SIEF welcomes a new working group
Introduction of the SIEF Working Group in Feminist Approaches to Ethnology and Folklore.
SIEF Working Group in Feminist Approaches to Ethnology and Folklore;
The gendered social reality that adheres in the hierarchicalizing dyad Male/Female constitutes, reflects, and reinforces fundamental power relations. This working group seeks to interrogate the ways in which such a gender ideology operates in practice and theory in our fields. Using Feminist theory as a disruptive lens, we seek to re-evaluate current perspectives, approaches, methods, theories, and forms of representation that have characterized the fields in the past. Feminist approaches seek to deconstruct the inherent and implicit bias that all engage in and replicate regardless of personal gender performativity and thus to counter the male bias and privilege that is constitutive of discursive formations now and historically. This group finds this bias to be foundational to our fields of research – in theory, methodology, and in academic spheres, and asserts that as a result of this gendered perspective, the production of knowledge is incomplete. Our working group seeks to revisit and excavate the historical processes that have resulted in these flawed foundations, and to present new and alternative theoretical approaches from multiple, hitherto unincorporated perspectives.
Through the formation of an international forum, this working group’s strategic aims include making visible the gendered nature of current theory and practice, and promoting new approaches that address this. Through a multi-vocal engagement with a broad range of international scholars, we seek to strengthen the exchange between feminist and gender scholars who work in Ethnology and Folklore Studies in a more systematic manner in the production and promotion of new forms of knowledge.
Chairs (temp)
JoAnn Conrad: Diablo Valley College, History. jac5353(at)aol.com
Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir: University of Iceland, Ethnology and Folklore. doj5(at)hi.is
Secretary (temp)
Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir: University of Iceland, Ethnology and Folklore. doj5(at)hi.is
Bibliography curatrix
Merrill Kaplan: Ohio State University. Kaplan.103(at)osu.edu
