The GCWS conference “Liberating Temporality and Spatiality ” welcomes graduate students in all areas of study to submit their abstracts or synopses of in-progress scholarly papers, dissertation or thesis chapters, article drafts, or in-progress film/mixed media works. Proposals may come in the form of papers, films, art, performance, visual art, or alternate forms not listed above.

Time and space, while often seen as linear and confined concepts, can be stretched, altered, and reconfigured. We move through time and space in fits & bursts; some ways of moving and being are deemed normative or “good” and brought to the forefront, while others might be marginalized and cast aside. Here, we instead cast aside normative ideas of time and and space to focus on how liberating the concepts of temporality and spatiality can help us imagine and create new futures, communities, and ways of being. This conference seeks to look at liberatory conceptions of spatiality and temporality, particularly in the contexts of racial justice, abolition, disability rights, queer/trans ecologies, human development, death studies and practices, embodiment, community building, and more.

How might liberation encourage, if not require, new orientations to the concepts of time and space? What is the messiness that exists in these spaces of creation?

Some questions the conference seeks to explore:

• How can the temporality and spatiality of subcultures be used to assess political and cultural change?

• How do space and spatiality construct belonging, community and identity? Reciprocally, how do the concepts of belonging, community, and identity impact and construct space and spatiality?

• What does access and openness look like in truly liberatory spaces?

• How do subcultures or ideological communities produce alternative temporalities and encourage imagination of how our futures can be different from chrononormativity?

• How do crises change our understanding of longevity, liberation, and community?

• What is the interplay between alternative and hegemonic norms of time and space?

Logistics and Deadlines

Academic Paper Submission: Paper submissions should be for 15-minute presentations. The paper does not need to be completed in order to submit and present at our conference. Submissions should include a 250-300 word abstract, your name, pronouns, program, university affiliation, e-mail address, a short bio (3-5 sentences), three to six keywords, and any audio/visual requirements. Please submit required materials usingthis form by October 31, 2022 at 11:59PM Eastern.

Academic Project Submissions: Project submissions should include a 250-300 word abstract as well as your name, program, university affiliation, e-mail address, a short bio (3-5 sentences), three to six keywords, and any audio/visual requirements. Also include the scale and duration of your piece (if relevant), as well as space or presentation preferences. Lastly, please provide a web link to relevant visual, audio, portfolio, or support materials (no more than 5 images or 5 minutes of audio or video). If you would like to discuss a potential project with the committee, please feel free to reach out to us at gcws.conference@gmail.com. Please submit required materials using this form by October 31, 2022 at 11:59PM Eastern.

Papers and projects will be organized into panels based on their overlapping themes, ideas, and concepts. If you would prefer to design your own panel please have each person submit their paper/project idea and specify the intended panel idea and participants. Self-designed panels must have a minimum of 3 speakers and a maximum of 5 speakers.

All proposals must be submitted via this form by October 31, 2022 at 11:59PM Eastern. All participants will be notified about the status of their proposal no later than December 13, 2022.

This will be an in-person conference. We understand that funding and other life aspects may not permit all speakers to attend in-person. Please specify in your submission if you will need a hybrid option. Please understand that we are a small organizing team and are balancing our need to work within capacity alongside the needs of panelists. If Covid precautions and safety protocols call for a return to virtual events in Spring 2023 then we will shift this entire conference to a virtual one.

For more information contact the GCWS Graduate Student Conference Committee at gcws.conference@gmail.com or visit our website athttps://www.gcws.mit.edu/.