Dwelling in Possibility

Call for Papers for a Collected Volume of Think Pieces

“You have to believe, and you can never, ever, give up on any possibility. It’s part of it, as I said, from the beginning. It’s already done. You just have to find a way to make it real.”

- Rep. John Lewis

From Aristotle to Emily Dickinson to Heidegger to Hans Blumenberg to Samuel Beckett to John Lewis, artists, thinkers, and leaders have conceptualized possibility. 

This collected volume of short think pieces, Dwelling in Possibility, seeks to bring together a range of perspectives on the concept of possibility as discussed through key writers, thinkers, leaders, and artists in order to think through some of the following questions:

• What is possibility? What does it mean for something to be possible? Out of what range of ideas, actions, events, or situations does something become possible? What is meant by the act of becoming? What does it mean for something to become?
• What does it mean to think with the possible instead of the actual? What is the relationship between possibility and actuality? Between possibility and reality?
• What sort of historical, ontological, or foundational precepts underlie thinking about possibility?
• To what extent is creation, manifestation, or materialization an extension of possibility?
• To what extent are certain practices (planning, organizing, choosing, selecting, creating, sketching, performing, producing, loving, shaping, improvising) forms of possibility?
• What is the relationship between possibility and various worlds (dream worlds, imaginative worlds, alternative worlds)?
• In times of uncertainty, what is the value of possibility? What is the relationship between possibility and creation? What are the political, social, and creative implications of possibility? To what extent can the possible become a vehicle for transformation and change?

Dwelling in Possibility seeks to include contributions from a range of perspectives (from literature to performance studies to cultural studies to history to anthropology to political science to philosophy to urban planning to the sciences) and professions (academics, artists, actors, musicians, writers, cultural curators, civil leaders, etc.).

Each essay should include an epigraph or quotation on possibility by an author/thinker/leader/artist of your choice, followed by a brief (up to 2000 words) conceptual think piece discussing the epigraph. Stylistic creativity encouraged; footnotes optional.

Please send abstracts (max. 500 words) including quotation, thinker, and how you plan to discuss the concept of possibility, along with name, contact information, and brief biography to elizabeth.bonapfel@fu-berlin.de and alexanderhennig@live.com by 15 March 2017. In the subject line of your email, please place the volume title followed by the last name of your selected author/thinker/leader/artist, e.g. “Dwelling in Possibility: Dickinson.” If your submission is selected, the deadline for the completed think piece is 15 August 2017.

 Publisher to be determined after scope of the volume emerges. 

What possibilities have we forgotten? Please circulate widely.