Discussion List and Website "Gender and Nation/Nationalisms"

SCHOLARLY DISCUSSION LIST "GENDER AND NATION/NATIONALISMS"

E-MAIL: <fng-lzrz.tu-berlin.de>
INTERNET: www.tu-berlin.de/zifg/fng/

List owners and editors:

Karen Hagemann
Technical University of Berlin, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies on Women and Gender / University of Toronto, Munk Centre for International Studies

Dietlind Huechtker
Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg, Department of History

The editors are pleased to inform that the revision of the website of the SCHOLARLY DISCUSSION LIST "GENDER AND NATION/NATIONALISMS": www.tu-berlin.de/zifg/fng/ is finished.

The purpose of the interdisciplinary list that we startet in 1999 is to connect researchers in the various disciplines who work in the area of "Gender and Nation/Nationalisms". The temporal emphasis is on the modern period. The list will encompass the early modern period and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, not least in order to overcome the usual emphasis in nationalism scholarship on the period around 1800 as a caesura. Regionally, the list focuses on Europe. This emphasis is by no means intended to foster 'eurocentrism', since the advent and development of most European nations cannot be understood without colonialism and imperialism. Research on colonies, colonial policy and anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist liberation movements must thus be integrated.

One of the chief objectives of the list is to increase communication among scholars in the various disciplines who treat issues of "Gender and Nation/Nationalism" in order to facilitate discussion across disciplinary borders. A common point of departure could be an understanding of "gender" and "nation" as constructed and contested relational systems of cultural and social meanings. Together, the two systems not only shape the political national culture in historically specific ways, but also legitimate and limit the access of (groups of) people - women and men - to national movements as well as to the resources of nation-states.

Our other main objective is to intensify exchange among scholars working in this field in the various European regions, not least in the hope of inspiring more comparative projects in the years to come. A comparative view, the perception of the nation from inside and outside perspectives is, after all, extraordinarily productive. The central phenomenon of inclusion in and exclusion from the socially and culturally constructed nation did not function solely via the drawing of internal boundaries (of class, gender, race, ethnicity, religion and culture in the broadest sense), but also decisively via the drawing of external boundaries - to neighboring peoples or states and to 'alien peoples' in the conquered colonies. In short, the image of one's 'own nation' was formed with respect to inside and outside by means of counter-images or negative images of the 'Other' and the 'Alien'.

The list is intended to facilitate interdisciplinary and international information exchange about research projects (completed, in progress or planned) and new publications (books and articles) as well as workshops, colloquia and conferences. It will also provide opportunities to publicize reports on events and calls for papers, and inform about grants, fellowships and positions. An up- to-date list of projects in progress of all list members published on the website www.tu-berlin.de/zifg/fng/ will keep everybody who is interested informed. In addition we started to put a list of members' publications on this website. In the long term we hope that the list will also become a place for reviews of important monographs and essay collections. In addition, it could also develop into a forum for discussing theoretical and methodological problems that arise in scholarship on the nation and gender.

The list "Gender and Nation/Nationalisms" <fng-lzrz.tu-berlin.de> is conducted as a closed scholarly discussion list, i.e., the list will be available to those who have requested a subscription. In order to ensure broad participation and to connect researchers from different parts of the world, we have decided to make English the main language of the list. Contributions in other languages are also welcome, but should be accompanied by a brief introduction or summary in English.

At the moment the list has 354 subscribers from 37 countries.