PAMLA Panel Proposal, November 2026: Mourning as Social Protest, Andrea Fishman, Presiding Officer

Abstract:
This panel invites papers on a broad range of topics on the theme of "Mourning as Social Protest." The act of public mourning, often led by women, may help to organize the larger community in response to social and state violence; such rituals can thus become acts of dissent or take on a transgressive political significance. Proposals may focus on rhetorical, political, historical, poetic, or creative themes. Papers may focus on a specific region, chronology, text, song, be comparative and/or diachronic, but they must demonstrate the intersection of mourning and a threat to or transgression against the dominant socio-political hegemony.
Description:
Solon’s 6th century BCE prohibitions against public ritual lament abolished composed dirges (thrênoi), restricted physical and excessive displays of mourning, severely impacted women’s public life in ancient Greece. The 1,200 year-old tradition of Irish keening (caoineadh) was suppressed by the Catholic Church from the 17th through 19th centuries for religious and social reasons, only to reemerge as a form of political protest during the Troubles in Derry and Belfast in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Since 2022 in Iran, families of thousands of protesters murdered by government forces have transformed 40th-day memorial ceremonies into political events, using dancing, singing, and clapping over graves to defy the Islamic Republic’s mandatory mourning customs. And current protests against US ICE and Immigration policies exemplify the intersection of public mourning and protest: a Day of the Dead vigil in Concord, California, publicly mourned 25 individuals detained who died in ICE custody.

This panel invites papers on a broad range of topics on the theme of "Mourning as Social Protest." The act of public mourning, often led by women, may help to organize the larger community in response to social and state violence; such rituals can thus become acts of dissent or take on a transgressive political significance. Proposals may focus on rhetorical, political, historical, poetic, or musical themes. Papers may focus on a specific region and chronology or be comparative and/or diachronic, but they must demonstrate the intersection of mourning and a threat to or transgression against the dominant socio-political hegemony. Presentations by poets or musicians who create and perform lament as social protest are welcome. The purpose of this panel is to bring together scholars and creatives in order to recognize and better understand how often marginalized individuals (e.g. women in patriarchal societies) transform private grief into a powerful tool for communal political protest in a global context.
Suggestions for paper topics include (but are not limited to):
• Gender and public mourning
• Intersections between mourning and political protest by and for refugees and immigrants
• Public lament and political protests in Iran since 2022
• Lament songs or poetry performed at protests
• Mourning as political protest in the Middle East and Central Asia
• Irish Caoineadh (Keening) tradition
• Women’s public lament in Latin America (e.g., Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Mães de Maio)

The web address is: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/20172

Potential presenters will be able to submit paper proposals using the PAMLA online submission form. You will need to go  to https://pamla.ballastacademic.com to login or create an account first. https://pamla.ballastacademic.com is the only way to get a paper included in this session.