We are writing to let you know about an exciting partnership which has developed as we move forward with plans for our annual "Free Exchange Conference" this year. We are pleased to be now be joining with
"The Insurgent Architects," a research group founded at the University of Calgary, and dedicated to the intersections of creative writing and social justice research. This is a particularly complementary partnership because the stated agenda of their group segues with our chosen topic for this year, "Power and Politics in Print."

To this end,the "TIA House" will be presenting a series of talks, additional to our planned panels,and will include a night of creative readings, on Friday March 4th, 2016. On the Saturday of the conference,TIA will also host a panel, chaired by Larissa Lai, the TIA House director and Creative Writing Research Chair of Canada. In addition to our general call for papers, then, we wish to offer potential presenters the option to apply with TIA in mind, since it will
be considering questions of the speculative future of indigeneity, social justice, borrowing from the "Master's toolbox," impossible magnanimity, or other pertinent proposal topics. In essence, this increases opportunities for participation in this
exciting event and exposure to the experts in the field whom TIA has committed to providing to widen the field of opportunities for professional engagement.

To accommodate this expanded program, we are extending the application deadline until Friday, January 15, 2016 for ALL applications. Please see our original call for papers below, and email your submissions to freeex@ucalgary.ca .

More information about the work of TIA or "The Insurgent Architects' House"for Creative Writing can be found here: http://tiahouse.ca/

Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to your proposals,

~The Free Exchange Conference Committee

Power & Politics in Print
full name / name of organization:
Calgary Free Exchange Graduate Conference, University of Calgary
contact email:
freeex@ucalgary.ca

Call For Papers: "Power & Politics in Print," University of Calgary Free
Exchange Graduate Conference: March 4¬-6, 2016 freeex@ucalgary.ca

"Where there is power, there is resistance." ~Foucault

"Power is our environment. We live surrounded by it: it pervades
everything we are and do, invisible and soundless, like air..." ~Margaret
Atwood, from Power Politics

The Free Exchange Conference Committee is hosting its annual
Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference March 4–6, 2016 at the
University of Calgary. We welcome proposals for papers, panels and
creative presentations that explore the diverse aspects of Power &
Politics in Print.

From the incunabula to hypertext, the technologies and the typologies of the printed word structures human communication and cognition in profound
and enduring ways. Literature, as Terry Eagleton reminds us, is ideology. The foundational importance of literature as a means by which older
generations pass their accumulated wisdom on to subsequent generations is undeniable. Literature allows thought and language to transcend limitations of both space and time; where other disciplines produce equations, medicines or legal codes, the study of literature produces meaning, without which even the most rigorous scientific research is merely a collection of pieces of information.

Since the medieval era, the printed text has been recognized as a badge, a medium and a locus of power, and wherever power dwells, politics is never
far away. The struggle to rationalize,contextualize and categorize literature's mediating role between the personal and the political remains at the heart of a fluid and dynamic discussion that evades easy
conclusions. From flimsy polemical broadsides to leather-bound sacred tomes to massive digital repositories housing many thousands of works,
literature and its troubling texts exert a pressure on society that continues to shape our world in fundamental and often unpredictable ways.

We invite proposals for papers, panels and creative presentations addressing issues of Power & Politics in Print including but not limited to:

•children's literature •national identity •urban studies
•affect theory •aesthetic theory •social justice
•queer theory •ecocriticism •pedagogy
•feminist theory •globalization •journalism
•critical race theory •fiction •historicism
•archive studies •propaganda •drama
•trauma theory •digital literatures •satire
•postcoloniality •comics studies •performativity
•poetry •bearing witness •indigeneity
•legality •policy •space and place •activism •independent & small
publishers •censorship, blacklisting, & surveillance

For academic or creative papers please submit a 250–300 word abstract and include details of any space or multimedia requirements in your proposal. Presentations of 15–20 minutes may range from traditional conference papers to works of short fiction, poetry, film or other media modalities. Free Exchange Graduate Conference is an annual graduate student conference organized and run by students from the Department of English at the
University of Calgary. Founded over fifteen years ago, the conference has grown in size and scope and has attracted participants from across Canada, the United States, and beyond.

Please note: for panel submissions of three presentations, each panelmember must present a proposal that adheres to the above guidelines, and
the Free-Exchange Committee retains the right to accept any given panel in full or in part. Email submissions as an attachment (Word or PDF) to
freeex@ucalgary.ca by JANUARY 15th, 2015.

Mallory Smith, Free Exchange, Co-Chair
PhD Student, Department of English
University of Calgary
melsmith@ucalgary.ca

Tom Sewel, Free Exchange, Co-Chair
PhD Student, Department of English
University of Calgary
tom.sewel@ucalgary.ca