TRANSITIONAL SPACES & PLACES:
EXPLORING BOUNDARIES, BORDERS, & INTERSECTIONS

Fordham University
New York City
October 6-8, 2006

Keynote Speaker: TBA

This interdisciplinary graduate conference seeks to explore issues of
environment and the degree to which human beings, animals, and other living
or non-living creatures relate to their surroundings. Our emphasis will be
not only on adapting (or failing to adapt) to these surrounding spaces, but
on the degree to which we challenge these constructions of place. How have
philosophers conceptualized space and place? Can the two terms be defined
and used interchangeably? Is there a distinction to be made (in
literature, history, science, etc.) between actual and imagined spaces?
How do specific literary works, genres, authors, etc. characterize
environment? Is it merely a background setting, or does it assume a more
powerful symbolic and/or literal [interactional] role? In what ways do
travel narratives, historical accounts, geographic records, etc. push the
boundaries and challenge the borders between various places? How do space
and place pertain to nationhood, national identity, ethnicity, religion,
etc.? In what ways to writers, political scientists, ecologists,
environmental historians, etc. encourage us to cross over borders, push
boundaries, and embrace intersections? These are just some of the many
questions that we would like to explore. Below are several suggested panel
themes, but we invite related proposals, along with proposals for round
table discussions as well.

I.) Ecological Interconnectedness: Romantic or Postmodern?
II.) Geographies, Geologies, and Ecosystems
III.) Exploring Environmental Histories
IV.) Environmental Activism & Socio-Political Eco-Criticism
V.) Place Vs. Space
VI.) Travel Narratives
VII.) Representations of Astronomy (Outer Space) in Literature
VIII.) Spaces of the Body
IX.) Transatlantic Considerations
X.) Urban Environments (The City)/Urban Pastoralism
XI.) Waterscapes & Landscapes
XII.) Utopias and Dystopias
XIII.) Borders and Borderlands
XIV.) Intra-ethnic translations
XV.) Being Bicultural
XVI.) The US/Mexico Border
XVII.) Asian/American
XVIII.) Gendered Spaces

Please send your 300 word abstract to fordhamgeaconference_at_gmail.com no
later than May 15, 2006.

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Received on Tue Mar 21 2006 - 14:13:33 EST