Theory in the Flesh: Bodies of Scholarship, Activism, and Community
2011 UTSA English Graduate Symposium
The 2011 UTSA English Graduate Student Symposium "Theory in the Flesh: Bodies of Scholarship, Activism, and Community"
Sponsored by the Department of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio
May 7, 2011 at The University of Texas San Antonio in San Antonio, TX
Keynote Speaker: AnaLouise Keating
Proposal Submission Deadline: March 1, 2011
A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives-our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings-all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity. – This Bridge Called My Back
With 'Theory in the Flesh,' Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga, co-editors of the foundational feminist text This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color, sought to establish a theoretical terrain that incorporated the various aspects of identity for women of color and grounded these elements in lived experience.
This symposium seeks to commemorate 30 years of This Bridge by exploring the applications, relevancies and politics of Theory in the Flesh in our contemporary moment. This interdisciplinary symposium will bring together graduate students, scholars, writers, artists and performers.
We invite papers that engage the concept of the corporeal, the self, community, and activism. Papers may challenge, complicate, critique, or expand current conceptualizations of the Theory in the Flesh in all disciplines, including, but not limited to, literary, cultural, queer, feminist, environmental, American, political, subaltern, bicultural, and popular cultural studies.
We also encourage topics that propose new and imaginative approaches to discourse analysis, methodology, and pedagogy. Visual arts and rhetoric proposals are highly encouraged; the symposium will feature an exhibition of artistic responses such as paintings, drawings, and sculptures related to our theme. We also invite creative writing proposals that bridge disciplines and explore questions of revolution and imagination.
Some possible topics include:
- Language
- Desire
- Concepts of communities/nations/space
- Alternative literacies
- Pedagogies in the grade school, university, or feminist classroom
- Discourses of development, progress, and difference
- Feminist methodologies
- Discourses of nativism, hybridity, and mestizaje
- Rhetorics of nationhood, sovereignty, and terrorism
- Local and global policies
- Environmental studies
- Queer studies
- Popular Culture
- Science Fiction
- Film Studies
- Music Studies
- Imagination in the arts
- Poetry as a revolutionary art form
- Politics and poetry
- Body studies
- Technologies of imagination
- Socio-linguistic studies
Please submit 250-word individual abstracts or panel proposals (comprised of a 250-word abstract for the panel as a whole and titles for each paper) to utsagradconf2011@gmail.com by March 1, 2011. Paste your proposal into the body of the email message and include any technology requests. Please also include your contact information and a 100 word biography. If submitting a work of art, please attach a low-resolution image of your piece, if possible, in addition to your abstract. The conference registration fee is $20.00 for pre-symposium registration and $25.00 for registration at the symposium.
Submit: utsagradconf2011@gmail.com
Email Subject: Abstract for Theory in the Flesh
Deadline: March 1, 2011
Facebook: "Theory in the Flesh"