‘Echo Chambers, Gender Reverberations’ - XVth Annual WISPs Conference. 7th-8th Nov. 2014

The XV Annual WISPS Conference will be held at University College Cork on 7th and 8th November 2014.

WISPS organizes annual conferences to act as a focus for all those working in university departments in Britain and Ireland and/or researching into fields such as feminist theory, history, cultural memory, linguistics, literature, cultural and textual theory, audio and film studies, performance studies, politics, anthropology, geography, queer theory, and theatre studies, within Luso-Hispanic cultures. WISPS also provides a wide network of female colleagues research-active or interested in feminist and gender studies and a challenging but informal forum in which feminist and gender issues and work-in-progress can be discussed. This year it is hosted by the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies in UCC.

Conference Theme: Echo Chambers, Gender Reverberations
The myth of Echo is that of a garrulous story-teller condemned to repeat the words of others. Hers is a cautionary tale, whose afterlives can be traced in the cultural association of women with gossip and pillow talk and careless words that cost lives. It also resonates in the contemporary concept of the “Echo chamber” in media discourse: the way in which stories, facts and knowledge are transmitted in current times, through repetition, re-tweeting and reiteration, until all other voices and points of view are drowned out. Yet we also associate the echo chamber with reverberation, with spaces designed to produce the internal reflection of sounds, providing alternative models for considering cultural transmission and reception.
In this year’s WISPS conference we welcome papers and panels that engage with the concept of echo chambers and reverberations to reflect on diverse aspects of the transmission and construction of gender in the Hispanic and Lusophone world(s).
Contributors reflect on the way in which feminist and gender theory has reverberated in different contexts, or explore transmissions of dominant and hegemonic narratives of gender in different disciplines and media. They investigate how new media technologies contribute to the construction and reiteration of gender experience and embodiment, and/or how gender representation and performance interact with voice, sound and noise. The papers engage with different discourses and disciplinary regimes: from the visual arts and performance to anthropology, environmental politics, legal systems and medical science (amongst others).

Confirmed Keynote speakers: Dr L. Elena Delgado, University of Illinois; Professor Maria Delgado, QMUL; 
Professor Nuala Finnegan, University College Cork

Contact: Dr. Helena Buffery. Email: Tel: +353 21 4902553

Registration Options:

Full Conference Registration (including conference dinner on Friday) - €75
Partial Registration (without conference dinner on Friday) - €50