cfp.english.upenn.edu

Call for Papers
BEYOND MARGINS AND CENTERS
April 8 and April 9, 2011
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Sponsored by Marquette University Association of English Graduate Students

The Marquette University Association of English Graduate Students welcomes proposals for presentations surrounding the theme of margins and centers for our April 2011 conference. Studies of marginality play an integral role in nearly all fields of literary study, functioning as a primary point of departure for inquiries into such broadly defined areas as race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, Marxist theory, and postcolonialism. Scholars of literature within and beyond these fields often work from or against some interpretation of center and periphery, questioning and redefining these terms as they manifest themselves within a literary work. This conference solicits papers that examine how works might blur the boundaries of the terms “margin” and “center,” by problematizing their definitions and expanding their parameters. How is this imagined in a text, and what is at stake in the revision of this terminology? How do these refigured concepts inform and change our ideas of social or political power structures? Proposals may interpret the conference theme broadly, and interdisciplinary studies are welcome. Some possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following areas:

-Gendered experiences of marginality
-Liminal spaces and places
-Border studies
-Pedagogical centers (e.g. canonical vs. peripheral texts in the classroom)
-Postcolonial literature
-Racial heteronormativity and oppression
-LGBT theory and sexual marginalization
-Concepts of the citizen and the alien/the construction of nationalisms
-Class marginalization and class conflict
-Feminist approaches to patriarchal literature/culture

Please submit abstracts of 250 words (MS Word or PDF attachment) to MUGradConference@gmail.com by Friday, February 4, 2011.
E-mail submissions should include the presenter’s name, title of the presentation, institution of affiliation, email address, and phone number.

Any questions or inquiries should be sent to
shaunna.wilkinson@marquette.edu or william.storm@marquette.edu