CFP: Intersections 2007 / Ethics and Ethoi of Critical Thought and Practice (grad) (1/12/07; 3/23/07-3/25/07)

full name / name of organization: 
A. Brady Curlew
contact email: 

Call for Papers (CFP)
Intersections 2007: What's Right / Right Now?
A Critical & Creative Graduate Student Conference
Hosted by the Students of the Joint Graduate Programme
in Communication and Culture, York and Ryerson Universities

CFP Deadline: January 12, 2007
Conference Date: March 23-25, 2007
Location: Ryerson University - Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Intersections 2007: What's Right / Right Now?
The Ethics and Ethoi of Critical Thought and Practice in the 21st Century
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What directions of thought, or degrees of evaluative judgment or surety, are
right, right now, for the scholar of communications, cultural studies or
related social scientific- and humanities-based disciplines?

For the past several decades, dominant intellectual forces in these disciplines
have disarmed not only particular ethical frameworks, but also the very
category of the normative (as expressed in the virtual taboo on grand
narratives). The postmodern orientation away from concepts such as the good,
truth, and progress has inspired constructive research; however, we're inclined
to ask if the theoretical consequences of postmodernity have come to threaten
whole lines of ethical inquiry. Surely, even in pluralist times the role of
what is right, what is good, and what is just must still be worthy of
articulation.

Intersections 2007: What's Right / Right Now? is calling for critical and
creative presenters to re-imagine the potential for ethical pronouncements and
the formulation of a more-defined ethos within contemporary academic practice,
activism and creative expression.

Intersections 2007 is the sixth annual conference held by the Joint Graduate
Programme in Communication and Culture at Ryerson and York Universities. We
are inviting graduate students from all related disciplines to submit proposals
for presentations that explore the ethics and ethoi of contemporary social
scientific- and humanities-based scholarship via intersections with social
theory, politics, policy, culture, media, technology, artistic practice and
social activism. Details on subtopics and submission procedures follow below.

Some of the questions that we hope to entertain include (but are not limited
to):

• How do we deal ethically with our objects of study? Which path is "right" for
social analysts, critics and artists: That of the outside observer or active
participant? That of the objectivity of the scientific method or the subjective
passions of the ideologically-determined?

• How can we define the responsibilities of the contemporary academic or
artistic social critic? Are there tensions between what is "right" and what
these responsibilities might be?

• Should the classroom and lecture hall be politicized spaces? Or, as some
critics argue, should neutrality outweigh political ethos within the walls of
higher learning?

• Is it wrong to be uni-disciplinary in a predominately interdisciplinary
academic / artistic culture? Has the institutionalized interdisciplinary focus
failed to deliver on its promise?

• Can there be a contemporary political economy of communications without
cultural studies? Can there be a contemporary cultural studies without
political economy?

• What ethical questions arise from the commercialization of the academy?

• What is the role of academic ethics or analytic ethos in the debates around
international conflict and peace, especially in the polarized climate of the
"post 9/11" world?

• How do we negotiate the right of multiculturalism with the right of gender
equality, freedom of expression or freedom of religion in a time of widespread
cultural conflict?

• How does what is deemed as "right" get reflected by legislated rights? How do
(or how can) ethics become policy? How do we negotiate between "right" in an
ethical sense and "rights" as they're actually appealed to and invoked to
legitimize political agendas?

• How should we (or should we at all) make evaluative pronouncements of recent
technological advancements? Trends in art? Tastes in pop culture?

• Do emergent methodologies of creative research express an insufficiency with
traditional modes of intellectual / academic practice? What ethical
pronouncements underlie the move away from exclusively written scholarship?

• How, at the beginning of the 21st century, are we to position the previous
half-century's postmodern project whilst laying the foundations for our own
contributions? Can or should questions of "rightness" even exist at all?

• Is Marxist or critical analysis the last available normative position?

We are pursuing this topic and posing these questions not to determine a rigid
and unwavering set of answers, nor to create hostility between those with
opposing ideologies, but to facilitate constructive discussion among critical
and creative minds in an effort to better understand the forces that motivate
the work we do.

Submissions may also include (but are not limited to) papers, artwork and
activist presentations that approach our question of academic ethics,
disciplinary ethoi and contemporary "rightness" in relation to the following
broader topics:

1) Media and Culture
- We are seeking input on: the need for a feminist ethics; right and wrong in
the media effects debate; queries regarding the social responsibility in media
ownership and content production; ethical questions raised by the
representation of disability, class, gender, race and sexuality in the
contemporary mediascape; right and wrong in independent and DIY media creation;
and ethical questions of social and cultural belonging, identity and privilege.

2) Technology in Practice
- We are seeking input on: questions regarding technology's emergent role in
theoretical and practical debates surrounding art, authenticity, and
aesthetics; activist art and cinema in the 21st century; the ethics and ethoi
of electronic civil disobedience and hacktivism; and discussions of how the
Internet, new media and digital networking are reconfiguring social formations,
subject positions and ethical debates about the freedom or openness of
information.

3) Politics and Policy
- We are seeking input on: the moral ethoi behind the political right and/or
left; political justifications for civil disobedience; the values driving
communication and cultural policy reform in Canada; ethical issues regarding
copyright and intellectual property legislation; the ethics in the
multiculturalism vs. cultural sovereignty debates; what's right or wrong with
contemporary environmental, health care or national defense policies;
utilitarianism and the contemporary capitalist democracy; ethical questions
concerning privacy and surveillance in the 21st century; and moral dilemmas
emerging from globalization and human rights issues.

SUBMISSION FORMAT/DEADLINES

All interested graduate students are asked to submit a short written abstract or
artist's statement explaining the proposed presentation in light of the
conference themes. Abstract or statement should be no more than 250 words
(approx. 1 typewritten page, double spaced) and submitted via email as a .DOC
or .RTF attachment. PLEASE NOTE: Name and contact information should not appear
on the same page as proposal. Please include a separate page with the following
information:
- Title of presentation as it appears on the abstract
- Your name
- Affiliation: program, university, and level of study (ex. MA, 2nd year)
- E-mail address and Mailing address
- A / V requirements
- Submission format (paper presentation, creative work, poster session).

All information provided to us will be kept confidential. All submissions are
presented anonymously to the conference adjudication committee for peer review
before acceptance or declination. See conference website (link below) for more
detailed submission guidelines.

Artists are also asked to submit a small sample of their work for adjudication,
by either email or post. If sending creative works by email, please limit
attachment size to 5mb or less. You may also direct us to an URL. Please put
viewing instructions, comments and titles in your email if applicable. If
submitting creative works by post, please mail the proposal, a non-original
copy of the work, and viewing instructions to the following address (well
before the CFP deadline):

Intersections 2007 Conference
c/o Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture
3068 TEL Building, York University
4700 Keele Street Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

CFP Deadline: FRIDAY, JANUARY 12th, 2007

Please e-mail submissions (or questions) to: intersec_at_ryerson.ca

Conference Website: http://www.yorku.ca/cocugsa/conference.html

Presented by and for graduate student scholars, artists and activists through
the organizing efforts of the Communication and Culture Graduate Students
Association (GSA): http://www.yorku.ca/cocugsa

For more information about the Joint Graduate Programme in Communication and
Culture at Ryerson and York Universities: http://comcult.yorku.ca

--A. Brady Curlew, Ph.D CandidateJoint Graduate Programme in Communication & CultureYork University & Ryerson University, Toronto, ONConference Chair, Intersections 2007: What's Right / Right Now? ========================================================== From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List CFP_at_english.upenn.edu Full Information at http://cfp.english.upenn.edu or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu ==========================================================Received on Sat Nov 25 2006 - 20:17:54 EST

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