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Call for Papers Theme: Dislocating Agency – Moving Objects Type: ASCA International Workshop 2013 Institution: Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam Location: Amsterdam (Netherlands) Date: 17.–19.4.2013 Deadline: 1.10.2012 __________________________________________________ The ASCA 2013 international workshop and conference concentrates on the notions of mobility, culture, and concepts through the themes of ‘dislocating agency’ and ‘moving objects’. We explore the cultural, political, and aesthetic values associated with phenomena of associations, demarcations, and transformations. How do ideas that ‘circulate’ affect or infect their environments? When languages or communications travel, what types of changes occur? What are the advantages or disadvantages of visualizing disciplines in terms of territories? When people ‘pass’, ‘cross over’, or ‘transition’, what do they teach us about how to imagine points of departure or destinations? Are those connections desirable or unavoidable? Over the course of theworkshop, we urge questions of the imaginary and political consequences of the ways in which various cultures establish links between, on the one hand, notions of progress, revolution, integration, economic development, ageing, or healing, and, on the other hand, nomadism, border-crossing, migration, or commuting. Themes - Association: Associations can be voluntary or involuntary: An association occurs as the effect of an already established relation, for instance if a certain stimulus triggers an association with another idea or sensation. Yet, the word association can also designate the very act of relating, that is as-sociating different entities. The verb ‘to associate’ is therefore akin to verbs such as ‘to connect’ or ‘to combine’. Beyond that, it has a particular affinity with the concept of the social. Socio-cultural bonds are often established via shared semantic associations. Recent developments in the field of media studies and social theory, in particular Actor-Network Theory, have moreover brought the material dimension of these bonds into focus. In this context, the concept of the ‘actant’, which constitutively configures the associations within a developing collective, is crucial. Analyzing the mobility of culture via the concept of association exposes moments of socio-cultural change such as crises and revolutions. These changes may be based upon influential associations and dissociations, both in the realm of ideas but also in terms of physical networks and infrastructures. To trace these movements of (dis-)connection can provide insights regarding the conditions and dynamics,but also the politics of change. The concept of association may thus even engage disciplines that are traditionally framed as ‘outside of the humanities’ such as economics and the cognitive sciences. Related topics inter alia include globalization, digitalization, political conflict, mobilization and upheaval, identity formation, biopolitics, metaphor and narrative. - Demarcation: All iterations of mobility, culture and concepts are paired with the notion of demarcation. More than merely delineating the boundaries between the known and the unknown, here and there, or between the trusted ones and the threatening other, demarcation also implies an action, a process through which an in-between is being invested as source of new meaning formations. In the context of migration, demarcation might be part of a trajectory leading towards the perpetual missing nation. But it might also be re-casted as a strategic maneuvre against losses of identities. In its conceptual space, demarcation expands to become a space of negotiation in which tactics of resistance unfold. To what extent can this space of negotiation be invested in order to revise the meaning of strong political and cultural concepts such as citizenship, nation-state, and democracy? In which ways can we imagine tactics of resistance that make use of demarcation while developing strategies of border crossing? Possible topics include (but are not restricted to) spatial borders, identity politics, political subject formation, cosmopolitanism, globalization, citizenship, national identity, human rights, individualism, communitarianism, liberalism. - Transformation: The term transformation indicates gestures of moving beyond, over, and through forms, practices, manners, and positions. The velocity of transformative movements is another issue. Transformations, while they might proceed quickly or unintelligibly slowly, are not instantaneous and always involve a site ‘in-between’. In that way, how might we theorize or perform the spaces of transformations as lived, inhabited material or cultural zones through which there may be many exits? How can we understand the psychic, cultural, and material (bodily, synaptic) spaces of transformation? From mathematical transformations to biological metamorphoses, or data conversions to shapeshifting literary characters, when objects are transformed new reference axes emerge while previous traces persist or decay. If we frame transformations as a set of actions describing a change from one space or place to another, something must catalyze the motion, while the motion itself must rally metaphors to depict and to bridge the cognitive or cultural gap crossed. In that sense, what risks do we take or mobilities do we privilege when we theorize and characterize transformations as ‘arriving’ or ‘departing’? What type of mobility is created by operations of ‘transformations’ and ‘transitions’ (race, sex, class, or sexuality, for example)? Proposals here may include issues of trans identities, body modifications, translations, mutancy, technologies of change, etymologies, adaptations, archaeologies, nomadism, narrativity, etc. Keynote Speakers Confirmed keynote speakers at the workshop include: - Sara Ahmed, Professor in Race and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths University of London; - Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley and Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School; - Eva Illouz, Professor in Sociology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; - Engin Isin, Professor in Politics and International Studies and Chair in Citizenship at The Open University, Milton Keynes. Submissions You are asked to submit a proposal (max. 300 words) with a short biographical note (max. 150 words) to Dr. Eloe Kingma (Managing Director), [email protected]. The deadline for submissions is 1 October 2012. If selected you will be asked to provide a 3000-word paper (excluding bibliography) by 15 January 2013 at the latest. The papers will be distributed among other participants in advance of the workshop. The format of the workshop is designed to maximize discussion time. Therefore, during the sessions participants are asked to provide a pitch of their argument and to respond to another panellist’s paper for a maximum of 15 minutes. Please note that, along with academic papers, we warmly welcome proposals for performances and exhibiting visual or sonic artworks. Travel and lodging scholarships may become available for confirmed participants in order to offset or to reimburse costs involved,as well as encourage a more diverse applicant pool. Only need-based funds will be awarded. Please signify after your biographical note if you wish to be considered for an award, and indicate how much you anticipate needing after any funds supplemented by your home institution (use the space to explain your situation). Contact: Dr. Eloe Kingma, Managing Director Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis University of Amsterdam Spuistraat 210, room 113 NL-1012 VT Amsterdam Netherlands Tel.: +31 20 525-3874 Fax: +31 20 525-4773 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.hum.uva.nl/mobility-cultures-concepts/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
