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Deadline extended to October 15, 2009 Please distribute widely The fifth annual Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee seeks submissions for “Obsolescence,” a graduate student conference to be held February 12-14, 2010, in conjunction with the Center for 21st Century Studies and its research theme for 2009-2011: “Figuring Place and Time.” This year’s theme calls upon scholars to interpret and consider variously the notion of “obsolescence.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary Online, obsolescence derives from the classical Latin obsolescere: “to fall into disuse, fade away, sink into obscurity.” Obsolescence thus presents a sense of expiration or decay, it represents some act, object or idea that is out of its own time. In contemporary life we hear much of technologies and their life-spans, often in terms of the fast-capitalist invention of “planned obsolescence.” Public life is also informed by the mainstream media’s focus on the immediate present or future; we are perpetually asking or being asked: what’s hot?—who’s now?—what’s next? Given these observations, we are interested in exploring the theoretical, historico-cultural and political ramifications of identifying an act, object or idea as “obsolete.” However, we also wish to engage the concept of “obsolescence” as an active state of being, as a performative, as indicative of political value. We aim to engage in a multi-day, interdisciplinary exploration of persistent tensions within the concept of obsolescence as well as in its obverse—utility. In doing so, we expect to question the economic, political and cultural implications of temporality as tied to objects and media and to interrogate the assumption that value is inherently contingent on usability. Submissions that explore “Obsolescence” from a diverse range of fields and disciplines are encouraged. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: This year’s keynote address will be presented by Matt Coolidge, founder and director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation. Call For Papers We invite graduate students and advanced undergrads in all academic Queer scholars have long recognized that there is no single gay community, but rather multiple overlapping communities comprised of people with multiple identities. We want to move beyond that, to interrogate how we can use our theoretical knowledge to understand our communities and lived Possible questions may include: In a shifting political landscape that Proposed panels include, but are not limited to: bridging academe and We invite paper abstracts of 500 words or less. In addition to submitting abstracts of individual research, we also invite students to submit proposals for panels. Interested parties should submit a title for the panel, description of the panel, abstracts of 4-5 papers to be presented, and contact information for a panel moderator/respondent and all paper presenters. Please send an abstract, along with your contact information (name, Please circulate this announcement to all those who may be interested. CALL FOR PAPERS: “Liminal Literature: Borders and Genre” University of Wisconsin-Madison The fifth annual University of Wisconsin-Madison Literature Conference (MadLit) invites paper and panel proposals for this year’s topic, “Liminal Literature: Borders and Genre.” The goal of this conference is to interrogate and critique the role of borders in literary and cultural studies. We invite papers that consider the idea of the border from formal, social, temporal, and/or geographic perspectives. Borders inform the way we think about genre, periodization, gender, race, nationality, geographies, disciplines, and social forms, but how do we account for things that cross, defy, or problematize borders—the liminal, the hybrid, the transgressive? How do troubling texts break down, reinforce, or reform borders? Keynote Speaker: David Wittenberg This year’s keynote speaker will be David Wittenberg, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Philosophy, Revision, Critique: Rereading Practices in Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Emerson (Stanford University Press, 2001). His research and teaching interests include 19th and 20th century literary theory and philosophy, American literature, architectural design and theory, and cultural studies. He is simultaneously working on two new book projects. The first is about the history and theory of time travel narratives, tentatively entitled Time Travel: The Philosophy of Popular Culture; it analyzes works from modernist and postmodernist literature, popular fiction and film, physics, historiography, and psychology. The second book project, cautiously entitled Big Culture, is a critique of very large objects and images in contemporary culture and space, as well as a theory of the aesthetics of quantity; it explores such sizeable phenomena as skyscrapers, Hollywood films, philosophical systems, disasters, pop stars, military machines, and Las Vegas hotels. We seek proposals for 15-20 min. presentations and three-person panels on any aspect of the way borders affect genre, periodization, geographies, disciplines, gender, and material culture: ➢ What texts (or even authors) have been marginalized, overlooked, or (mis)interpreted because they exist at a threshold—generic, temporal, geographic, etc.? What texts have benefited from this status? Please submit a 250-word abstract to Eric Vivier by January 23, 2009. We will announce accepted papers by January 31. “Bodies in Motion” The University of Rhode Island’s Third Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference Across academic disciplines, “bodies” — animal, epistemological, textual, or otherwise — defy singular definition and elude our efforts to pin them down. As they parallel, intersect, and inform one another, these “bodies” demand rigorous research, creative thinking, and ever-evolving methodologies. How do we account for these “bodies in motion” and the complex ecologies of knowledge that they form? From what critical perspectives — scientific, mathematic, literary, historical, political, rhetorical, ethical, philosophical — can we examine these “bodies” in order to learn from them and from others? The graduate community at the University of Rhode Island invites submissions for posters, papers, presentations, performances and panels from a variety of disciplines exploring “bodies in motion.” Dr. Stuart L. Pimm is Duke University’s Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology and the 2006 winner of the Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences. Dr. Pimm’s work focuses on maintaining global biological diversity. His commitment to environmental and species preservation has brought him to Washington D.C., where he testified before both the House’s and Senate’s Committee on the Reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act. He is a founder of SavingSpecies.org, an NGO working toward species preservation and carbon neutrality, and a member of National Geographic’s grant-awarding Committee for Research and Exploration. Bridging the divides between science, sociology, and anthropology, Dr. Pimm’s methods involve working directly with indigenous populations to help flora and fauna survive while maintaining local traditions. His books include World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth, The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities, and Food Webs. Possible topics and areas of interest include, but are not limited to: • Theorizing the body or bodies Submission Guidelines: To propose a paper, submit a cover page with your name; institutional affiliation; contact information (mailing address, phone number, and email); a 250-word abstract of the paper; a roughly 100-word bio; and a detailed request for audiovisual equipment (if needed). Presentations will be limited to fifteen minutes (about seven double-spaced pages). To propose a panel, submit a cover page including the title of the panel and the names of presenters; a panel abstract of 150-250 words; a separate page with the names of presenters, their contact information (mailing address, phone number, and email) and institutional affiliation(s), the titles of their presentations; and a 250-word abstract for each paper. Panels will be one hour and fifteen minutes long. The conference committee requests the submission of materials in the body of an email or as an attachment in a Word, text, or PDF document. All submissions should be emailed to Gradcon at URI. Please refer any questions you may have to this address as well. Notification of acceptance will be by Friday, February 7, 2009. Oprah Picks Another WinnerPosted by Paul Constant on Sun, Dec 28 at 10:08 AMYou were very nearly subject to a mass-media assault (glowing news stories, Oprah-approved bliss, an inevitable movie adaptation) regarding a new memoir, out in February, called An Angel at the Fence. It was a memoir by a man who says he met the love of his life during the Holocaust. Oprah loved the fuck out of this book and was going to no doubt push it to the top of the bestseller lists..
Pranksters print spoof NY Times
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The spoof edition fooled many readers
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A fake edition of the New York Times announcing the end of the Iraq war has been handed out to commuters in the US.
More than one million free copies of the 14-page “special
edition” newspaper were distributed, mainly in the cities of New York
and Los Angeles.
Another bogus story was about all Americans being given free healthcare.
A liberal group called the Yes Men, well known in the US for its
practical jokes, claimed responsibility for the elaborate prank.
The fake paper - dated 4 July 2009 - had a motto on its front page which read “all the news we hope to print”.
The hoax was accompanied by a website that mimicked the look of The New York Times’s real website.
A page of the spoof site contained links to dozens of liberal organisations, which were also listed in the print edition.
The fake edition surprised commuters, many of whom took the free copies thinking they were legitimate.
Later, the Yes Men issued a statement claiming responsibility.
“In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2
million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to
pre-arranged pick-up locations.”
The statement added that thousands of volunteers helped to distribute the fake edition.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper, Catherine Mathis, said: “This
is obviously a fake issue of The Times. We are in the process of
finding out more about it.”
MONTREAL - Sarah Palin unwittingly took a prank call Saturday from a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and telling her she would make a good president someday.
“Maybe in eight years,” replies a laughing Palin.
The Republican vice presidential nominee discusses politics, the perils of hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney, and Sarkozy’s “beautiful wife,” in a recording of the call released Saturday and set to air Monday on a Quebec radio station. See link for full story.
The deadline for the 2009 Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference has been extended to November 15, 2008. Please e-mail your submission to
Graduate Conference at UWM
The CFP for the 3rd annual Midwest Interdisiplinary Graduate Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has been released and is available on our site by clicking on the CFP link.
Submission deadline is November 1, 2008.
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