We invite paper proposals for "Women, Health, and Representation," an interdisciplinary conference at the University of New England (Portland, Maine), June 17-19, 2004. The conference program committee seeks submissions that explore the theme of women and health through a broad range of critical approaches to representation. Topics might include women as healers and caregivers; multicultural or cross-cultural perspectives on medicine, health, and illness; reproduction; aging; disability; sexuality; racialized or gendered diagnoses and treatments; social class in health and healing; mental health; medicine and colonialism; epidemiology and public health; body imaging; eating disorders; genetics; and religion/spirituality. The focus of the conference is on the representation of such themes and issues: that is, on the ways they are expressed, documented, or negotiated through writing of all genres (fiction, poetry, drama, life writing and other creative non-fiction, but also patient narratives and testimony, case histories, and other medical literatures), as well as through film and other visual media, oral traditions, folk practices, activism, and other modes of representation. Though the Maine Women Writers Collection hosts the conference, the committee invites theme-related proposals focusing on all regions, cultures and time periods.

We welcome papers that explore methodological or research questions relating to the conference theme as well as those that explore pedagogical questions. We encourage participation from scholars and educators of all levels, as well as from librarians, archivists, or others interested in women, health, and representation. Submissions in nontraditional formats (such as roundtable discussions, film/video, performance or visual art) also will be considered.

Those submitting individual proposals should send a 1‑page abstract and a 1‑page CV. Panel proposals should include a description of the panel theme, 1-page abstracts for each paper, the name of the panel chair, and 1-page CVs for each participant. Both individual and panel proposals should include full contact information including name, address, e-mail, and daytime phone for each participant.