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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. |
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