EGSA Spring 2012 Symposium Call-for-Papers

The EGSA is happy to announce that we will be holding our second annual graduate symposium, Bodies in Space: Emerging Scholarship in Literary and Cultural Studies, on Feb. 10, 2012.  We welcome any graduate student work, from seminar papers to works in progress, and encourage everyone to submit an abstract and share their work with their peers from other concentrations.  This is also a great chance for those who haven't yet presented at a conference to get some practice before a very generous audience.  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Call For Papers

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Call for Papers: Bodies in Space: Emerging Scholarship in Literary and Cultural Studies

[The Panopticon] is a type of location of bodies in space, of distribution of individuals in relation to one

another, of hierarchal organization, of disposition of centres and channels of power, of definition of the

instruments and modes of power ... – Michel Foucault

The English Graduate Student Association is pleased to announce the call for papers for our second

annual graduate student symposium Bodies in Space: Emerging Scholarship in Literary and Cultural

Studies to be held Friday, February 10, 2012.

Foucault’s reading of the production of docile bodies notwithstanding, the aim of this conference is not

to consider the ways that the multiplicity of concentrations in the fields of Literature and Cultural Studies

stand in relation to each other, but instead consider how they stand in relation with each other (and the

ways that these relationships are always promiscuous and overlapping). Thus, rather than an image of

a body pinned to a specific space, the title alludes to the many ways that bodies and spatiality might be

productively considered in literary criticism. More generally, we mean to provide a frame large enough

to encompass all of the interesting work going on in the GW English department. In this symposium, we

hope to foster conversation between presenters and participants across concentrations and even disciplines

through the intersections of current graduate student work. We welcome any and all submissions and

encourage submissions from previously written course work or works in progress, including dissertation

chapters and conference papers.

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts should be submitted, along with your contact information, to gwegsa@gmail.com by 11:59pm

on Tuesday, January 10, 2012. Submissions must be 250 words or less and must be submitted as a

Microsoft Word document or PDF. Please include 2-3 keywords at the bottom of your submission and

include the words “Conference Submission” in the subject line of your email. Conference presentations

will be approximately 15 minutes, and panels will be organized after submissions have been accepted.

We also welcome any volunteers who would like to be involved in the organizational / logistical side of

the symposium, be it chairing a panel or assisting with lunch.