PERSPECTIVES ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN RELATIONSHIPS: CULTURE,
INEQUALITY, AND DIFFERENCE

This session seeks to explore some of the complex issues surrounding violence against women in relationships from local, international and transnational perspectives.  We invite contributions from anthropologists and other scholars addressing various themes related to what is also known as intimate/partner/domestic violence.  In keeping with the conference theme, papers discussing aspects and intersections of culture, difference and inequality as they relate to violence against women are especially encouraged.

Suggestions include but are not limited to:

· Anthropological writings of/on/about woman abuse in intimate relationships

· The impact of the effort to understand and/or define violence against women in gender neutral ways (e.g., "domestic violence," "partner abuse," "intimate violence," "spousal abuse," etc.)

· Conceptions of race, class and gender in understandings of violence against women (e.g., in popular understandings, in policy, in the media)

· Violence against women and the role of state systems from legal, historical, cultural, sociological, economic, etc. perspectives (e.g., analyses of law and policy, social services, medical institutions, private stakeholders, alternative justice initiatives, media, and education)

· Violence against women in relationships from cross-cultural, international and transnational perspectives (e.g., its relationship to development, colonialism, human rights, global economic systems)

· Experiential narratives and their role in domestic violence research

· Explorations of the discursive, political, and institutional creation and maintenance of "battered women"

· Ethical and methodological implications for research into violence against women in relationships

· Possible tensions between feminist aims and goals for social change and anthropological goals of relativism or respect for cultural practice

For more information about the conference, see http://casca2001.mcgill.ca