Call for papers: Rendition

deadline for submissions: 
December 1, 2019
full name / name of organization: 
Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference
contact email: 

 MIGC 2020: Rendition 

The 15th Annual Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference at 

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 

Keynote: Dr. Ingrid E. Castro, Massachusetts Liberal Arts College 

February 21-22, 2020 

Call for Submissions 

DEADLINE: December 1st, 2019 

themigc@gmail.com 

Renditions have generated cultural meanings and material consequences for centuries. Various modes of representation—digital, virtual, analog, visual, aural, printed, and more—have critiqued, challenged, reinforced, or brought attention to our understanding of various ideas. Problematic representations have been confronted in the academy and in public discourses, from mapping’s construction of a colonial gaze to natural history museums’ renditions of past cultures to ongoing debates about representation and appropriation in popular culture. Renditions are often fraught with moral, ethical, political, social, and economic implications. Those representations also, invariably, omit certain identities or meanings while privileging others. The 2020 Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference (MIGC) inquires how various renditions can be used to interrogate how we construct our understanding of science, culture, technology, politics, youth, human behavior, and more. 

Rendition—the act of rendering—must consider all the above concerns and more. In her book Representing Agency in Popular Culture, Ingrid E. Castro considers how childhood emerged as a facet of social sciences in the 1980s, and how children employ, are denied, and/or understand agency. The liminal space children occupy are one of her concerns; Castro refers to this as “genderationing” (265). By this she means that “generational power differentials between girls and boys must be specifically investigated within hegemonic, patriarchal societies to truly understand the intersection of gender with generation in the girlhoods and boyhoods of childhood” (265-66). Castro’s interdisciplinary approach to the fields of childhood studies, cultural studies, sociology, and gender studies serves as a springboard into how we can explore various modes of representation across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. 

We invite emerging scholars in the humanities, arts, and sciences to present work that broadens our current understanding of rendition and how it engages with culture, theory, and society. What theoretical frameworks and methodologies expand our conceptions of rendition and representation? What are the historical precedents that have led to unequal representation in popular culture, academia, and elsewhere? How are these renditions, or representations, evaluated and understood by the public? When and how do issues of rendition reveal and/or conceal social, political, and other inequalities? 

Potential topics include, but are not limited to: 

● Studies of reading and performance 

● Constructing, reconstructing, and/or interpreting invisible disabilities, trauma, and memory 

● Legal renditions of judgments 

● Popular culture renditions 

● LGBTQ+ identities and the construction of normativity 

● Performative blackness in the 21st century 

● Portrayals or depictions of children and young adults in popular culture 

● Utopian/dystopian renditions 

● Nonfiction storytelling and memoir 

● Interpretations of youth literature 

● Representations of marginalized communities 

● Studies of affect, emotion, and performance 

● Deconstructing the emergence of “post-truth” politics 

● Interpreting virtual reality 

● Imagining alternatives to critical research and alternative/subversive research methodologies 

● Reading transnational identities and borders 

● Interpreting the practice of rendition and its ethical consequences on humanity 

 

Please email 300-word submissions for individual papers, panels, posters, roundtables, workshops, or other formats to: themigc@gmail.com by December 1st, 2019. In your submission, please include a title, institutional affiliation, department, and whether you are an MA or PhD student. 

The fifteenth annual Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference is supported by the Center for 21st Century Studies, the College of Letters and Sciences, the Graduate School, the Office of Research, the Department of Sociology, the School of Education, and the Department of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

www.themigc.com 

@MIGC 

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