Women in Motion: An Interdisciplinary Conference, Mount Allison University Sackville, New Brunswick, CANADA May 23-25, 2003 International travel and urban 'flânerie', and in certain traditions, all forms of geographic movement, have long been represented as 'uniquely masculine privilege(s) [or burden(s)]' (Jacqui Smyth 1995). One need only consider the nineteenth-century trope of woman as (stationary) flower and man as (mobile) bee, or the classical pairing of Ulysses and Penelope, to realize that masculine models of movement have, in the past, opposed feminine models of stasis. There are significant exceptions to such models of feminine immobility, as represented, for example, by the female pilgrim, the female migrant, the woman accompanying her traveling husband, father or son and the abandoned or "fallen" woman. The Mount Allison University faculties of Arts and Social Sciences invite participation in an interdisciplinary conference investigating cultural representation of women in motion and the material outcomes of models of feminine mobility and immobility. We encourage submission of papers that deal with the following issues and questions: What are the notable exceptions to the literary or cultural conventions of female immobility through the centuries and across cultures? How do representations of mobile women differ from those of more stationary women? From those of mobile men? What issues, questions or meanings are evoked when women move in contexts in which movement is understood to be 'a uniquely masculine privilege [or burden]'? Are certain kinds of spaces appropriated by women in motion? What connections persist between particular literary or cultural representations of mobile or immobile women and historical and contemporary barriers to women's mobility? Can we detect any change in the representation of women in discussions of pilgrimage, exile, migrancy/migration and cosmopolitanism? A selection of guiding quotes: "Throughout the 18th-Century, European society remains extremely wary of those who wander, and in particular, of women who wander. Wandering is sanctioned as vagrancy a crime punishable by flogging. If prostitution is not at that time a crime in itself, it is likened to vagrancy. That is to say how much feminine movement is deemed socially and morally suspect. For an honest woman remains in the home (of the father or husband). If absolutely necessary, she may enter into the home of the person to whom the father delegates his authority." --Françoise du Sorbier (1991) on Daniel Defoe's wandering heroines (our translation). "In 19th-Century Europe, feminine 'flânerie' in public spaces is seen as being "very contrary to the true nature of women women are naturally unadventurous and conservative" Bénédicte Monicat (1996) on the perception of women in public spaces (our translation). "In part the notion of a flâneuse is impossible precisely because of the one-way-ness and the directionality of the gaze. Flâneurs observed others; they were not observed themselves. And for reasons which link together the debate on perspective and spatial organization of painting, and most women's exclusion from the public sphere, the modern gaze belonged (belongs?) to men". - Doreen Massey (1994) discussing Janet Wolff's "Invisible Flâneuse". "[U]nless economical necessity forces [the woman subject] to leave the home on a daily basis, she is likely to be restrained in her mobility -- a transcultural, class- and gender-specific practice that for centuries has not only made travelling quasi impossible for women, but has also compelled every 'travelling' female creature to become a stranger to her own family, society and gender." (Trinh T. Minh-ha, "Other than myself/ my other self", in _Travellers' tales: narratives of home and displacement_, ed. by George Robertson et al., Routledge, 1994.) Mount Allison University <http://www.mta.ca/> is located near the Nova Scotia border of New Brunswick, 30 minutes from the Moncton airport and 2 hours from the Halifax airport. Information on accommodation and registration will be available in early 2003. Our conference is scheduled May 23-25, 2003 for the convenience of those who may also wish to attend the Congress of Learned Societies in Halifax, May 28-June 5, 2003. Proposals in English or in French are invited for papers (20 minutes reading time) or panels (two or three papers). Proposals (300-500 words) should be sent by email or paper by November 30, 2002. Email submissions should be sent within the body of an email letter: NO ATTACHMENTS, PLEASE. Mail two copies of paper submissions to: Dr. Karin Schwerdtner Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures Mount Allison University 49A York Street Sackville, NB, CANADA E4L 1C7 Send electronic submissions to both: [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] Karen Bamford Associate Professor Dept. of English, Mount Allison University 63D York St., Sackville, NB, Canada, E4L 1G9 phone: 506-364-2550; fax:506-364-2524 e-mail: [log in to unmask] Helen Ostovich Editor, EARLY THEATRE / Professor, Dept of English McMaster University Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4L9 (905)525-9140 x24496 FAX (905)777-8316 http://www.earlytheatre.ca