The Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies (NOG) hosts the annual National Research Day, held this year at the Graduate Gender Programme , Utrecht University. The NOG Research Day is a dedicated platform for sharing the work of junior and senior researchers of Dutch universities in the fields of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Sexuality and Diversity Studies. Faculty, Postdoctorate fellows, PhD candidates and Research Master students are cordially invited to participate in this event.

This year the National Research Day is called ‘Border and Bridges: Cultural Translation and Travelling Theories’ and will take place on Friday June 2, 2017 at Utrecht University.

Call for papers (flyer):
Borders matter, and not only in theory, as it is proved by the catastrophic consequences of the current migrant and refugee crisis, as well as by the resurgent temptation for closure and protectionism that spreads across the world with Europe’s rightwing populisms, US Trumpism and nationalist, confessional and ethnic conflicts in many other areas of the globe.
Yet, borderlands, as Gloria Anzaldúa recalls, do not merely represent sites of exclusions; they testify also to the relative porosity and transformability of the borders themselves. Feminist conceptualisations of the body, queer approaches to gender and postcolonial reflections on translation can all be interpreted as different theoretical and political experiments for engaging with borders, boundaries and the issue of liminality. Thus, bodies – sexualised, racialised, aged, dis/abled – incarnate borders that may also stand for bridges, enabling connections to be traced; and the very category of gender epitomizes one of most eloquent paradigms for thinking of a border that can be transgressed in many ways.
In postcolonial studies, the experience of borders is very much connected to the practice of translation and to the ordinary paradox of untranslatability. Both translation and untranslatability occupy a very meaningful place within the postcolonial field revolving around key questions of difference, identity, hybridity and conflict. Both concepts also immediately relate to the constitutive kernel of the “postcolonial condition” that derives – and cannot completely abstract from – the colonial entanglements in which it originates.

The 2017 edition of this NOG Research Day approaches the theme of ‘border and bridges’ through the lenses of cultural translation. Cultural translation represents a complex and multilayered phenomenon that reminds us of both the existence of borders and barriers and the urge of traversing and transgressing them. In other words, cultural translation recalls the (un)predictable effects resulting from the increasing mobility to which bodies and languages, thoughts and beliefs, tastes and values are constantly exposed in our global world.
The research day will provide the space and the opportunity to bring to the fore and collectively discuss the multiple and multifaceted aspects of cultural translation across different disciplinary arenas.

We welcome scholars from all disciplines who are researching cultural translation, cultural conflicts, cultural anthropology, secular and post-secular debates, postcolonial and comparative literatures, decolonial epistemologies and migration from queer and/or feminist perspectives. We will be happy to showcase works situated within a variety of fields and conducted by adopting ethnographic, historical, philosophical, semiotic, linguistic, literary, artistic and digital approaches.

The Doing Gender in the Netherlands Research Day is open for presentations by Faculty, Postdoctorate fellows, PhD candidates and Research MA students registered at Dutch universities. All are cordially invited to participate in this event and send proposals for paper presentations.

There are several options to participate:
– As a presenter of a 15 min. paper
– As a session moderator
– As a participant without paper presentation

Deadline of abstracts:
Abstracts for papers (300 words maximum) can be sent to NOG@uu.nl until Thursday April 13, 2017. Please mention the following details: your name, university and if applicable supervisor(s). By Wednesday April 26, 2017, we’ll let you know whether your abstract has been accepted.
Accepted papers are due Wednesday May 24, 2017 and should be submitted to NOG@uu.nl. The final paper should be no more than 2,500-3,500 words (excluding footnotes and references), and will be sent to the moderator and co-presenters of the session in advance.

Format of the day:
The day will start with a welcome speech by Rosemarie Buikema, Director of the Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies (NOG) and also Director of the Graduate Gender Programme (GGeP) at Utrecht University.
A keynote panel with inter/national speakers will then open the thematic program of the day. Afterwards, the second part of the morning as well as the afternoon will be dedicated to parallel sessions with paper presentations.
The thematic parallel sessions will run in 90-minute slots. Presenters should prepare a 15 minute presentation based on their full paper, and 5 minutes of feedback for fellow presenters, for instance linking to their research approach(es), method(s) and concept(s). Full papers will be distributed in advance among the panel participants and the moderator. Each session will be moderated by a NOG staff member, who will respond to the panel presentations and facilitate discussion.
Next to the thematic sessions we also organise workshop-session(s) for MA and PhD students about pursuing a PhD education in the context of the Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies (to be confirmed).
The Research day will be concluded by a final plenary session in which we recapitulate what was most inspiring and thought-provoking in this year’s NOG Research day. We then invite you all to continue the discussion over drinks with the NOG community.

Language:
The language of the day is English.

Registration:
Please email nog@uu.nl if you wish to attend the National Research Day as a paper presenter, participant or moderator before April 13, 2017.
To organize this National Research Day we ask for a contribution of €15 from every attendee (presenter or participant) for tea, coffee, lunch and drinks, to be paid in cash at the registration desk on the day.

Registration deadline for listening participants is May 19, 2017

Read more on the NOG Research Day 2017 here.