cfp.english.upenn.edu

“New knowledge arises out of taking radically different conceptual blocs, rubbing them together and making revolutionary fire.”
-David Harvey

The University of Cincinnati Composition Program invites proposals for the fourth annual interdisciplinary graduate student conference to be held at the University of Cincinnati on Saturday, April 6, 2013. Our emphasis this year focuses on being undisciplined: breaking down walls, bending rules, and questioning the rigid structure of our fields. In every discipline, divisions and gaps are present and are in fact necessary to generate innovation and creative thinking.

We are interested in exploring these gaps and unearthing the projects that only interdisciplinary collaboration makes possible. Being able to swap, borrow, and alter the tools of other disciplines for use in our own is an important aspect of academic growth going forward in the 21st century.
In the spirit of being undisciplined, we invite researchers from all academic disciplines to submit proposals in the hopes of disrupting boundaries and destabilizing the whole notion of discipline-specific research.

We invite proposals (individual or panel submissions) that address the theme of being undisciplined. The following questions are of particular interest to us, though we’re eager to consider others as well:
• In what ways is your work undisciplined? How might your work reflect an unruly stance or reject traditional categorizations?
• What is the value or function of disciplinary boundaries in your own research?
• How does your research reinforce, reject, or draw from multiple disciplines or approaches?
• How are fields of inquiry historically situated? In what ways are ‘undisciplined’ groups or figures essential for changing or challenging social structures?
• How are genres being employed or rejected in scientific and sociological research, works of music, art, or literature? To what effect?
• What is the relationship between disciplinary knowledge in your field and new media? How are technologies influencing or challenging our disciplinary practices?
• What does interdisciplinary research contribute to Digital Composition or Digital Humanities? Or vice versa, how are digital humanities forcing us to take a different perspective on traditional disciplines?

As an extension of breaking down divisions between disciplines, we especially encourage alternative approaches to the traditional conference paper, such as posters, film, various kinds of art, performance, and audience participation. There will be no fee to attend or present at this graduate student conference.

Deadline for submissions: December 30, 2012

Please send proposals, questions, or comments to beingundisciplineduc@gmail.com.

Visit our conference site at www.beingundisciplineduc.wordpress.com for detailed submission information.