Deadline extended:

In an interview with Amnesty International , Chilean writer and activist Ariel Dorfman explains that, despite efforts to
silence survivors of human rights violations, "Somehow the stories do come out, those voices do come out. I am not their
voice: I make a space for those voices, a bridge." Dorfman's insights raise questions about the role of literature in the
struggle for human rights. How do writers represent often unspeakable crimes against humanity and create a cultural memory
that recognizes the forgotten or marginalized voices from the past? What does it mean to bear witness through literature?

How has the struggle for human rights, for various forms of freedom, found representation and support in different ways
throughout history? These questions can apply to human rights issues across cultures and continents as well as centuries.

NYCEA invites proposals for 15-minute papers on any aspect of the theme of human rights and the literary, theoretical, and
pedagogical applications.

The following topics represent some possibilities for papers:

 Survivor's guilt
 Intergenerational testimony
 Truth Commissions/Tribunals
 Public Memorials
 Representing the Perpetrators
 Representing human rights struggles in pre-20 th century contexts
 Women's Rights
 Slavery/Abolition
 Justice and Reparations
 Shame, rage, and denial in response
 Memory and representation
 Experimental narrative or performance
 The reader or audience member as witness
 Cultural Relativism/Cultural Imperialism
 The child survivor
 The 'Disappeared' and representing absence
 Nunca Mas
 Injustices to workers
 Child labor
 The disenfranchised/struggle for civil rights
 Basic human needs like housing and health care
 Freedom of conscience
 Defense of basic human rights
 Exile

Please send abstracts of 450-500 words for papers and panel session to Gertrude Hamilton (Box 1401) or Jennifer Griffiths
(Box 1318), English Department, Marymount College of Fordham University, 100 Marymount Avenue, Tarrytown, NY 10591. Email:
jgriffiths_at_fordham.edu or ghamilton_at_fordham.edu . Deadline for proposals is March 16, 2006. A cash prize will be awarded
to the best graduate student essay.

Jennifer Griffiths, Ph.D.
Director of Composition
Marymount College of Fordham University
100 Marymount Avenue
Tarrytown, NY 10591-3796
(914) 332-8341

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Received on Sat Mar 04 2006 - 16:13:22 EST