On the brink of a climate catastrophe which will disproportionately affect women and other historically disenfranchised groups, and at a time when the global economy is devising new ways to reduce masculinity and femininity to market segments or consumer categories, it seems especially important to (re)consider the ways in which questions of gender and sexual difference intersect with our notions of what it means to be a global citizen. Our 2010 conference will thus convene scholars with diverse approaches to “the globe” in all of its various manifestations and permutations:

•the Material Globe: natural resources, global warming/climate change, ecology, environmentalism, agriculture, contamination
•the Biomedical Globe: disease, ability, public health, reproductive rights, the pharmaceutical industry, global pandemics, transmission, infection, transgender medical issues
•the Literary Globe: world literature, diasporic literature, transatlantic literature, travel literature, literature in exile, eco-poetics, translation
•the Political/Economic Globe: globalization, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, world war, terrorism, international relations, the United Nations, humanitarianism, (post)colonialism, immigration, border crossings and encounters, global political movements, sex trafficking, human rights and everything in between.

We welcome proposals for pre-arranged panels, individual papers, and posters from all disciplines which address such questions from the specific perspectives of gender, sexual difference, and/or sexuality. Please send a brief proposal (300 words) and a short bio (100 words) as MS Word attachments to Lydia R. Kerr (lydiakerr@gmail.com). Deadline: January 15, 2010.