cfp.english.upenn.edu

Deformity is traditionally sanitised and fitted into a structure of normality. The academy tends to obscure the complexity of the sensuous/sensual/sensed body of the deformed subject, and of the questions, anxieties, and denials which surround deformity when it is located within a continuum of sense.

From freak exhibitions and fairs, medical examinations and discoveries to various portrayals in arts and literature, images of deformity (or monstrosity, used separately or interchangeably depending on context) have captivated us for centuries. The result is a significant body of critical and artistic works where these bodies are dissected, politicized, exhibited, objectified or even beatified. Nonetheless, there remains a gap, an unexplored, unspoken or neglected aspect of this complex field of study which needs further consideration. This two-day interdisciplinary conference, to be held at the University of Edinburgh on June 15-16 2012, aims to bring the senses and the sensuous back to the monstrous or deformed body from the early modern period through to the mid-twentieth century, and seeks to explore its implications in diverse academic fields.

We hope to bring together scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines to engage in a constructive dialogue, network, and exchange ideas and experiences, connecting a community of researchers who share a fascination with deformity, monstrosity, and freakery.

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

● Spectacle/fetishisation of monstrosity and deformity; monstrous sexuality/eroticisation
● The monster as a catalyst of progression/ historical perspectives
● Monstrous symbolism, prodigality, or beatification
● The racialised body; exoticising difference
● Monstrosity in medical literature; disability narratives
● Monstrous becoming; the ‘sensed’ body
● Deformed aesthetics; monstrosity in the visual arts
● (De) gendering the deformed body; humanisation vs objectification

We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations from established scholars, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students from various teratological backgrounds, e.g. in literature, history, media and art studies, philosophy, religious studies, history of science,medical humanities, and critical and cultural theory. Proposals should be no more than 300 words, in .doc format, and should include a brief 50-word biography.
Confirmed Plenary Speakers:

Prof. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
George Washington University, Washington D.C.

Dr. Peter Hutchings
Northumbria University, UK

Prof. Margrit Shildrick
Linköping University, Sweden

Prof. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Please submit your abstracts no later than the new deadline of 16 February 2012 to sdefconference@ed.ac.uk. For more information, see the conference website at http://sensualisingdeformity.blogspot.com

Dr. Karin Sellberg (The University of Edinburgh)
Ally Crockford (The University of Edinburgh)
Maja Milatovic (The University of Edinburgh)