Aging & Ageism Caucus CFP’s for The National Women’s Studies Association 2016
Conference (NWSA)
Conference Theme:
“Decoloniality” – "a worldview that denaturalizes settler colonial logics and structuring
violences. . . . it traces forms of critical and creative resistance and shows possibilities for
(and the necessity of) decolonial being/knowing/loving/resisting/creating." (L. Simpson
2015).
Conference location: Montreal, Quebec – November 10-13, 2016
For more details see: http://www.nwsa.org/Files/2016/2016.NWSA.CFP.pdf
Abstract deadline for all submissions: Sunday, February 7, 2016
1. Panel Title: Unsettling the Linear Logic of Age: Narrating Complexity in Later
Life
Subtheme #1: Unsettling Settler Logics
I am seeking three to four innovative proposals for an interdisciplinary panel exploring
how contemporary age studies scholars are seeking to unsettle the linear logic of aging as
either progress or decline in order to narrate the complexity of late life experience.
Proposals might consider recent developments in age theory, the life narratives of older
people, representations of aging, political organizing, or everyday coping strategies. In
keeping with the subtheme of “unsettling setter logics,” proposals should address how the
logic of aging as progress or decline has been fundamental to the construction of modern
subjects and how people have sought to disrupt these narratives.
By Sunday, February 7 2016, email the following to Corinne Field at [email protected]
 100 word abstract (with citations if applicable)
 Title
 Your full name
 Institutional affiliation (if applicable)
 Mailing address
 Phone number(s)
 Email address
 Audiovisual rationale if you require a projector
2. Panel Title: The Elderly as Exiles: Coping with the Displacement, Removal and
Containment of Old People
Subtheme #2: Movements/Migrations
In keeping with the subtheme on movements and migrations, I am seeking three or four
panelists whose work addresses the exile of older people from workplaces, communities,
and political organizations. Proposals might consider the following topics: retirement as
removal; nursing homes as containment; or age prejudice as a form of erasure. How and
why do elderly people end up exiled from work, family, and communities? How do old
people cope with forced and chosen migrations and containment in later life? What new
communities and forms of empowerment do they create?
By Sunday, February 7 2016, email the following to Corinne Field at [email protected]
 100 word abstract (with citations if applicable)
 Title
 Your full name
 Institutional affiliation (if applicable)
 Mailing address
 Phone number(s)
 Email address
 Audiovisual rationale if you require a projector
3. Panel title: Resisting the Deficit Model of Youth and Old Age: Empowering Girls
and Elderly Women
Co-sponsored with Girls’ Studies Caucus
Subtheme #3: Bodies and Biopolitics
Co-sponsored by the Girls’ Studies Caucus and the Aging and Ageism Caucus, this panel
will consider efforts to resist the construction of girls and elderly women as deficient and
inferior to adults in the prime of life. Papers might consider how constructions of young
and old bodies as deficient, weak, and dependent undergird larger social, political, and
economic hierarchies. Papers could also address efforts to resist these deficit models by
working to articulate the potentials of youth and old age and to empower young girls and
old women.
By Sunday, February 7 2016, email the following to Corinne Field at [email protected]
 100 word abstract (with citations if applicable)
 Title
 Your full name
 Institutional affiliation (if applicable)
 Mailing address
 Phone number(s)
 Email address
 Audiovisual rationale if you require a projector
4. Panel Title: Borders of Belonging in Later Life: Old Age in Indigenous, Minority,
and Resistant Communities
Subtheme #: Borders and Belonging
Disrupting indigenous age hierarchies was an essential mechanism of settler colonialism.
I am seeking four panelists who consider efforts to sustain, reconstitute, or construct age
relations outside the power structures of colonial states. Panelists might consider
traditional forms of age relations that preceded settler colonialism, historical resistance to
the imposition of colonial age hierarchies, or contemporary efforts to create new forms of
age relations resistant to colonial power dynamics. How can non-western understandings
of age and relations be preserved or recuperated? How do migration policies and military
conflicts around the globe continue to disrupt age relations? Do racial and ethnic
minorities create and sustain alternative forms of aging? Do those living outside of
patriarchal families, including communities of gay men and lesbians, transpeople, and
single people create new forms of aging?
By Sunday, February 7 2016, email the following to Corinne Field at [email protected]
 100 word abstract (with citations if applicable)
 Title
 Your full name
 Institutional affiliation (if applicable)
 Mailing address
 Phone number(s)
 Email address
 Audiovisual rationale if you require a projector
5. Panel Title: Re-Imagining Aging: Creativity in Later Life
Subtheme #5: World-Making and Resistant Imaginaries
I am seeking four panelists whose work addresses creativity in later life. In keeping with
the subtheme, “World-Making and Resistant Imaginaries,” panelists should consider how
people remake their worlds as they age and how imagination functions as a form of
resistance in ageist cultures. Panelists could consider professional artists, writers, and
filmmakers who create for a public audience as well as more personal, private, and
intimate forms of resistant imagining.
By Sunday, February 7 2016, email the following to Corinne Field at [email protected]
 100 word abstract (with citations if applicable)
 Title
 Your full name
 Institutional affiliation (if applicable)
 Mailing address
 Phone number(s)

Email address