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Call for Papers Theme: (Re)Imagining Liberations Subtitle: Institutionalised Despair*Critical Hope Type: 5th International Conference Institution: Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, University of the Witwatersrand Location: Johannesburg (South Africa) Date: 6.–8.8.2018 Deadline: 30.6.2018 __________________________________________________ Achievements of anti-colonial, anti-racist, feminist, queer, disability and other struggles may be facing a reversal as once again dominations, marginalisations and exploitations of those constructed as racial, ethnic, religious, national, sexed/gendered 'others' seem to be gaining currency. The planetary ecological crisis, global financial crises, expanding social inequalities, political and religiously motivated violence contribute to a climate of systematised and institutionalised domination and oppression. In such a world, it may seem that the odds are so stacked against the disempowered that they are structurally condemned to despair. Dominant paradigms and concepts for imagining liberation and fashioning hope, such as nationalism, globalism and liberalism seem inadequate to dismantle intersecting and multiplying forms of domination. Instead, these traditional paradigms increasingly appear to conceal rather than reveal the nature and impact of dominations. When the systems of domination are so durable and inventive, how can we enhance and redouble our efforts to bring about social justice? How should we reinvigorate our thinking on how contemporary societies may move beyond structures and systems of domination? How do we create horizons of hope envisioning a world in which our diversity is protected and valued? How do we advance efforts at the re-humanisation of the oppressed, and indeed, of the oppressor? How can we sharpen our critiques? How should critical scholarship and activism engage despair? How should hope inform critical scholarship? What kind of hope should this be? The 5th Annual International Conference hosted by WiCDS will engage questions such as these. We invite proposals for 15-minute presentations followed by open discussions with conference delegates. Proposals may look at the interrelationships of liberation, hope and despair in the contexts of: - Achievements and failures of past struggles - Normative social formations - Emerging centres and margins - Social and political institutions - Identities and subjectivities - Social movements and civil society - Migration and nation - Ethnic and cultural formations - Culture, arts and representation - Memory and memorialisation - Knowledge production and epistemologies - Affective economies - Bodies and embodiment - Faith, spirituality and religion - Law and legislation - Institutions and organisations - Economic practices and occupations - Violences - Past, present and future imaginaries Abstracts should be between 250 and 300 words, and should be sent to info.wi...@wits.ac.za, accompanied by a single paragraph bio. Submission deadline: 30 June 2018 Contact: Melissa Moodley Wits Centre for Diversity Studies University of the Witwatersrand Braamfontein Johannesburg, 2000 South Africa Email: melissa.mood...@wits.ac.za Web: https://www.liberations2018.com __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
