Making Contact: Artistic and Linguistic Representations of Conflict and Commonality (Conference date: March 10-12, 2016)

The idea of making contact, a phenomenon that can be accidental or deliberate, elicits a range of interpretations, from the gentle brush of a hand to the most violent of collisions. In these terms, contact evokes that which connects and divides, simultaneously establishing relations on new terms while also producing fierce conflict. Borders are both meeting places and points of impact, where cultures, languages, and even versions of the human are negotiated. Contact may occur in one explosive moment as an immediate reaction to our circumstances, or it can reach across space and time, its implications emerging in a distant location for a different generation. It also extends beyond questions of hybridity, cultural clashes, and the (trans)national, and encompasses the boundary between the human and the animal, humanity and materiality, and the real and the imaginary. In this way, contact is made not only across geographical borders, but also across culturally constructed divisions between genders, genres, or between the normal and abnormal. With these connotations of "making contact" in mind, we ponder the artistic and linguistic consequences of these possible forms of encounters.

We welcome panels and individual presentations in Spanish, English, or Portuguese that theorize, critique, or re-contextualize the conference theme from medieval to contemporary times. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes in length (7-8 typed pages, double-spaced). Proposals containing a 200-250 word abstract, up to three keywords and a brief biography that includes institutional/organizational affiliation (if any) and contact information may be sent to kaleidoscope.wisc@gmail.com. The submission deadline is January 24, 2016.