CFP: Birth as Experience and Metaphor (Israel) (3/15/03; 11/?/03)

Attached please find a call for paper for a conference on: Birth as
Experience and Metaphor. The conference will be held at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem on November 2003.

Thank you,

The Lafer Center staff

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
THE LAFER CENTER FOR WOMEN STUDIES

Call For Papers

The Lafer Center for Women and Gender Studies at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem invites proposals for individual presentations and sessions
for an interdisciplinary international conference on:

Birth as Experience and Metaphor

November 2003, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The study and conceptualization of birth and of its related processes
(such as conception, pregnancy, etc) has undergone dramatic changes in
the course of history, and has become a major topic of interest and
scholarly research in different disciplines. Birth is currently
understood as an experience constructed by culture, rather than an
experience defined by female physiology, and is recognized as fluid,
multiple and varied in its experiences and meanings, across different
cultures and periods. Moreover, charged with the mystery and magic of
creation, pregnancy and birth have become stock metaphors for
original/primordial beginnings, and for human creativity in its broadest
sense.

We welcome papers that discuss birth as physical and emotional
experience, as well as representations of birth in culture and in
society, such as: birth and rebirth in religion and in myth; images of
birth in the arts; the birth of a literary work, or a fictional
character; birth of a nation; traditional and alternative models of
birth, labor and delivery; concepts of midwifery and birth-attendance;
birth as an event in culture and society; medicalization of birth; pain
and pleasure in birth; public and private in birth; the politics of
birth; images of birth in popular culture and in the media; birth and
sexuality; birth and feminist thought; etc, etc,

The conference committee invites scholars from diverse fields, such as
medicine and obstetrics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, social
work, philosophy, history, history of arts, literature, folklore, Jewish
studies, religious studies, communication, and cultural studies, to send
in by mail a 500-700 word proposal for a 20 minute presentation, or for
an organized session, no later than 15.3.2003, to the Lafer Center, the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905. For
further information: e-mail: mslaferc_at_mscc.huji.ac.il, tel:
972-2-5883455.

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Received on Fri Mar 07 2003 - 18:22:50 EST