Greetings, Following is a call for abstracts to be part of a proposed panel for the International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry.(May 16-19m 2012) held annually at the University of Illinois. My co-chair Judith Davidson and I encourage researchers who are interested in any of the issues outlined in the call to submit their work for presentation as part of the panel. I am happy to answer questions about the panel or the conference. Thanks Lois ______________ Panel Presentation ICQI 2012 Gender Practices, Technology, and Teens: New Perspectives from Qualitative Research Gender practices, that is, acts of definition, identification, and interaction with others in ways that demonstrate one’s gendered perspective has been with us as long as we have been human. Not surprisingly, in today’s digital world, gender is closely intertwined with emerging technologies. Gendered images and assumptions are built into the presentation and uses of technologies, and technology users make use of digital modes to practice gender, that is to define, identify, and interact in ways that demonstrate their gendered perspectives. This is as true, for teens, as it is for other age groups. Teens, who are in a gendered transition as they are leaving childhood and entering adulthood, can offer particular insights into issues of gendered practice. In this session, we present a collection of papers that employ qualitative research to look at the intersection of the teenage years and emerging technologies, using this focal point as a lens for examining gender practices. Our goal is to enlarge our understanding of gendered practices, technology, and teens through the presentation of research studies that provide intense and detailed insight into the ways teens are both shaped and shaping of individual and cultural gender possibilities through the new technologies in their lives. Abstracts of 150 words are being sought for inclusion in this panel. Please submit abstracts to the co-chairs by November 15, 2011. Co-Chairs: Judith Davidson Associate Professor Graduate School of Education University of Massachusetts-Lowel Judith_Davidson@uml.edu and Lois Scheidt Doctoral Candidate School of Library and Information Science Indiana University lscheidt@indiana.edu ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Eight International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry will take place at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from May 16-19, 2012. The theme of the 2012 Congress is “Qualitative Inquiry as Global Endeavor”. The 2012 Congress will offer scholars the opportunity to debate these issues, to foreground qualitative inquiry as a shared, global endeavor, while engaging the politics of advocacy, pro and con, to form coalitions, to engage in debate on how qualitative research can be used to advance the causes of social justice, while addressing racial, ethnic, gender and environmental disparities in education, welfare and healthcare. Sessions will take up such topics as: the politics of advocacy; value-free inquiry; partisanship, bias; the politics of evidence; alternatives to evidence-based models; multiple and mixed-methods; public policy discourse; indigenous research ethics; decolonizing inquiry. Contributors are invited to experiment with traditional and new methodologies, with new presentational formats (ethnodrama, performance, poetry, autoethnography, fiction). Such work will offer guidelines and exemplars concerning advocacy, inquiry and social justice concerns. On May 16 there will be pre-conference special interest group events and on May 17, morning and afternoon professional workshops. The Congress will consist of keynote, plenary, featured, regular, and poster sessions. There will be an opening reception and barbeque as well as a closing old fashioned Midwest cook-out. We invite your submission of paper, poster and session proposals. Submissions will be accepted online only from August 15 until December 1 2011. Conference and workshop registration will begin October 1, 2011. To learn more about the 8th International Congress and how to participate, please visit our website: (www.ICQI.org). -- Lois Ann Scheidt Doctoral Candidate - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA Webpage:  http://www.loisscheidt.com CV:  http://www.loisscheidt.com/cv.html Blog:  http://www.professional-lurker.com