New Call for Papers – Gender and Empowerment in American History and Politics
On August 26, 2020, the United States will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which extended the franchise to American women. After the narrow defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and the significant increase of women elected in Congress during the 2018 mid-term elections, in November 2020 Americans will choose their President between two white men. The current Presidential campaign, already started with the Democratic primaries, has made evident one crucial fact: despite the century passed from the first vote of American women, political equality is far from being achieved.
Starting from this premise, the fourth issue of USAbroad seeks to reflect on how gender interacted and still interacts with political discourse and practice at large. This means exploring not only how gender has influenced political participation and mobilization but also how gender issues have shaped and have been shaped by the society that underpins common political norms and institutions. The stated goal is to investigate the complex and multi-faceted link between gender and empowerment in American history and politics. We seek to understand how straight women as well as members of the LGBTQ+ community have defined empowerment in terms of policy and outcomes, and what approaches have devised to reach autonomy and self-determination in American society broadly defined; how underprivileged people across the entire gender spectrum have found their voice and gained agency through their gender identity and experiences or despite them; and how traditionally disempowered groups have organized their gendered interests and needs through social movements, associations, unions, parties, and institutions. We are also interested in analyses that use intersectionality as a framework, thus looking at the interplay of gender and race, class, religion, and social background in shaping individuals' and groups' activism and empowerment process.
The editors encourage and look forward to receiving papers offering historical and / or political analysis, in the American context, of:
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Women and LGBTQ+ peoples' political representation and participation;
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Women and LGBTQ+ people and political parties;
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Women and LGBTQ+ people's in grass-roots politics, associationism, social movements and working-class struggles;
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Suffrage movements;
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First Ladies' political and social activism;
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Women and LGBTQ+ people in cultural diplomacy;
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Women and LGBTQ+ people in foreign policy and international affairs;
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Women and LGBTQ+ people and leadership;
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Women's and LGBTQ+ people's agency in the economic system;
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Women's and LGBTQ+ people's role in families and local communities;
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Domesticity and women's and LGBTQ+ people's cultural agency;
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Welfare system and its interaction with women and LGBTQ+ people;
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Women and LGBTQ+ people and the political communication system and propaganda;
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Women and LGBTQ+ people and media in general;
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The intersection of class, race, religion and sexuality in the empowerment process of women and LGBTQ+ people;
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Comparative analysis of the topics mentioned above.
Applicants are asked to submit an abstract of approximately 500 words, along with a résumé including their main publications, by April 30 May 25. Please send your proposal by email to: usabroad@unibo.it Applicants will be notified regarding the status of the submission by May 18 June 15. The selection of abstracts will be based on a range of criteria including: scientific originality (how does the proposed paper differs from existing literature in the field), use of primary sources (on what sources is the paper based) and adherence to the themes of the call for papers. Abstracts that do not clearly address these three criteria will not be considered for publication. Please note that a final version of the accepted essay must be submitted by September 13 October 4.
More info can be found at http://usabroad.unibo.it/
You can also download the Call for Papers in PDF
