Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to draw your attention to the website of the SCHOLARLY DISCUSSION LIST "GENDER AND NATION/NATIONALISMS" <fng-l@zrz.tu- berlin.de>. The English-language list already encompasses nearly 300 scholars from 33 countries working in this field.
The purpose of the interdisciplinary list is to connect researchers in the various disciplines who work in the area of "Gender and Nation/Nationalisms".
The temporal emphasis is on the modern period. The list will encompass the early modern period and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not least in order to overcome the usual emphasis in nationalism scholarship on the period around 1800 as a caesura. Regionally, the list focuses on Europe. This emphasis is by no means intended to foster 'eurocentrism', since the advent and development of most European nations cannot be understood without colonialism and imperialism. Research on colonies, colonial policy and anti- colonialist and anti-imperialist liberation movements must thus be integrated.
One of the chief objectives of the list is to increase communication among scholars in the various disciplines who treat issues of "Gender and Nation/Nationalism" in order to facilitate discussion across disciplinary borders. A common point of departure could be an understanding of "gender" and "nation" as constructed and contested relational systems of cultural and social meanings. Together, the two systems not only shape the political national culture in historically specific ways, but also legitimate and limit the access of (groups of) people - women and men - to national movements as well as to the resources of nation-states.
Our other main objective is to intensify exchange among scholars working in this field in the various European regions, not least in the hope of inspiring more comparative projects in the years to come. A comparative
view, the perception of the nation from inside and outside perspectives is, after all, extraordinarily productive. The central phenomenon of inclusion in and exclusion from the socially and culturally constructed nation did not function solely via the drawing of internal boundaries (of class, gender, race, ethnicity, religion and culture in the broadest sense), but also decisively via the drawing of external boundaries - to neighboring peoples or states and to 'alien peoples' in the conquered colonies. In short, the image of one's 'own nation' was formed with respect to inside and outside by means of counter-images or negative images of the 'Other' and the 'Alien'.
The list is intended to facilitate interdisciplinary and international information exchange about research projects (completed, in progress or planned) and new publications (books and articles) as well as workshops, colloquia and conferences. It will also provide opportunities to publicize reports on events and calls for papers, and inform about grants, fellowships and positions. An up-to-date list of projects in progress of all list members published on the website <http://www.tu-berlin.de/zifg/fng/>. will keep everybody who is interested informed. In addition we are preparing a list of members' publications for this website. In the long term we hope that the list will also become a place for reviews of important monographs and essay collections. In addition, it could also develop into a forum for discussing theoretical and methodological problems that arise in scholarship on the nation and gender.
The list is connected with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies on Women and Gender (ZIFG) at the Technical University of Berlin
Ernst-Reuter-Platz 7, TEL 20-1, D-10587 Berlin, GERMANY Internet:
<http://www.tu-berlin.de/zifg/>.
HOW TO SUBCRIBE TO THE LIST
The list is open to all scholars who work in the field in question.
Those interested in subscribing could use the subscription form on our website or send the brief message
- subscribe FNG-L name, affiliation -
to: <fng-l-owner@zrz.tu-berlin.de>
and will get in return the subscription form.