In this Symposium we would like to bring together scholars from different regions of the world to reconsider the impacts the global trafficking in information, population, discourses, commodities, images, and even desires has made on gender studies, both here in Taiwan and elsewhere in other parts of the world. Issues that we would like to address include: how would feminists, in our local contexts, respond to the call to “think globally and act locally”? How can a transnational politics of alliance be forged, given that the imperative for situated politics has driven feminists to stress more on particularity and regional differences than on universality and global collaboration? How can a delicate balance be maintained between the drive towards border crossing and the reality of border patrol? How does gender fit in to this already rather troubled arena? Do women benefit from transnationalism or do women become the unwitting victims of transnationalism? How are ideas of manhood and womanhood reconfigured and performed as transnationalism encounters nationalism? How is sexuality, heterosexual and homosexual, mediated by these conflicting forces, with each one being its spectral other?

With invited speakers coming from the United States of America, South Korea, Malaysia and Australia, we will set up a forum for the fruitful exchange of ideas and views.

Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Center for Gender and Women’s Studies, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

National Science Council, R.O.C.
Office of International Affairs, National Cheng Kung University

Dr. Sharon Pugh, Indiana University-Bloomington, USA
Dr. Leni dlR. Garcia, De La Salle University-Manila, Philippines
Dr. William Ayers, University of Illionis-Chicago, USA.

• Life stories of women
• Second/foreign language learners and their stories
• Stories of language teachers
• Stories in second/foreign language learning and teaching
• Stories of marginalized individuals/groups
• Bibliotherapy
• Teaching and learning through children’s and young adult’s literature
• Narrative inquiry
• Narratives and stories as ways of knowing and learning
• Multiple perspectives and diverse learners

Both abstract (form attached) and full-length paper should be written in English. The abstract should not exceed 500 words and the full-length paper (includes bibliography and appendix) should not exceed 10,000 words. The paper draft and final manuscript should conform to the guide stipulated in the American Psychology Association Style Manual (APA 5.0). Each paper is intended for a 20- to 25-minute presentation. Should you have any questions, please contact Dr. Mei-Yu Lu at melu@mail.stu.edu.tw (樹德科技大學應外戲盧玫錥老師, TEL: 07-6158000-4005或4002).

Submission Deadline: May 5, 2008
Notification of Acceptance: May 12, 2008