ImmUnity and CommUnity
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Agadir, Morocco
Laboratory Values, Society, and Development (LVSD)
Group on Ethics, Representation and Politics in Literature and Culture (EREPLIC)
Organizes
An International Conference on:
ImmUnity and CommUnity
2-3 November, 2022
Call for Papers
In the current conditions of a spreading pandemic, the terms “community” and “immunity” on both local and global scales have become semantically interdependent with unparalleled currency. They have triggered debates about stopping the propelling cycle of immunization that claims to benefit the community and raised concerns about the pressing need to maintain naturally invulnerable societies. Prominent among the theorists who highlight the close and problematic connection between the two notions is Roberto Esposito (2012), who posits that “community” points to difference and that “immunity” designates relation/contagion. The ensuing tension between immunization processes and the communal or the collective thus nourishes the need to define immunization in terms larger than the natural reliance on antibodies that fight external viruses or other threats. The unprecedented interest in the protection of life stems from the growing risk of infectious elements that infiltrate not only the individual body, but also other realms including the body politic and the social body. Each system is forced under the power exercised by globalization and the modern nation-states to close off within its protective boundaries.
As a result, distancing measures in the public sphere do risk fostering separation; however, they cement human bonds as people have come to realize the necessity of preserving their sense of commUnity. A need thus arises to bring into focus the repercussions of distancing bodies and their effects on such naturally interactive facets that are “healthy” for our coexistence as subjects, societies and cultures. Lockdowns, or their imminent recurrence, have in fact set social interactions apart in the spaces that are supposed to promote our commonality as humans. The pervasiveness of immunity as a concept has therefore triggered long-running debates that attest to the shift from the demands for recognition to the ethico-political implications of preserving life. Just as attempts at sustaining life claim to guarantee the individuals` security to keep the community safe, they compromise the very sense of relationality they purport to defend when divisions erupt from within. Procedures relating to administering life through distancing measures end up fostering the forces of separation that warrant our examination of the workings of identity when questions of justice, freedom, otherness and representation are invoked. When sovereign power is instituted through the exclusionary inclusion of the community members who have come to be construed along alterity lines, it becomes all the more pressing to redirect our critical lens to the ways in which immunization takes its toll on the innermost details of the everyday.
Accordingly, this international conference seeks to raise the following questions linked to the two aforementioned concepts: How do “immUnity” and “commUnity” unveil themselves when we probe into the workings of identity? What connections, and by extension, which values have societies adopted to wrestle with the restrictions of the local/global lockdowns? Has the pandemic fostered mutual closeness or fragmentation between local and global communities? How have literary artefacts investigated the effects of pandemics on cultures? How has the pandemic enhanced the sense of collectivity at home and in the digital space? In order to create an avenue for dialogue, this event solicits proposals which cover but are not limited to:
- Pandemics, globalization and the modern nation-state
- The effects of pandemics on individuals, societies and cultures
- Immunization, text and border-crossing
- Immunity, community and identity
- Immunity, ethics and politics
- The biopolitics of immunization
- Pandemics in literature and culture
- Pandemics and digital humanities.
- Immunity, community and media
- Community-based learning
- Immunity, tradition and innovation
Things to consider:
- Abstracts up to 250 words and a brief biographical note should be sent by 15 May, 2022 to the following email address:
communityandimmunity2021@gmail.com
- Participants are expected to give a twenty-minute presentation
- Selected papers will be published in a peer-reviewed edited volume with ISBN.
- Doctoral students are encouraged to participate.
- Conference Venue: Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Agadir – Morocco.
- Accommodation: Information about hotels will be made available after acceptance notification.
Important dates:
- Abstract submission deadline (extended): 15 May, 2022.
- Notification of acceptance (extended): 10 June, 2022.
- Conference date: 2-3 November, 2022.
Conference Coordinators:
- Dr. Rachid Acim
- Dr. Bouchra Benlemlih
- Dr. Mustapha Kharoua
Organizing Committee:
- Dr. Rachid Acim
- Dr. Mohamed Agzar
- Dr. Limame Barbouchi
- Dr. Mohamed Belamghari
- Dr. Khadija Belhiah
- Dr. Elhassane Benabbou
- Dr. Bouchra Benlemlih
- Dr. Mustapha Kharoua
- Dr. Mohamed Nouhi
- Dr. Mounir Sanhaji
Doctoral Students’ Committee (LVSD):
- Abdelkarim Ait Hadda
- Tayeb Bouchoir
- Slimane Douih
- Nabit Elgarhi
- Fatima Ezzahrae Hnaka
- Mourad Maimoune
- Mohammed Maj
- Mohamed Saidi
- Mohamed Salem Semsadi
- Sara Tabza
- Mahmoud Toubbali
- Rachid Toumi
Scientific Committee:
- Dr. Rachid Acim, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Mohamed Agzar, Faculty of Languages, Arts, and Human Sciences, Agadir.
- Dr. Abderrahim Ait Abdeslam, The Higher School of Education and Training (ESEF), Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal.
- Dr. Ava Gordley-Smith, Emerson College, Boston, USA.
- Dr. Jamal Bahmad, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Mohamed V University, Rabat.
- Dr. Limame Barbouchi, Higher School of Technology (EST), Ibn Zohr University, Laayoune.
- Dr. Mohamed Belamghari, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Mohamed Belbacha, Polydisciplinary Faculty, Nador.
- Dr. Khadija Belhiah, ENCG, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Bouchra Benlemlih, FLHS, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Khalid Chaouch, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal.
- Dr. Yu Min (claire) Chen, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan.
- Dr. Mimoune Daoudi, Faculty of Arts, Sais, Fes.
- Dr. Abdallah Elboubkri, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Oujda.
- Dr. Mohamed ElGhazi, FLHS, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Mohammed Elkouche, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Oujda.
- Dr. Paul Hackett, School of Communication, Emerson College, Boston, USA.
- Dr. Sidi Mohamed Hamdani, Polydisciplinary Faculty, Ibn Zohr University, Smara.
- Dr. Youssef Harrak, Polydisciplinary Faculty, Ibn Zohr University, Smara.
- Dr. Paul Jahshan, Faculty of Humanities, Notre Dame University, Zouk, Lebanon.
- Dr. Abdessalam Jamai, FLHS, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Cherki Karkaba, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal.
- Dr. Boutheina Khaldi, the American University of Sharjah, UAE.
- Dr. Mustapha Kharoua, Faculty of Languages, Arts, and Human Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Mohammed Moubtassime, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fes.
- Dr. Mohamed Nouhi, ENSA, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Abdelmajid Ridouane, The Higher School of Education and Training (ESEFA), Ibn Zohr University.
- Dr. Taoufiq Sakhkhane, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra.
- Dr. Kebir Sandy, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fes.
- Dr. Mounir Sanhaji, Faculty of Languages, Arts, and Human Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir.
- Dr. Marouane Zakhir, Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida.
NB. The conference may turn to online proceedings depending on the pandemic situation.