UPDATE: As detailed below, the deadline for submitting panel and paper
proposals for the following conference has been extended from Dec. 31,
2002 to Jan. 20, 2003.
The University of Missouri-Columbia’s 12th Annual English Graduate
Student Association Conference
"Inaugural Moments: The Canonization of Events"
February 21-22, 2003
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO
Before the sun set on September 11, 2001, commentators had already
declared that the United States would never be the same again. There would
be life as it was before 9/11 and life as it was after 9/11. As such, the
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were perceived—almost
instantaneously—as an inaugural moment in American history. In the year
that has followed, there has been a tremendous response to the event,
evidenced across the spectrum of American life—in popular culture and
media as well as within the academy. But 9/11 is just one example of an
inaugural moment. Consider the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima or
the launch of Sputnik as two other 20th Century events that could be
considered inaugural moments. The conference—"Inaugural Moments: The
Canonization of Events"—intends to explore not the events themselves,
but the response to these type of events. We are interested in
examinations that stretch across disciplines (including literature, art,
political science, religion, sociology, psychology, etc.) and across
cultures (both inside and outside of the United States), and that bring a
variety of theoretical perspectives to the table. How have societies
reacted to inaugural moments? How have these moments been identified and
then rewritten over time?
The keynote address will be delivered by Bill Brown, the George M. Pullman
Professor of English and the History of Culture at the University of
Chicago, on Friday, February 21, 2003, at 4 p.m. in Tate Hall.
Brown has published The Material Unconscious (1996), edited Reading the
West: An Anthology of Dime Novels (1997) and edited a special issue of
Critical Inquiry on "Things" (Fall, 2001). A co-editor of Critical
Inquiry, he also served on the editorial board of American Literature from
1998 to 2001. He has published articles in American Literary History,
Public Culture, Cultural Critique, and Representations, among other
journals. His next book, A Sense of Things: The Object Matter of American
Literature, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2002.
A graduate of Duke University, he has an M.A. in creative writing and a
Ph.D. in modern thought and literature from Stanford University.
The conference committee will accept proposals for panels and papers
through Jan. 20, 2003. Notification of acceptance for panels and papers
will take place by January 15, 2003 for proposals submitted by Dec. 31, 2002. Notification of acceptance for proposals submitted between Jan. 1, 2003 and Jan. 20, 2002, will take place by Jan. 25, 2003. Panel submissions are encouraged.
Some suggested topics include:
Literary and artistic responses
Political and social responses
Institutional histories
Colonial histories
Post-colonial critiques
Media Studies
Issues of categorization
The problems of periodization or the canonization of events
Legacies of crisis
Pedagogical Issues
Various theoretical examinations
Cultural criticism
Crisis and the academy
Proposals may be submit by e-mail (sakxt9@mizzou.edu
<mailto:sakxt9@mizzou.edu> ) or by post at the address below. Please limit
your proposals to 250-350 words.
Address proposals to:
EGSA Conference Committee
c/o Scott Kaukonen
Dept. of English
107 Tate Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
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CFP@english.upenn.edu
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or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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