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Critiquing Culture
The Cultural Studies Graduate Conference at George Mason University 2012

"Ideas are to objects as constellations are to stars."
Walter Benjamin

The Cultural Studies Student Organizing Committee (SOC) at George Mason University invites paper proposals for our 6th annual Cultural Studies Graduate Student Conference. The conference will take place on Saturday, September 22, 2012 at George Mason University (Research 1 Building, Room 163) in Fairfax, Virginia.

CALL FOR PAPERS
At George Mason University, we acknowledge the need to specify Cultural Studies as an academic field with definable features and particular modes of methodological inquiry. In our view, Cultural Studies examines cultural objects as products of the wider social, historical, economic and political conditions that structure their formation, and acknowledges the interrelationship between these factors. In particular, Cultural Studies focuses on power relations and inequalities, which shape the horizon of possibilities for any cultural object at hand, be it a political discourse, an economic model, or a mass cultural product. As a field, Cultural Studies has expanded both geographically and theoretically, building upon its origins in the Birmingham Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies through the inclusion of a range of critical approaches including Marxist political economy, post-structuralism, feminism, critical theory and post-colonial studies. While the objects of Cultural Studies vary widely, the field aims at political relevance and efficacy.

In an attempt to establish a vibrant community for scholars working in precisely this interdisciplinary vein, the Cultural Studies Student Organizing Committee at George Mason University invites graduate students to submit research papers for a conference specifically oriented toward the examination of cultural objects, whether through Marxist, structuralist/poststructuralist, feminist, or other critical lenses. We encourage the submission of papers related, but not limited, to the following broad themes:

•Political Economy
•Mass & Popular Culture
•Gender & Sexuality
•Race & Ethnicity
•Representation & Aesthetics

And, given that 2012 is an election year, the conference strongly encourages papers that address, critique, or otherwise analyze:

•American Electoral Politics

Abstracts of no more than 300 words and a current CV should be sent to critiquing DOT culture AT gmail DOT com (critiquing.culture@gmail.com) by 1 June 2012. Please include presentation title, presenter's name, institutional affiliation, contact information, A/V requests, and any special needs required in the email. Abstracts should be sent as .doc or .rtf file attachments.