University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

In 1929 Virginia Woolf predicted that women “in another century or so,” if given the opportunity and rooms of their own, will “have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think,” seeing human beings “in their relation to each other” and “in relation to reality.” Our knowledge-based economy and society have made such an opportunity more tangible for some and more elusive for others. Rooms of Their Own considers the situation of women within and beyond the academy. By heightening awareness, extending the knowledge base, and forming practical recommendations, the conference assesses the challenges and conditions for women to participate in this new reality.

This three-day conference offers an international forum to discuss the features of local and global cultures that encourage and impede women’s active, creative, and critical participation in the knowledge economy and society. We extend this call to university faculty and administrators, graduate students, government ministers, and representatives of funding agencies and the corporate sector. We invite contributions from a wide variety of perspectives: artistic, political, commercial, legal, scientific, philosophical, and so on.

Topics might include (but should not be limited to):
- the re-structuring of work through digital information
- styles of corporate management
- building local capacity to empower communities
- re-thinking definitions and frames of reference.

The scope of the conference also includes performing and creative arts. We are seeking proposals that engage with the central issues in innovative and practical ways. Presentations may be in the form of individual papers, entire panels, workshops, creative pieces, multimedia projects, and any other alternative formats. Individual presentations should be 20 minutes long, for inclusion in a 90-minute session with plenty of time for discussion and feedback. A selection of conference papers will be published.

Proposals are welcome in English and French; simultaneous translation will be available during the conference. Deadline for proposals is 10 January 2007.

Among the plenary speakers are Catharine Farrow, Chief Geologist, FNX Mining; Marye Anne Fox, Chancellor, University of California, San Diego; Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard; Anne Wheeler, filmmaker; and Catharine Whiteside, Dean of Medicine, University of Toronto.

Please send proposals of 300 words by email or regular mail to:
rscconf@ualberta.ca or
Patricia Demers
Department of English and Film Studies
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB
Canada
T6G 2E5

For more information about the conference, please see our website:
http://www.crcstudio.arts.ualberta.ca/rsc You will find attached a .pdf file containing an 8.5” x 11” conference poster. Please feel free to print it and post it anywhere interested parties may see it.