Society for Women in Philosophy. For information on SWIP membership, which includes receiving program announcements, the national SWIP newsletter, and a discount subscription to Hypatia contact:
Eastern SWIP: Linda Damico, Department of Philosophy, Kennesaw State College, Marietta, GA 30061.
Midwest SWIP: Carol Mickett, English &. Philosophy Department, Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, MO 64093.
Pacific SWIP: Dianne Romain, Department of Philosophy, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA 94928.
Call for Papers. The journal Women and Therapy is planning a special double issue to examine the possible psychotherapeutic implications for women engaged in some aspect of feminist spirituality. Based on profound theoretical challenges to mainstream religious beliefs and practices, and ranging from calls for the radical reclamation and reconstruction of traditions to personal involvement in Goddess worship and wicca, a fair number of women have embraced alternative forms of spiritual expression. In the face of women's conflicting consciousness of greater power to act in the public sphere and powerlessness to end, once and for all, the violence done to their minds and bodies, women engaging in various kinds of feminist spirituality groups often describe their own experiences of them as empowering and healing. Perhaps it is time to assess both whether and the extent to which all of this represents the beginnings of a paradigm shift in conceptions of women's mental health, and what it all means. Theoretical, conceptual or experiential papers on any aspect of this issue are welcome. Please send three copies of a one-page abstract, by September 1, 1993, to Judith Ochshorn, Women's Studies Dept., HMS 413, University of South Florida, 4202 Fowler Ave., Tampa, FL 33620. This special double issue of Women and Therapy will also be published in book form, both hardcover and paperback, by Harrington Park Press.
Call for Papers: Society and Nature: The International Journal of Political Ecology is seeking articles from a feminist perspective that analyze and critique socioeconomic conditions and their interrelationship with nature in order to develop alternative visions for an ecological society. Forthcoming issues (and submission deadlines): Development and Environment in the South (Sept. 1, 1993), Green Economics (Dec. 1, 1993), Science and Technology (March 1, 1993). We are also very interested in book reviews. For further information and writers’ guidelines contact: Society and Nature 1449 W. Littleton Blvd. #200, Littleton, CO 80120-2127.
Call for Papers: Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society seeks submissions for a special issue on feminist theory and practice, tentatively slated for publication in summer 1996.
In this, the last special issue that will originate at the University of Minnesota, we will return to our initial editorial promise (Signs 16, no. 3 [Spring 1991]) to make close connections between feminist theory and feminist practice outside as well as inside of the academy. Given that the roots and inspiration for contemporary feminist scholarship emerged in the 1960s and 1970s from the political movements of women organizing on behalf of women's issues—in the home, in the state, in colleges and universities, in our social and religious communities—, feminists were determined from the outset to have our scholarship bring women into academic discourse. Within this context, we tried to join theory and practice. We learned about the organization and operation of institutionalized sexism (as we had learned about institutionalized racism) in the course of our daily lives as academics who were trying to create a new kind of scholarship, one that put gender at the center of analysis, that was concerned with issues of social equality and social justice, and that recognized and engaged with the politics of scholarship. Through this effort, a new kind of knowledge was born: women's studies, feminist scholarship, gender studies. Combined with other streams and intellectual developments of the time (postmodernism, deconstructionism, psychoanalysis, marxism/socialism, and cultural materialism, among others), a new kind of intellectual vitality was created. But not all feminists of the “second wave” were academics. Many were struggling to pursue goals and to establish practices that were also guided by feminist principles and feminist intent, but within surroundings quite different from the academy. In hospitals and schools, in battered women's shelters and abortion clinics, in factories and trade unions, women were constructing practices that were guided by feminist consciousness and feminist goals. And it is these practices, outside the academy just as importantly as inside it, that have constructed our theories. It is this connection of theory and practice that is the subject for this special issue. The special issue editors will include the editors of Signs, University of Minnesota professors Ruth-Ellen Joeres, Department of German, and Barbara Laslett, Department of Sociology, and others to be announced in the Summer 1993 issue of Signs.
Please submit articles (in triplicate) no later than September 1, 1994, to Signs, 495 Ford Hall, 224 Church Street S.E., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Please observe guidelines in the “Notice to Contributors” printed in any issue of the journal published since Autumn 1992. For further information about this special issue, contact Joeres or Laslett at Signs, telephone 612-625-1813.
Call for Papers in Feminist Jurisprudence. Feminist jurisprudence, like feminist philosophy of science, challenges us to reflect upon the theoretical foundations of our discipline. Feminist legal philosophy begins with an examination of how the law regulates women, their work, their reproductive functions, their social and sexual activity, their economic independence. Drawn to such controversial topics as discrimination, sexual harassment, reproductive rights and pornography, we are forced to explore more deeply such issues as the nature and justification of law, judicial reasoning, the meaning of equality, justice and the practice of the law.
We welcome the analysis of case histories in the broad context of jurisprudential discussion. We are looking for essays on no longer than ten pages that clarify issues, make new connections, review literature, or provide curricular suggestions on the subject of feminist jurisprudence.
Essays should be submitted in triplicate with the author's name on the title page only. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 1994. Send manuscripts to: Hilde Hein, Department of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross, OK 464, PO Box 148A, Worcester, MA 01610-2395 or to Rex Martin, Department of Philosophy, University of Kansas, Wescoe Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045.
SWIP-L, an electronic mail list for feminist philosophers. SWIP-L is an information and discussion list for members of the Society for Women in Philosophy and others who are interested in feminist philosophy. To subscribe to this list send the following one-line message to LISTSERV@CFRVM or to [email protected]: SUBSCRIBE SWIP-L <YOUR FULL NAME>. When you want to post messages on the list send them to SWIP-L@CFRVM or to [email protected]. The purpose of the list is to provide a place to share information about SWIP and other feminist philosophy meetings, calls for papers, jobs for feminist philosophers, etc., as well as to engage in more substantive discussions related to feminist philosophy. While the list is public and open to both SWIP members and non-members, it is meant for feminist philosophers and theorists. It is free of charge. The SWIP-L's home is in the Hypatia editorial office. If you have questions please e-mail, call, or write us at the addresses or telephone numbers listed on page ii of this issue.
