The border is a world of multiple conflicts and difficult definitions,
inhabited by individuals who navigate different frames of reference,
cultural issues, gender roles and performances, economic statuses and
conditions in order to construct a viable identity for themselves.

This panel questions the monoreferentiality or concepts such as cultural
identity, linguistic identity, tradition, gender roles and sexuality,
geography, and nationhood, exploring the ‘borders’ within each of these
categories.

When you, or I, or any person as a subject of any given nation, or self
declared nation, go abroad, you not only cross borders geographically, you
also cross borders linguistically, culturally, internally…what do these
border crossings mean?
What does it mean for borders to not necessarily be concrete?
What is the significance of the abstract borders that are set within us?
And what if there is no border for a person to cross? What does it mean to
be between spaces, in limbo?

Contributors are invited to submit critical works on the topic of the
border, intended as the lieu of encounter for different geographies,
cultures, languages, and the like.

Potential topics include (but are not limited to):
Geographical borders
Linguistic borders
Cultural issues
Identity
Gender
Colonization
Race, "the color line"
Cosmopolitanism
Globalization
Class, Social structures
 
Abstracts of 250-300 words should be e-mailed to tanyarawal84_at_gmail.com
and/or nicodaros_at_gmail.com by February 15, 2008 at midnight. (text in the
body of the message; please no attachments).

(Dis)Junctions is a yearly graduate conference organized by the English
department at the University of California, Riverside. This year’s
conference will take place on April 11/12, 2008.

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Received on Sat Jan 26 2008 - 20:02:41 EST