Interrogation Techniques: Law, Texts, Culture
Simon Fraser University English Graduate Conference, May 29-30, 2009

This interdisciplinary conference will interrogate the role of the law in
the production, content, dissemination, and critical reception of texts.
The relationship between legal and other discourses affects how cultures
and individuals perceive the world, and act on that perception. Law,
literature, and society intersect in diverse forms, from the Ten
Commandments to the political role of the novel in Victorian England, from
vigilante justice in revenge tragedies to the establishment of the Creative
Commons online.

By questioning the role of law in literary and cultural production as well
as its manifestations in and as texts, we hope to explore the intersections
of scholarly disciplines, legal systems, sites of resistance, and artistic
representations. How does legal language construct gender, kinship, nation
and race? How can written and visual texts act as sites of political
resistance or activism? How do rules, order and conformity cause censorship
or create the literary canon? What is the history of legal questions such
as the role of religion or the monarchy, the development of copyright,
definitions of deviance and criminality, and the creation of global politics?

We welcome submissions in various media from artists and students across
disciplines on topics that include but are not limited to:
• Representations of torture, justice, legal issues, ethics, religion
• Sexuality, the body politic, ideology
• Law, nation, theatre: medieval courts to the Supreme Court
• Canon formation, censorship, obscenity, plagiarism
• John Grisham, CSI, popular trials
• Environmental law, property, sustainable spaces
• Power of language: naming, legal discourse, speech acts,doublespeak
• Vigilante justice: superheroes, outlaws, lawlessness
• Privacy, surveillance, regulating space
• Literature in/and unionization, labour law, activism
• Kinship, in-laws, defining marriage and family
• Treaty rights, race relations, free speech
• Globalization, conditions of literary production, free trade, the internet

There are three submission options:
1. Scholarly paper â€" abstract of 250 words
2. Creative work â€" 30 lines of poetry, 300 word excerpt, or an artist’s
statement/sample of performance or visual art
3. Round table â€" abstract of 250 words submitted to a specific panel.
Panels TBA.

Papers should be 12-15 minutes in length. All files should be formatted as
.rtf or .doc to ensure compatibility. Papers will be blind vetted. Please
send all submissions to gradconf_at_sfu.ca.

NEW Deadline: Monday March 2, 2009.

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Received on Mon Feb 09 2009 - 21:19:06 EST