Surplus Invisibility: Concentrated Spaces of the Displaced and Expelled
NeMLA 2024--Boston, MA March 7-10th, 2024

Abstract deadline: September 30th, 2023

Response deadline: October 15th, 2023

The concept of surplus is largely understood in economics as “the amount of resources that exceed the portion actually utilized”. Gramsci, when touching on this idea, focuses on the rise of capitalism. However, “surplus” can refer to a host of different fields. What happens when the “surplus” is used to define the lives of human beings?

In this panel we would like to further investigate the idea of a “surplus of population” within the Italian context (film, literature, media), including but not limited to:

• Prisons

• Detention facilities

• Refugee camps

• Roma settlements

• Borderlands

• Boats

• Construction sites etc. as a concentrated surplus of lives, or, as Saskia Sassen defines them: “the spaces of the expelled, […] invisible to the eyes of the system”.

Please submit an abstract of 300 words max to https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/20325

If you have any questions please contact Valentina Morello (vmorello@uark.edu).