cfp.english.upenn.edu

Deadline for abstracts: February 11
The Comparative Studies PhD Student Association (CSSA) is welcoming abstracts for an interdisciplinary conference to be held at Florida Atlantic University, with a focus on public voice, human rights, and social justice. The conference will include key-note speakers addressing conference themes with a special focus on filmmaking, human rights, and public voice. Special screenings of award-winning documentaries and feature-length films will be a highlight of the symposium.

“Public voice” is not rigidly defined. To explore public voice one might focus on the voice of dissent; on those who resist hegemonic forces; and on those who lead others against the status quo, in contemporary society and across cultures and time periods. The symposium will engage a public dialogue that begins by defining and examining the role of public voice, and its relationship to public space, with special emphasis on human rights and social justice movements.

To facilitate a multidisciplinary approach to this topic, we have identified subthemes around which panels might be organized. We welcome submissions in both scholarly and creative veins.
We welcome abstracts from all scholars, including postgraduates and early career researchers, to discuss questions such as:
• Theoretical approaches to public voice.
• The role of public space in public voice.
• Social media and public voice.
• Martyrs and heroes in social movements.
• Non-verbal public voice.
• Political campaigns: is money voice?
• Public voice in the arts, literature and film.
• Public voice and the environmental movement.
• Ethics and human rights.
• The role of identity in public voice.
• Public voice and globalization.
• Filmmaking and public voice/human rights/social movements
• Trauma, memory, and restorative justice
• Civil resistance
• Social justice movements
• History of nonviolent struggles and nonviolent resistance

Proposals (maximum 300 words) should include the participant’s name, institutional affiliation, email, and phone number. Proposals for panels are also welcome. Please email proposals as well as queries and comments, to letters@fau.edu. Following the conference, full papers may be submitted for consideration for peer-reviewed publication in a special issue of the Florida Atlantic Comparative Studies Journal. The deadline for submissions is Monday, 11th of February, 2013.

The Ph.D. in Comparative Studies is an interdisciplinary program in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters. For more information, please visit www.fau.edu/comparativestudies.