Cornell EGSO Conference 2024: Conflict/Resolution

Deadline for Submissions: January 24, 2024

Conference: March 15-16, 2024

Call for Academic and Creative Proposals:

“Conflict is not another word for crisis or for war or for competition. Conflict is a condition of intellectual life, and, I believe, its pleasure. Firing up the mind to engage itself is precisely what the mind is for—it has no other purpose. Just as the body is always struggling to repair itself from its own abuse, to stay alive, so is the mind craving knowledge. When it is not busy trying to know, it is in disrepair.”

- Toni Morrison, “Grendel and His Mother”

As Toni Morrison’s reflection in “Grendel and His Mother” suggests, “conflict” means many things. From differences of preference to outright war, conflict remains an ever-present element of human existence. Its presence, however, implies its inverse: resolution. This year, the English Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) at Cornell University seeks papers and creative works that explore the functions and intersections of conflict/resolution. Whether participants focus on conflict or resolution separately or conflict/resolution together, we welcome engagements on this theme from a range of disciplines.

Potential focus areas include, but are not limited to:

• Affect & Trauma studies
• Ethnic studies/Critical Race Theory
• Indigenous studies
• Queer & Gender studies
• Disability studies
• Economics
• Government, Political Science, & Global affairs
• Conflict & Peace studies
• Psychology & Behavioral Psychology
• Business, Management, & Human Resources
• International Business
• Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR)
• Ecocriticism/Environmental Humanities
• Reader reception, Audience, & Fan studies
• Transformative works
• Performance and Media studies
• Postcoloniality/Decoloniality
• Speculative storytelling & fine arts
• Medical humanities
• Literary forms
• Pedagogy & Education
• Creative Nonfiction
• Personal Essays
• Poetry
• Short form fiction

We seek to feature conference papers, readings, performances, and exhibits of creative works, and works-in-progress that engage questions related to conflict/resolution. What forms of conflict are productive precedents to resolution? What forms of resolution produce more or splintered forms of conflict? Where is there hope in conflict, despair in resolution? Is it possible to disentangle the two, or does each necessitate the other? 

Presentations of any type should not exceed 15 minutes.

As this conference is sponsored by Cornell’s English Graduate Student Organization, we encourage participation from graduate students in English and adjacent fields including, but not limited to, Comparative Literature, Romance Studies, Performing and Media Arts, History, Social Sciences, and Philosophy. We will consider any submissions from graduate students in any discipline focused on the conference theme. Please note that we do not consider submissions from postdocs, early career, or independent scholars.

For academic papers, please submit a 250-300 word abstract. For creative works, please submit both (1) a 250 word synopsis/rationale of the work and (2) a 300-500 word (or multi-image) excerpt from the work (no more than three pages in length).

Please include your institutional affiliation and a short biography (50-100 words) with your submission. All submissions and inquiries should be sent as a .docx or .pdf file to CornellEGSOConference@gmail.com by January 24, 2024.

The English Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) is a registered student organization with Cornell University.