Feminism and Hospitality: Gender in the Host/Guest Relationship

Call for Papers

Hospitality is an undervalued concept that has lacked significant theoretical
attention. Moreover, the meaning of hospitality is undergoing renegotiation given a
number of prominent social forces and international developments. The escalation of
global violence and the decline in diplomatic practice and civil speech make
hospitality seem anachronistic. Also, commercialization and globalization
increasingly reduce human interactions to commoditized transactions as found in the
identification of hospitality with the hotel and restaurant industry. Despite these
attacks on hospitality, global unrest, the villianization of migration, and growing
economic disparity sharpen the need to clarify social obligations for hospitality in
the face of shifting sentiments and resources.

Contemporary social and political contexts point to the question of what it means to
be hospitable. Gender dynamics further complicate contemporary understandings of
hospitality by revealing both its burdens and potential. History reveals the many
obligations--with few rewards--placed on women in the name of hospitality. This
gendered relationship leads to the question "Can contemporary feminist theory
reappropriate hospitality in a manner that works to reconnect and repair the world
without an oppressive gendered division of labor?" The last quarter century has
witnessed a flourishing of feminist theory and analysis that has brought fresh
illumination to numerous social and political concepts, conversations that reveal the
gendered implications of meanings and precepts. Feminism and Hospitality: Gender in
the Host/Guest Relationship intends to engage these conversations.
The editors of this volume seek submissions on hospitality informed by feminism or
issues of gender. In particular, articles that illuminate how hospitality can be
both a viable social ideal while empowering women are desired. Topics may include
(but do not have to be limited to):

Hospitality and feminist theory
Hospitality and ethics
Hospitality and epistemology
Cultural and comparative manifestations of hospitality
Organization/institutional hospitality
Hospitality in an age of militarism
Hospitality in a consumer era
Hospitality and identity
Hospitality and public policy
Hospitality and economic policy/practices
Hospitality and diplomacy
Hospitality and the media
Hospitality as ritual
Hospitality and power

The editors of Feminism and Hospitality, Dorothy C. Miller, Director, Case Western
University Center for Women Maurice Hamington, Associate Professor and Interim Chair
of Women's Studies at Metropolitan State College of Denver collaborated on
Socializing Care: Feminist Ethics and Public Issues (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).
The editors envision an anthology that is both practical and theoretical, combining
concrete stories, examples, and plans with thematic analysis. Submissions from all
fields are invited. For inquiries please contact Dorothy Miller at dcm9@cwru.edu or
Maurice Hamington at hamingt@mscd.edu The editors request that 500-word abstracts be
sent electronically by October 1, 2008 to Maurice Hamington at mhamingt@mscd.edu
Accepted papers will be due by July 1, 2009.