The Annual Center for Research in the Humanities & Arts Graduate Students conference will be held at the campus of the University of California, Merced on April 12-13, 2013. From Monadism to Nomadism: A Hybrid Approach to Cultural Productions will focus on the intersection and interplay of cultural studies, the social sciences, and the humanities, encouraging the exploration of various theoretical frameworks, case studies and fieldwork, and research. By juxtaposing issues such as intercultural negotiation, trans-(post)modern society, migratory aesthetics, diverse understandings within liquid societies, and symbolic struggle, this conference provides a venue to explore the post-(de)colonial dilemmas created by the reinvention and promotion of culture as a coherent and diverse reality.

Does the construction of cultural production contribute to the making and re-making of society? The conference will explore constructed worlds in all their visual manifestations and encourages submissions that deal with the idea of a world that is not preexisting and fixed, but constructed, or in the process of creation. This idea of a world is exceedingly supple and open to numerous complex interpretations. A world can be both tactile and virtual, exterior and interior. It can be ancient, contemporary and everything in between. Technology, language, diaspora and migration, global economics, political discourses, and other phenomena contain the power to not only construct new worlds, but also to redefine and destroy existing worlds. With these ideas in mind, we seek papers that highlight not only the generation of worlds, but also their delineation within society. We welcome papers that discuss how ideology implements and transforms the process of world making or world breaking, provoking new methods of communication and cultural interaction.

Topics for discussion include, but are not limited to:

- Trans-border Literature
- Urban Studies
- Digital humanities
- World Heritage
- Digital heritage
- Material culture studies
- Post(de) colonial Identities
- Glocal production

Keynote speaker: California poet laureate Al Young.

Paper or panel proposals in English or Spanish should include an abstract (between 150-350 words – panel proposals should include a panel abstract, as well as individual paper abstracts). Submissions should be submitted using the individual paper or panel proposal forms (found on the website). Abstracts must be appended to the completed paper proposal form (as a single document) and submitted, via email to wc.2013gradconf@ucmerced.edu by February 10, 2013. Only completed applications will be considered.

The working languages are English and Spanish. There is no registration fee for this conference. Selected participants will be notified by March 1, and your full paper will be due by March 25.

Accepted papers will be considered for inclusion in the published proceedings of the conference.

IMPORTANT DATES,
February 10, 2013 / Deadline for submissions
March 1, 2013 / Successful applicants notified
March 25, 2013 / Final paper due
April 12-13, 2013/ Conference

Submit abstracts via e-mail to:
wc.2013gradconf@ucmerced.edu

RELATED LINKS
http://ssha.ucmerced.edu/
www.ucmerced.edu
http://graduatedivision.ucmerced.edu/
http://crha.ucmerced.edu/
http://alyoung.org/