edu or with “State Violence and Womxn” in the subject line.

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CFP Governing Bodies--Bodily Autonomy and the Law (Detroit Mercy Law Review)

The University of Detroit Mercy Law Review is accepting submissions for the annual symposium, Governing Bodies: Bodily Autonomy and the Law, on Friday, March 4, 2022, in Detroit, Michigan.

Bodily autonomy has been regulated or banned on many levels throughout our history, ranging from slavery to the right to an abortion, assisted suicide, transgender rights, and even issues surrounding the present COVID-19 pandemic. While these laws and regulations have led to controversy and protest, it remains unclear where exactly the line should be drawn limiting government power over our bodies, or if there should be a line at all.

Detroit Mercy Law Review invites academics, scholars, practitioners, and other stakeholders to submit proposals for panel presentation and potential publication on topics involving governments and entities attempting to regulate bodily autonomy. These may include, but are not limited to, the following: slavery, vaccine passports and mandates, abortion laws, assisted suicide, data privacy issues, and transgender rights.

 

Submission Procedure

Proposals should be approximately 250–500 words, double-spaced, and should detail the proposed topic and presentation. Proposals must be submitted no later than 5 PM EST Friday, October 15, 2021, by email to Mackenzie Clark, Symposium Director, at lawreview@udmercy.edu. In your e-mail, please indicate whether your proposal is for a presentation only or if you plan to submit an article based on your presentation for potential publication in the Detroit Mercy Law Review. Also, please include a current CV or resume.

Decisions will be emailed on or before Monday, November 7, 2021. The final completed manuscripts must be submitted by Friday, March 11, 2022, for editing to commence by the Law Review staff.

CFP Feminist Legal Theory Network at Law and Society Annual Meeting

SUBMISSION LINK UPDATED (10/27): 1feministlegaltheory@gmail.com 

 

The Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network of the Law and Society Association
Global Meeting on Law & Society, Lisbon, Portugal & Virtual, July 13-16, 2022

Call for Papers – Friday, October 29 Deadline

Dear friends and colleagues,

We write to invite you to participate in panels sponsored by the Feminist Legal Theory Collaborative Research Network (FLT CRN) at the LSA-sponsored Global Meeting on Law & Society, July 13-16, 2022. Information about the conference (including registration and planning your visit) is at: https://www.lawandsociety.org/lisbon-2022-homepage.  Please note that the meeting is going to be held later than usual.

The theme for the Global Meeting is Rage, Reckoning, & Remedy. Feminist legal theory should and does have a lot to say about all three topics and the urgency with which we confront them now – globally but amidst vast and escalating inequality and a crisis of rising hate, fascism, and illiberal policies across the globe.

In this context, we are especially interested in papers that bring a critical feminist lens to their topics and that embrace the international character of the conference. Such papers will address the intersectional, gendered aspects of their subjects.
The following non-exhaustive list is intended to provide examples of topic areas, and not to limit scholarly and creative engagement of feminist legal theory with the conference themes:

● Present-day inequalities caused by unacknowledged and unaddressed (or inadequately addressed) legacies of slavery and colonialism.
● Consequences of neoliberal economic and social policies amidst (so-called) globalization.
● World health and environmental crises such as HIV/AIDS, Covid 19, climate change, and military, police, and other pervasive violence against marginalized people and communities around the globe.
● Critiques of international law and human rights approaches and institutions.
● Rule of law, access to justice, and legal empowerment issues and approaches.
● Inequalities related to reproduction and reproductive technologies.
● Perspectives on exploitation and resistance movements.
● Transnational/International/Comparative feminist critiques of any topic.

We especially welcome proposals that would permit us to collaborate with other CRNs and that are (give the multidisciplinary character of LSA) multidisciplinary in approach. We strongly encourage colleagues from the Global South and indigenous colleagues to submit proposals.

Our goal is to stimulate focused discussion of papers on which scholars are currently working. Thus, while proposals may reference work that is well on the way to publication, we are particularly eager to solicit proposals for works-in-progress that are at an earlier stage and will benefit from the discussion that the panels will provide.

SUBMISSION TYPES
Per the LSA guidelines, there are several types of submissions:
1. Individual papers
2. Paper Sessions: Panels that are formed around a single theme. These consist of 4-5 paper presenters, 1 Chair and 1 Discussant (who can be the same person), and last 1 hour and 45 minutes.
3. Roundtables: These may be formed around a topic and consist of 4-8 participants, 1 Chair, and last 1 hour and 45 minutes.
4. Author Meets Reader (AMR): These are for scholarly books published in 2021. For more information, please see https://www.lawandsociety.org/author-meets-reader-newbooks- in-the-field/

LSA also encourages submission of other “creative” formats for this conference. If you have an idea that you think would work well in one of these formats, please let us know.

CRN PRIORITIES FOR THIS CONFERENCE
Individual paper submissions. The CRN gives preference this year to individual submissions. A committee of the CRN will assign individual papers to panels based on the subject. Our panels will use the conference format, which requires four papers, but we will continue our custom of assigning a chair for the panel and a commentator for each individual paper. As a condition of participating as a panelist, you must also agree to serve as a chair or commentator for another panel or participant. We will of course take into account your scheduling and topic preferences to the degree possible.

Pre-formed group submissions. Although we prefer individual paper submissions, we will consider pre-formed panels, roundtables, AMR sessions, and other group submissions that meet the following guidelines:
1. The presenters have not presented together at LSA before.
2. Junior colleagues are included.
3. A diversity of institutions are represented.
4. Interdisciplinary and international perspectives are included.

If you are already planning a conference session with at least four panelists and papers that you would like to see included in the Feminist Legal Theory CRN, please let the organizers know.

The duties of a chair are to organize the panel logistically, including registering it online with the LSA and moderating the panel. The chair will develop a 100–250-word description for the session and submit the session proposal to LSA before their upcoming deadline on November 10, 2021, so that each panelist can submit his or her proposal using the panel number assigned. Chairs will also be responsible for assigning commentators but may wait to do so until panels have been scheduled later this winter.

The duties of a commentator are to read a minimum of two papers and provide verbal comments as well as brief written (email is fine) comments.

SUBMISSION PROCESS AND GUIDELINES
Individual Papers: Please email your abstract, up to three key terms (e.g., International law, violence against women, criminal law), and whether you will be virtual to 1femnistlegaltheory@gmail.com with the Email Subject: Individual Paper Last Name.

Panels and Roundtables: Please email your abstract and up to three key terms (e.g., International law, violence against women, criminal law) and all proposal members, identifying chair and discussant and whether any member will be virtual to
1femnistlegaltheory@gmail.com with the Email Subject: Panel Proposal or Roundtable Proposal Last Name.

Author Meets Reader Panels: Please email your book title and all panel members, identify chair and, whether any panelist will be virtual to 1femnistlegaltheory@gmail.com with the Email Subject: AMR Proposal Last Name.

Please remember that group proposals that are repeated from previous years, that are composed of scholars from a single institution, that contain no junior scholars and other forms of diversity may be rejected.

Be sure to first carefully read the LSA guidelines for submission formats here:
https://www.lawandsociety.org/types-of-submissions/. Please note that LSA rules limit you to participating only once as a paper panelist or roundtable participant.

Please submit all proposals by Friday, October 29. This will permit us to organize papers into panels (and potentially other formats) and submit them prior to the LSA’s deadline on November 10. If we are unable to accept your proposal for the CRN, we will notify you by early November so that you can submit an independent proposal to the conference.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please send any questions or comments to the CRN email address: 1femnistlegaltheory@gmail.com. Please do not send questions or submissions to individual committee members or in response to this email.

We look forward to the conference and hope you’ll join us in Lisbon or virtually to discuss our scholarship and connect with others doing work on feminist legal theory.

Best,
LSA Planning Committee
Cyra Akila Choudhury (co-chair)
Elizabeth MacDowell (co-chair)
April Cherry
Laura Kessler
Anibal Rosario-Lebron
Sheila Velez Martin
Ezgi Şerif

CFP Rutgers Law, Feminism in the Law--An Exploration of Justice Ginsburg's Legacy

Call for Papers

The Women’s Rights Law Reporter is seeking submissions for its annual symposium entitled “Feminism in the Law: An Exploration of Justice Ginsburg’s Legacy.”

The symposium will be held on December 2, 2021 from 3-5 pm on the Newark campus in conjunction with Rutgers Law School’s ceremony for the renaming of 15 Washington Street in honor of the late Justice. As a Rutgers Law School faculty member, Ruth Bader Ginsburg served as the first faculty adviser to the Women’s Rights Law Reporter, which is the nation’s oldest legal periodical focusing on the field of women’s rights law.

The symposium will explore Justice Ginsburg’s lasting legacy and the work that still needs to be done in the field of gender, sexuality, and the law. The symposium promises to be a very well publicized and attended event that will include opening remarks by Justice Ginsburg’s daughter, Professor Jane Ginsburg. We hope to include a wide range of scholars on the panel who can discuss how Justice Ginsburg’s achievements have impacted their own work and scholarship.

The symposium is being planned as an in-person event, subject to evolving New Jersey health regulations. In the event that the event cannot be held live, we will hold the symposium virtually. We are also open to a hybrid format if a panel member is unable to travel due to health concerns.

Those interested in participating should submit an abstract (~750-1,000) words and CV to eics@womensrightslawreporter.com with the subject “RBG Symposium Submission” by September 30, 2021.  Given the short timeline, decisions will be made by October 15, 2021. Those selected will be contacted via email and provided information about traveling to Rutgers Law School for the symposium. We will provide a modest honorarium per speaker as well as reimbursement for reasonable travel expenses.

Once selected, draft articles should be submitted by November 22, 2021. We are looking to have a final draft of paper submissions by January 25, 2021. We are, however, willing to accommodate you if you are unable to adhere to this timeline. Paper length should be roughly 5,000 words; however, we are willing to consider pieces that are either longer or shorter. Papers will be published in the spring edition of the Women’s Rights Law Reporter.

We look forward to reading your submissions and are anticipating a very successful, thought-provoking symposium.

Sincerely,

Samantha Arnold & Siena Carnevale

Co-Editors-In-Chief, Women’s Rights Law Reporter

Midwest Political Science Conference Now Accepting Submissions

Many scholars of Gender & the Law may be working on projects that align with the upcoming Call for Papers posted by the Midwest Political Science Conference. The conference will be held in a hybrid format from April 7-10 based in Chicago, Illinois. Proposals are due by October 8, 2021.  

The MPSA Annual Conference historically hosts more than 5,000 attendees from 60+ countries across more than 90 political interest areas. The conference brings together scholars, researchers and decision makers in the political science community to exchange information and address the latest scholarship in political science.

 

CFP Center for Constitutional Law -- Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and the Constitution: How LGBTQ Rights are Defined, Protected, and Preempted

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW VIRTUAL COLLOQUIUM, CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

Friday, Feb. 4, 2022

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and the Constitution: How LGBTQ Rights are Defined, Protected, and Preempted

The Center for Constitutional Law at Akron seeks proposals for its annual Colloquium. The Center is one of four national centers established by Congress in 1986 on the bicentennial of the Constitution for legal research and public education on the Constitution. Past programs have included Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Justice Arthur Goldberg, Professor Reva Siegel, Professor Lawrence Solum, Professor Ernest Young, Professor Julie Suk, and Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

The 2022 Colloquium explores the questions of sexual orientation and gender identity under the Constitution. These rights are at the intersection of many recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts. On one hand, the Court has interpreted “sex” to include sexual orientation and transgender in the context of federal statutory law. Yet under the Constitution, it has refused to identify sexual orientation or identity as a suspect class, even as it strikes down law that socially discriminate on this basis. Another recent line of cases seems to preempt these equality rights by counter-balancing the religious and speech rights of those seeking to discriminate against LGBTQ people by denying services, disrespecting preferred pronouns, or restricting students.

This Colloquium brings together scholars exploring what the Constitution does or should say about sexual orientation and gender identity. Topics may include, but are not limited to: the rise of religious liberty preemptions in business and/or education, counter-balances of free speech, the meaningful use of rational basis scrutiny, interpretative methods of constitutional and statutory law, the legal history of LGBTQ rights, meanings of privacy and self-determination, the importance of language and pronouns, or comparisons with international norms and laws.

The Virtual Colloquium will be held on Friday, February 4, 2022. This virtual format allows for expanded access to scholars by reducing costs, balancing work/life/health demands, and reaching widely across geographic bounds. Papers will then be published in a spring symposium edition of the Center’s open-access journal, ConLawNOW (also indexed in Westlaw, Lexis, and Hein). Papers are typically shorter, essay style and we expedite publication within four weeks of final paper submission. Those interested in participating should send an abstract and CV to Professor Tracy Thomas, Director of the Center for Constitutional Law, at thomast@uakron.edu by October 20, 2021.

 

CFP Applied Feminism and The Big Idea

APPLIED FEMINISM AND “THE BIG IDEA”

The Center on Applied Feminism at the University of Baltimore School of Law seeks paper proposals for the Thirteenth Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference.  We hope you will join us for this exciting conference on Friday, April 8, 2022.  This year, we aim to capture, develop, and disseminate cutting edge theorizing around issues of gender equity and intersectionality. 

We are in a tumultuous period of history in which we are grappling with a global health pandemic and sharp political polarization, while also experiencing flourishing movements for racial and gender justice.  This is a time for innovation and creativity — for highlighting ideas that create a more just society. We want to explore how feminist legal theory is responding and growing during this time and bridging toward a future of greater gender and intersectional justice. Thus, we seek submissions of papers that have “big ideas” about issues related to feminist legal theory and other critical legal theories from a variety of substantive disciplines and perspectives. As always, the Center’s conference will serve as a forum for scholars, practitioners, and activists to share ideas about applied feminism, focusing on connections between theory and practice to effectuate social change. The conference will be open to the public and will feature a keynote speaker. Past keynote speakers have included Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, Dr. Maya Angelou, and Gloria Steinem.

To submit a paper proposal, by Friday, October 29, 2021, please complete this form and include your 500 word abstract: https://forms.gle/L4rdht7te3WuRTtPA We will notify presenters of selected papers by early December. About half the presenter slots will be reserved for authors who commit to publishing in the annual symposium volume of the University of Baltimore Law Review. Thus, the form requests that you indicate if you interested in publishing in the University of Baltimore Law Review's symposium issue. Authors who are interested in publishing in the Law Review will be strongly considered for publication. For all presenters, working drafts of papers will be due no later than March 18, 2022. Presenters are responsible for their own travel costs; the conference will provide a discounted hotel rate as well as meals.

We look forward to your submissions. If you have further questions, please contact Prof. Michele Gilman at mgilman@ubalt.edu. For additional information about the conference, please visit law.ubalt.edu/caf.

Call for Editors Gender & the Law Prof Blog

Call for Editors

The Gender & Law Prof Blog is seeking editors to be part of the team providing the daily blog.  The blog posts new legal research, cases, and thinking in the area of law and gender for academic, public, and media audiences.  Part of the national Law Prof Blog Network, editors are law professors adding value and insight to legal issues in the field of gender and law.  Founded in 2013, the blog averages 500 daily readers, reaching broadly to international venues of academics in all fields, policymakers, media, courts, and members of the public. 

Several editor positions are available on the blog team.  Editors should be interested in public scholar work and growing readership and impact of the blog.  Interested faculty should email a statement of interest and CV by May 30, 2021, to Prof. Tracy Thomas (Akron Law), editor of Gender & Law Prof Blog, at thomast@uakron.edu.

 

CFP Sex Trafficking, Opioids & Eradicating the Demand

The University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law is very pleased to host a day-long symposium entitled, “Selling Vulnerability: Sex Trafficking, Opioids, and Eradicating the Demand” on Friday, February 5, 2021. A detailed description of the symposium is provided below. We are hosting the symposium virtually via Zoom.   

Article Submissions:  

As part of our symposium, the Kentucky Law Journal (KLJ) is currently seeking articles to be published in an issue devoted to sex trafficking and opioids. Relevant topics may include, but are certainly not limited to, the use of drug dependency and manipulation to “coerce” sex trafficking victims; enhanced victim support services that include drug treatment; and recent efforts in and new ideas regarding sex trafficking law reform.  

We are interested in many different submissions, including submissions from practitioners.  

Submission Guidelines:  

  

Articles published by the KLJ average 15,000 - 25,000 words.  KLJ does not accept submissions from students at other law schools. Co-authorship is permissible. All authors please submit an updated curriculum vitae and/or resume.  

Deadlines:  

Please submit an abstract to KLJ. The final articles are due on December 15, 2020.   

Contact information:  

Please emails submissions and questions to editors@kentuckylawjournal.org and please copy Associate Professor Blanche Cook at blanche.cook@uky.edu.  

Symposium Description:   

Our nation is experiencing a meteoric rise in opioid overdose. The sheer power of opioid dependency has left few untouched and many devastated in its wake.  Inextricably intertwined with opioid dependency is an equally epidemic rise in sex trafficking. Like no other point in its 5,000-year history, sex trafficking is on a sharp upsurge: The internet has expanded the insatiable demand for vulnerable human flesh. As the internet increases the scope of the flesh trade, opioid addiction adds to its sting. Millions are feeding their dependency through the selling of flesh.   

Sex trafficking exists conterminously with drug dependency because vulnerability is the lynchpin of exploitation. This conference, the first of its kind, will examine the converging and rising tides of sex trafficking and opioid addiction. This conference has three aims: Awareness, Advocacy, and Activism.  Using a panel of experts who have first-hand experience with the intertwined effects of sex trafficking and opioid addiction, this conference will increase the public awareness of the converging forces of dependency and vulnerability.  A second panel of advocates will address how the legal process can intervene in the demand for human flesh.  Finally, a third panel of activists will critique the current problems in the criminal justice system’s attempt to ameliorate the intertwined problem of drug dependency and sex trafficking through mass incarceration.  

CFP Con Law Center Symposium: Examining Black Citizenship from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter

Call for Papers: Examining Black Citizenship from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter

The Center for Constitutional Law at Akron
Virtual Symposium (online)
Friday, Feb. 5, 2021, 9am to 5pm

This year celebrates 150 years of the Fifteenth Amendment, 100 years of the Nineteenth Amendment, 55 years of the Voting Rights Act, and just over 55 years of Title VII. Each of these laws brought some systemic change to the participation of Black citizens in the polity. This symposium will explore the ways in which the reconstructed Constitution intended or neglected to establish political and civil citizenship rights regardless of race. Drawing on current social movements like Black Lives Matter, MeToo, SayHerName, and Defund the Police, this academic discussion reflects on the role of law in creating, sustaining, and resolving the identified problems.

Topics for presentation in the broad umbrella of this symposium might include: how social movements transform or engage the law, how academics translate social movements, a reconstructed history of the 15th or 19th Amendment, the Jim Crow and Jane Crow eras and their continuing effects, current battles for voting rights regarding felons, polling restrictions, and other limitations with disparate impact, intersectional dimensions of justice including Black feminism, the causes and consequences of Black Lives Matter, vestiges of slavery, reparations for slavery, policing reform, mass incarceration, judicial remedies for citizenship violations, and/or the gendered differences of black citizenship rights.

The Virtual Symposium is sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Law at Akron. The Center is one of four national centers established by Congress on the bicentennial for the purpose of promoting scholarship and education on matters of constitutional law. The Center includes five affiliated faculty fellows, student fellows, an online journal, ConLawNOW, a JD certificate program in constitutional law, a social justice project, and a Masters of Law in social justice.

Papers presented will be published in a symposium edition of ConLawNOW. ConLawNOW is an online, open-access journal that is also indexed in Westlaw, Lexis, and Hein. It is designed to publish shorter works of 10-20 pages within a short editorial timeframe to get scholarship into the public discourse more quickly. Recent authors published in ConLawNOW include Larry Solum, Paula Monopoli, Ernie Young, Harold Koh, Helen Norton, Judge Jeffrey Sutton, Ruthann Robson, and Julie Suk.

Those interested in presenting a paper should submit a proposal detailing the intended presentation to Professor Tracy Thomas, Director of the Center for Constitutional Law, at thomast@uakron.edu by December 1.  Draft papers should then be submitted by January 20, 2021 for circulation among the other participants for the symposium. Final papers will be due by March 1, 2021, and expected to publish by early April.

Call for Papers Columbia Journal of Gender & Law: Symposium "Are You There Law, It's Me, Menstruation"

Feminist Law Profs, CFP Columbia Journal of Gender & Law Symposium: Are You There, Law? It's Me, Menstruation

Columbia Journal of Gender & Law: Symposium Announcement and Call for Papers

Are You There, Law? It’s Me, Menstruation

The Columbia Journal of Gender & Law is pleased to announce a call for papers for its Spring 2021 symposium: Are You There, Law? It’s Me, Menstruation.

 

This symposium explores the intersection of law and menstruation. Over half the population menstruates for a large portion of their lives, but the law has mostly been silent on the issue. Virtually all people with female biology menstruate, although not all who menstruate are girls or women. A truly inclusive law reform movement will take all who menstruate into account, without regard to race, economic class, age, or gender identity. A legal system that takes into account the biology of over half the population is the foundation for a more just society. 

 

Judy Blume’s young adult classic, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, first captured readers’ attention fifty years ago, but only recently have periods entered the public discourse. The “tampon tax”—the state sales tax on menstrual products—is currently the subject of multi-state litigation and legislative advocacy. Public awareness of the unfairness of the tax has inspired many people to start speaking and mobilizing about other obstacles, including the lack of employment-related accommodations for menstrual needs, the lack of access to safe and affordable products (particularly in schools and prisons), and the anxiety and harassment that menstruating students can face at school.  Increasingly, litigation is being brought about some of these issues, and some states and localities are also taking action on their own, notably by requiring free menstrual products in settings like prisons, schools, and shelters. “Period poverty”—being unable to afford menstrual products—remains an obstacle to school, work and full participation in public life. 

 

The Symposium will be held at Columbia Law School on April 9, 2021. The conference will include a full day of panel discussions and will be open to the public. The program concludes with a reception celebrating the journal’s thirtieth anniversary.

 

Papers

To be considered for a paper presentation at the symposium, please submit an abstract of your proposed paper by 5:00 p.m. on August 15, 2020 to columbia.jgl.submissions@gmail.com. Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words and should relate to the conference theme.  Possible topics might include:

• Affordability, availability, or safety of menstrual products.
• Challenging the state sales tax on menstrual products.
• Menstruation-related discrimination and harassment in employment, education, and/or other contexts.
• Menstrual education in schools.
• Menstruation-related challenges unique to prisoners, incarcerated people, and visitors and employees in carceral facilities.
• Menstruation-related needs of homeless and low-income individuals and families.
• Cultural stigmas and taboos related to menstruation.
• Lawyering and social movements that are inclusive of all who menstruate, including trans boys and men, people with gender fluid identities, and people with non-binary gender identities.
• Research related to health issues connected with menstruation and menstrual products.
• Environmental issues related to menstruation, including access to water, disposal of menstrual products, and toxic chemicals used in menstrual products.
• Alternatives to commercial menstrual products, including micro-lending for financing of menstruation-related small businesses.
• Human rights concerns, including the right to dignity, the right to education, and/or the right to employment, and their connection to menstruation.
• The relationship of popular culture, including Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, to the understanding of menstruation.
• The use of female empowerment and feminist messaging in selling menstrual products and menstrual education.
• Menstrual-related activism, including litigation and legislative reform.
• Coalition-building between and among groups around issues related to menstruation.

Successful proposals will include a discussion of how the selected topic relates to the law. Interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives from outside the legal academy are very welcome.

Selected speakers will be notified by September 15, 2020.

 

Publication Opportunity

The selected speakers from this Call for Papers will have the opportunity to publish their papers in a special symposium issue of CJGL.  All such papers will be due by February 1, 2020.  They must be no more than 3,000 words and should be lightly-footnoted.  The abstracts will be posted to CJGL’s public website, and the complete versions may be made available prior to the symposium on a password-protected site to all symposium participants.

 

Registration and Transportation

There is no registration fee associated with the conference.  There are funds available to cover the reasonable transportation costs and accommodations for speakers coming from outside the New York metropolitan area. 

 

Short On-Line Essays

In connection with the symposium, CJGL invites expressions of interest in contributing short essays (100-500 words, including footnotes) on any aspect of law and menstruation, or reflections on the influence of Judy Blume’s book and its legacy for generations of readers. Essays will be hosted on the CJGL website beginning in early 2021 and are intended to be written for a general audience. We warmly welcome contributions from students, faculty, attorneys, activists, artists and others.  Contributions may take the form of personal reflections, cultural critiques or other menstruation-related topics of the author’s choice. Short essays do not have to be in a traditional academic format.

To be considered for contribution of a short essay, please submit a short (2-4) sentence proposal by 5:00 p.m. on August 15, 2020 to columbia.jgl.submissions@gmail.com. Selected contributors will be notified by September 15, 2020.

Final versions of short on-line essays will be due November 1, 2020.

 

Questions?

Questions about logistics of the program can be directed to CJGL Symposium Editor Jenna Rae Lauter: jrl2156@columbia.edu

Other questions can be directed to the Symposium’s faculty conveners: Professor Bridget Crawford (Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University) bcrawford@law.pace.edu; Professor Emily Gold Waldman (Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University) ewaldman@pace.edu; and Professor Margaret Johnson (University of Baltimore School of Law) majohnson@ubalt.edu.