Indeed, the question of historicity with all its critical edge, has recently emerged as the pivotal knot of an epistemologically crucial intertwining: that of feminist critical theories, post-structural humanities, and post-colonial studies. Not only is the investigation of historicity directed against the linear narratives of Enlightenment, but it has opened a host of new perspectives and dilemmas. These include: what, whose and how many, his/herstories do we need, in order to navigate the feminist project across the ever-more scattered theoretical landscape and ever more difficult politico-economic realities. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to clarify the different uses (and/or abuses) of history, historicity, and historical thinking in the different feminist enterprises (theoretical, political, cultural, artistic, activist, and so on). It is equally important to assess the possible alliances and/or the liaisons dangereuses with those critical thinkers who advocate “system theory”, “strategic essentialism”, “new materialism”, and the like, as the only viable strategies for coping with the problem of historicity. Namely, being compelled by the urge to historicise, or grounded on the critical assessment of that very cultural imperative, a feminist agenda can hardly avoid privileging women's emancipatory ideas and agencies, both past and present, as well as articulating a sharp critique of structural inequality, (neo)colonialism, imperialism, exploitation, and war.



We invite contributions that investigate the interconnected notions of history, historicity, historicism from a feminist vantage point and with regard to such fields as philosophy, anthropology, literature and the arts, historiography, cultural theory. In addition, contributions that propose feminist counter-trajectories and historically (or, rather, historicizingly) attentive articulations of women's agencies within the new geopolitics of knowledge. We welcome not only papers, but also new formats and methodologies of sharing knowledge.

The main points of discussion will be as follows:
•how do we approach the troubling concepts of history, historicity, and historicism from a feminist perspective?
•to what extent are we, as feminist thinkers, subservient to the hegemony of history/historicity?
•how do we mediate between the need to historicise the particular conditions of women’s experiences and the ethico-political demand to strategically use the unhistorical notion of women?
•how does the feminist project compel us to rethink the historical tools by which we define and limit cultural periods (and consequently the very notion of period)
•what kind of (proto- and/or post-) feminist discourses and practices have the ability to step out of defined historical categories/matrices
•what considerations can be made of the genealogy of disrupting the unifying continuity and linearity of History from Benjamin to Butler?
•in what way have postcolonial and transnational approaches to the “master discourse” of History contributed to a feminist approach to history and to the history of feminism in particular?
•how can de-colonial, critical and translational theories help us to articulate the question of historical agency within the complexity of neo-colonial settings?how do we rethink the relation between the discoursivity of historical narratives and the corporality of historical subjects/agents from a perspective in line with a feminist project?
•how do we re-evaluate the potential for resistance of women’s memories and autobiographies, of their diasporic imaginary, and Creole voices as a means to acknowledge marginalized, forgotten or suppressed histories?
•how do we interpret women's socialist experiences? As a politically popular “disrupted history” or as a “disruption of history” based on 'forgotten' socialist lives, achievements, and ideas?
•how can a feminist process of “writing/talking back” become an effective means to disrupt historicity and undo patriarchal/colonial/hegemonic power paradigms?

Course directors:
•Rada Borić, Centre for Women’s Studies Zagreb, rada.boric@zenstud.hr
•Lada Čale Feldman, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia lcfeldma@ffzg.hr
•Renata Jambrešić Kirin, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia, renata@ief.hr
•Durre S. Ahmed, Centre for the Study of Gender and Culture, Lahore, Pakistan durresahmed@gmail.com

Eligibility:

IUC courses are conducted at postgraduate level. All interested postgraduate students may apply to participate, although the course targets young scholars and postgraduate students with a defined interest in women’s studies, transnational studies, philosophy, sociology, literary and cultural studies, post-colonialism, or anthropology. The course will be limited to 25 participants (15 students) in order to provide sufficient space for discussion, seminar work and student presentations. Participants must seek funding from their own institutions for the costs of travel, lodging and meals. Limited financial support is available for participants from Central and Eastern Europe (please see http://www.iuc.hr/hesp-osi.phsp). The IUC requires a payment of 40 EUR for the Course fee. The Working language of the course is English.

Application Procedure:

Please submit a proposal consisting of a short narrative describing your interest in the topic and your CV. Place all current contact information at the top of your CV. Send submissions by e-mail to Francesca Maria Gabrielli fmgabrie@ffzg.hr and international@zenstud.hr.

Use the subject: IUC Dubrovnik 2015. The proposal deadline is January 15th 2015.