Call for Papers

Samyukta: A Journal of Gender and Culture 

Special Issue: Early Women’s Magazines in Malayalam

Guest Editor: Dr. Shalini.M
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Central University of Kerala, Kasaragod

Early women’s magazines mark an important phase in the history of women’s writing, feminist movement, and modern gender formations. The last decades of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century witnessed an explosion in women’s magazines in the major languages spoken in the Indian subcontinent. Susie Tharu and K. Lalitha in their landmark work Women Writing in India (1991) identify the period as “a high point of women’s journalism.” They note that in the regional languages, women edited magazines for women. This trend across languages was generally the result of the projects of colonial modernity and reformist movements.

Curiously, many of the early women’s magazines in Keralam were edited and published by men. This changed subsequently as magazines were launched by women editors and publishers, many of whom had benefitted from the colonial education system. These editors were mostly first-generation scholars from the upwardly mobile castes. The complex social formations which were a result of the colonial rule, the English education, the rise of print media and press, the freedom struggle and the reformations which oscillated between tradition and modernity, had urged women to rethink their position in the society. The early women’s magazines from Keralam reflected this cultural turn, critiquing hierarchical relations of authority between women and men that had historically functioned to the disadvantage of women.

Magazines got published in Malayalam from the 1840s by missionaries and social reformers. However, women’s magazines started appearing in Malayalam only towards the last decade of the 19th century, and continued through the first three decades of the 20th century. Most economically and socially privileged communities which came to the fore during this period had their own women’s magazines. Several magazines such as Keraliyasugunabodhini (1886), Sarada (1904), Lakshmibai (1905), Mahilaratnam (1916), Mahila (1921), Sahodari (1925), Mahilamandiram (1927), Malayalamanika (1931), and Stree (1933) were in circulation during this period. Early women’s magazines have played a crucial role in the formation and structuring of modern gender identities and social relations. These interventions of a generation of women who stood at the crossroads of tradition and modernity tell us about the

negotiations, revolts and resistances they encountered in carving out a space for themselves. The women’s magazines urged women to recast femininity, instructing them on the new social/sexual contracts and duties. Women from the non-privileged sections of the society like dalits, tribals, transgenders, and sexual minorities did not figure in these discussions directly. It was as recent as the 1980s and 90s that the early women’s magazines were researched and studied closely, drawing attention to the sidelining of the non-privileged.

As more than hundred years separate us from the early women’s magazines in Malayalam, it is essential to revisit them to understand the significant factors that have shaped the formative period of modern gender identities in Keralam. The discourses that unfolded in the pages of the early women’s magazines interrogated the ways gender identities were constituted differently in different social classes/castes/sections. The present issue of Samyukta proposes to examine women’s magazines of the long nineteenth century, and to review the ways these magazines imagined and advocated gender identities in Keralam as notions of gender are intrinsically linked to structures of gender relations in any society.

We invite research articles which deal with the following, and related topics:

1. Identity formation and the female subject
2. Gender formations and patriarchy
3. Institutionalization of gender values
4. Demographic profile of contributors
5. Relations of caste
6. Gender and property rights
7. Gender and spatiality
8. Women and education
9. Family, welfare and social reproduction
10. Sexual division of labor
11.Women’s self-employment
12.Refashioning womanhood
13.Early women’s magazines as advice manuals
14.Instilling moral values
15.Management of households
16.Necessity of financial prudence
17.Time management
18.Punctuality and cleanliness
19.Women and health
20.Corporeality and the female body
21. Sexuality and heteronormativity
22.Women and reproductive rights
23.Maternity and motherhood
24.On bringing up children
25.Taking care of the elderly
26.The importance of personal hygiene
27. Sartorial changes
28.Reflections on food
29.Leisure matters
30.Language, culture and the female body
31.Politics of representation
32.The new aesthetics
33.Readership and reception
34.Decline of women’s magazines

Important dates:
Submission deadline – 31 August 2021
Acceptance – 15 September 2021
Final manuscript due – 30 October 021
Date of Publication – 31 January 2022

All submissions should include:

1. Full article of approximately 5000 words in Microsoft word (.doc/.docx format), line spacing 1.5, alignment justified and formatted according to the MLA style sheet 8th edition
2. An abstract of 100-150 words and list of key words (3 to 5)
3. A separate document with a short bio of the author with details of institutional affiliation, email id and mobile number.

Articles should be submitted to: samyuktainfo@gmail.com

Brief Bio of the Guest Editor:
Dr. Shalini M. is an Assistant Professor at the department of English and Comparative Literature, Central University of Kerala. She received her research degrees MPhil and PhD from Hyderabad Central University. She worked at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain as a research fellow before joining the Central University of Kerala.

Samyukta: A Journal of Gender & Culture

Issue (Vol.21, No.2) on Peace & Education

Editors: Sreedevi K. Nair & Parvati Menon  

Peace is a deliberate, hard to make, at times ‘impossible’ choice; it’s not something that simply ‘happens’. It’s the responsibility of all, not the duty of a few. The most effective way to instil this knowledge in an ever-conflicted world is undoubtedly to include Peace Studies in the curriculum. 

Efforts at introducing Peace Education (PE) began in 1945 with the UNESCO declaring that “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”. Peace Education was contended to be the only means to create and sustain a long-term change in the thought and action of future generations which could possibly result in the absence of violence and the presence of social justice. PE was therefore designed to cultivate the knowledge, skills, attitudes, norms and behaviours conducive to the emergence and sustenance of peace, and also to aid the creating of systems that would actualize non-violence, non-discrimination, social justice, environmental care and sustainable development. The scope of PE later on widened to incorporate Gender Studies, Human Rights Education, International Relations, Non-violence Studies, Culture Studies, Disarmament Studies,  Environmental Studies and such other programmes. The efficiency and the impact of Peace Education interventions in schools and institutions of higher learning have been widely assessed and they have proven to result in decreased violence as well as improved attitudes and cooperation among pupils.

However, there is a conceptual dilemma of Peace Education which is most consequential, and which needs to be critiqued. Quite a number of theories of peace use conflict as their point of departure and the absence of violence as their dominant objective. By setting “conflict” at the crux of theories of peace and “conflict management” as its supreme goal, Peace Studies has moved away from its primary objectives which are —to explore the nature of peace as well as the possibilities of peacebuilding; to give sufficient attention to the nurturing of the inherent capacities of citizens, organizations, communities, civil societies and governments, not just to prevent violence but to form harmonious relationships; to build a civilization of peace— just and peaceful, diverse and united, benevolent and prosperous, environmentally healthy and technologically advanced, knowledge rich and morally strong. 

The present issue of Samyukta will have two major sections – (1) Peace Education – that is, education or the teaching/learning of peace related material, and (2) Education for peace, which is a holistic way of education which aims at instilling the notion of peace among individuals, communities and countries. We welcome articles on the theoretical conceptualization of Peace Education as well as the practice of it like transformative education and practical diversity, from all parts of the world. The purpose of this issue is to incite reflection on the very nature of peace as well as to the various approaches to Peace Studies; to suggest new directions for the debates on peace education; to identify questions that might generate discussion among a wide audience and stakeholders such as the necessity to ‘teach’ peace when violence comes naturally; to imagine that ‘one world’ where peace is the way of life; to encourage collaboration between different disciplines towards the practice of peace; and to offer practical suggestions and solutions that will engender lasting peace which is vital to the contemporary world.

 

We invite research papers on but not limited to the following topics:

1.      Epistemological readings of Peace: Cultural, Historical, Geographical, Philosophical, Political, Personal…

2.      People of Peace and their philosophies: People whose visions of peace have made a difference

3.      Theories of Peace/their critique: Asian, African, Eurocentric,…

4.      Peace Vs Conflict Resolution

5.      Non-Violence Studies

6.      Peace Education in India

7.      Why Peace Education? 

8.      Pedagogies of Peace: Theories, Practices and Impact of Peace Education (anywhere in the world)

9.      One World, One Peace? Examining the vocabularies and tectonics of the curricula of Peace Education around the world

10.  The Role of Culture in Peace-Making

11.  Imagination in Peace Education

12.  The Influence of Politics on Peace Education

13.  Human Rights Education and its Critique 

14.  Development Based on Justice

15.  Understanding Sustainability Beyond the ‘Environment’

16.  Green, White, Rainbow? : Gender, Precarity, Diversity and Inclusion- the many hues of peace

17.  Locating Peace in News

18.  The Superhero in a peaceful world: Reimagining and unlearning the Hero –  Warrior/ Anti-Hero.

19.  Peace Education Beyond Classrooms – Theatre, Art, Media, Music

20.  Towards a Single World: Are Borders Really Necessary?

Invited papers are expected to be sent to samyuktainfo@gmail.com on or before 30 June 2021.

 

The papers must be of 3000-5000 words length in Times New Roman (font size 12 pt) and must comply with the stipulations of the MLA Handbook (8^th edition) or APA Style.