cfp.english.upenn.edu

Material Cultures

May 6-8, 2011
Department of English, University of Ottawa

How do objects circulate in our social, imaginary, and textual worlds? What are the politics of material culture and how do these politics inform our reading of historical and contemporary texts? In what ways do we perceive and come to know the material world, and in what ways does the material make and unmake this “we”? Proposals for papers are invited for a conference on Material Cultures in Canadian and Transnational Contexts, the 2011 edition of the Canadian Literature Symposium at the University of Ottawa. Interdisciplinary, hemispheric, and theoretical approaches to the conference theme are welcome.

Proposed papers may consider, but are not limited to:

things
physical environments/nature/architecture
the human/extrahuman/animal
art objects/craft
commodities, goods, resources
artifacts
collectibles
dirt/waste/garbage/junk/treasure
miniatures/gigantica
objects and ideology
book-as-object/materiality of the text
theories/philosophies of technology
machines and the machine-made
affect and objects
toys
animate objects
Send electronic or paper proposals of 300-400 words by September 15th to:

Tom Allen: tallen@uottawa.ca, and
Jennifer Blair: jennifer.blair@uottawa.ca

http://www.canlit-symposium.ca/cfp.html