Call for Abstracts: Two-Day In-person/Offline Conference on “Vulnerable Bodies in Literature and Culture”

deadline for submissions: 
October 20, 2024
full name / name of organization: 
Department of Liberal Arts. Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India.

Conference Theme: Vulnerable Bodies in Literature and Culture (In-person/Offline)

Name of organization: Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India

Conference coordinators: Srirupa Chatterjee (Associate Professor and Chair, Dept of Liberal Arts, IITH) and Anandita Pan (Assistant Professor, Dept of Liberal Arts, IITH)

 

Conference dates: Feb 28 - March 1, 2025, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India

 

Plenary speakers: Pramod Nayar (UNESCO Chair in Vulnerability Studies and Professor at the Department of English, University of Hyderabad); Shilpa Phadke (Professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai); Prathama Banerjee (Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi); and Navaneetha Mokkil (Associate Professor at the Centre for Women’s Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University)

 

Concept note: The human body and its various vulnerabilities have intrigued thinkers since the dawn of human civilization. In the present times cultural theorists, litterateurs, sociologists, anthropologists and gender studies experts, among many others, have examined how the human body is as much a site of vulnerability and struggle as it is of resistance and regeneration. Hence, if the human body is at times marginalized, discriminated, violated, disfigured and even destroyed by politico-cultural forces, it also often withstands, resists, and survives such onslaughts. And if in some cases the vulnerable body perishes, it leaves behind a testimony of its struggles. Contemporary literary and cultural discourses, especially since the twentieth century, abound in such representations of body vulnerabilities and powerfully urge scholarly attention.

Vulnerability has become a central theme in contemporary literary, cultural, and social discourse, encompassing a wide spectrum of areas including the body, emotions, sexuality, and health. In today’s political and intellectual landscape, there is increasing pressure to expose them and work through our vulnerabilities, often under the premise that such exposure fosters connection, growth, and resilience. However, it is important to critically examine the effects of persistent self-revelation on both individual identity and cultural production, questioning whether this emphasis on vulnerability is always productive or if it also reinforces potentially harmful discourses. At the same time, vulnerability is often theorized as a site of political potential. Vulnerability can destabilize rigid power structures and open up new avenues for political resistance. It can form the basis for collective responsibility, challenging the hierarchies that determine whose lives are grievable and whose are not. While vulnerability can certainly create opportunities for empathy and solidarity, we must also critically examine the logic that underpins its elevation in contemporary discourse. The affective attachment to certain ideals—including the ideal of vulnerability as a path to connection or growth—can sometimes mask the realities of systemic violence and inequality. When we insist on vulnerability as a universal condition, we risk ignoring how certain bodies are made more vulnerable than others, often through structures of caste, gender, and class. This selective vulnerability underscores how some bodies are deemed worthy of care and protection while others are rendered disposable. This leads us to a series of structuring questions: How does one maintain a coherent sense of self when vulnerability is constantly on display? When is vulnerability politically productive, and when does it simply reinforce existing systems of oppression? Can the artistic display of vulnerability serve as a political force, or does it risk reducing the self to a consumable image of suffering?

With this backdrop, the present conference aims to create conversations around body vulnerability through critical discourses from literature and culture. It aims to examine vulnerabilities experienced by the human body through multiple perspectives such as caste and race-based discrimination and violence, bodies moving through public spaces and the violence they encounter, disabled bodies vis-à-vis discourses of ableism, queer bodies and the violence of othering, hegemonic perceptions of body image and body shaming, issues of maternal bodies and ageing bodies, abused bodies within institutions like the home, school, and workplace, and many others. The various panels in this conference will engage with matters of critical race and caste theories, feminist theories, body image, queer theories, narratives of gendered violence, and theories of critical care and illness, among others.

The possible topics to be explored in this conference include but are not limited to: 

  • Body Image and Vulnerable Self-identity
  • Caste, vulnerability, and body identity
  • Disability, ableism, body identity, and vulnerability
  • LGBTQIA+ and body vulnerabilities
  • Body, professional identity, and vulnerability
  • Ageing and body vulnerability
  • Maternity and body vulnerability
  • Representation, violence, and politics of body vulnerability
  • Care narratives and body vulnerability
  • Critical vulnerability and body resilience/voice
  • Body vulnerability, shame, and loneliness
  • Marginalised bodies and bodies at ‘risk’

 

Abstracts of 300 to 350 words (for a 20 minute presentation) together with a short biographical note are invited from both academic professionals and young scholars and should be sent by Oct 20, 2024 to the conference organizers only to the following email id vulnerablebodies.conf@gmail.com. Details on registration fee, travel, and accommodation will be conveyed to participants after their abstracts are shortlisted. For any queries, please write to the conference organizers at vulnerablebodies.conf@gmail.com.