[Commlist] 2020 Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference in Chicago

    Call for Proposals

*2020 Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference*
*Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (USA)*
*Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, Illinois*
*May 28-May 30, 2020
**EXTENDED DEADLINE: Monday, Jan 20, 2020*
	
SUBMIT A PROPOSAL <https://easychair.org/conferences/submissions?a=23379640>
Proposals are submitted throughEasyChair. <https://easychair.org/>For 
best results, sign into EasyChair before clicking submit above.

NOTE: Proposals are submitted through EasyChair. For best results, sign 
into EasyChair (https://easychair.org/) before trying to submit to the 
conference (https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=csa20200).
*This Year's Theme: *Bodily Sovereignty and Collective Action
The Cultural Studies Association (CSA) invites proposals for 
participation in its eighteenth annual meeting. Proposals on all topics 
relevant to cultural studies will be considered, with priority given to 
proposals that engage this year's theme of Bodily Sovereignty and 
Collective Action. Membership of the CSA is not required to submit a 
proposal for this year’s conference, but membership is required in order 
to present at the conference.

The notion of sovereignty is up for serious epistemological debate. We 
encourage proposals that investigate and consider how the framework of 
sovereignty informs the re-mappings, re-zonings, and regressions of the 
current conjuncture, and how ideas of sovereignty inform cultural 
productions and resistance to these changes. At the same time, we invite 
critical perspectives on sovereignty’s appropriations and strategic 
deployments in contemporary and historical contexts. We take 
inspiration, in particular, from the conference’s location in the city 
of Chicago, which has a long history of resistance to violence and has 
been a key site in the fight for bodily sovereignty, whether in the 
significance of the Haymarket riot in the struggle for global labor 
rights, the legendary Jane Collective’s work restoring women’s bodily 
sovereignty before Roe v. Wade, the ongoing collective resistance to 
police brutality, and the still countercultural notion that Black Lives 
Matter. We encourage proposals that draw on these legacies and 
illuminate paths in which they prefigure sovereign futures.
Furthermore, we welcome proposals that consider who can lay claim to 
sovereignty, as well as the formations of power, knowledge, and capital 
that circumscribe such claims. Proposals might, for example, question 
which bodies--human and non-human--“count” as sovereign, and at which 
historical, political, socio-ecological, and cultural points. We invite 
theoretical interventions that situate these emergent questions around 
self-determination with respect to critiques of (racial) capitalism, 
biopolitics, hetero-patriarchy, and white supremacy.

Why This Theme, Now?
Within the U.S. and beyond, the past few years have been a turbulent and 
reactionary period of social and political realignment. In the U.S., 
state level abortion bans have dangerously regressed national laws on 
reproductive autonomy, while public protests and social media activism 
are insisting that #TimesUp on the corporate and cultural protection of 
patriarchal sexual violence. National borders are being remapped and 
rezoned around the world, as in the U.S. policy that extends a 
militarized national border all the way to the southern border of 
Mexico, or the ongoing refugee and border crises in Western Europe 
ignited by Brexit, all of which operate within a nationalist paradigm 
rooted in authoritarianism, isolationism and xenophobia. As Wendy Brown 
puts it in Walled States, Waning Sovereignty, these developments exhibit 
“subject desires that are themselves the effect of declining 
sovereignty, desires that states can neither gratify nor ignore.” In 
this view, movements for autarky, for America First, for Walls and bans 
arise precisely because the “potent fiction” of nation-state sovereignty 
has been “compromised by growing transnational flows of capital, people, 
ideas, goods, violence, and political and religious fealty.” Their aim 
is to reactivate nation-state sovereignty through a violent assault on 
the absolute sovereignty of migrants, refugees, the marginalized, and 
stateless persons. Popular understandings of these developments is 
increasingly defined by micro-targeted advertisements, feeds, and search 
results made possible by the corporate and government harvesting of 
personal data, channelled through proprietary algorithms that excel at 
creating isolated islands of ideological sovereignty at the expense of 
actual information autonomy and democratic connectivity. And amidst all 
of this, environmental protections are rolled back, whether in the 
Amazonian Rainforest or in Indigenous lands across North America, 
continuing a centuries-long colonial assault on Indigenous/ Native 
sovereignty.

Engaging with the Theme
As with past conferences, we welcome proposals from all disciplines and 
topics relevant to cultural studies, including literature, history, 
sociology, geography, politics, anthropology, communications, popular 
culture, cultural theory, queer studies, critical race studies, feminist 
studies, postcolonial studies, legal studies, science studies, media and 
film studies, material culture studies, platform studies, affect 
studies, visual art and performance studies. Topics that applicants 
might address include, but are not limited to:

  * Information/knowledge sovereignty
  * Autonomy in the age of surveillance capitalism
  * Autonomous infrastructure of media and cultural production
  * Bodily sovereignty/ autonomy as an issue of culture and power
  * Sovereignty from possessive individualism to collective claims
  * Cross-Cultural conceptualizations and practices of bodily sovereignty
  * Bodily sovereignty as a feminist issue
  * Environmental justice, climate change and the Anthropocene
  * Sovereignty and the global right’s countermovement
  * Sovereignty in the media: nationalisms, populisms, and xenophobia
  * Migration, mobility, and bodily sovereignty
  * Anti-imperial, anti-colonial, decolonial, and abolitionist 
sovereignties
  * Critical disability studies on bodily sovereignties
  * Queer perspectives on bodily sovereignty
  * Psychoanalytic perspectives on bodily sovereignty
  * Food sovereignty and food justice
  * Sovereignty and intergenerational justice
  * Sovereignty, community and the commons
  * Post-sovereign subjects and post-sovereign ethics


The CSA aims to provide multiple and diverse spaces for the 
cross-pollination of art, activism, pedagogy, design, and research by 
bringing together participants from a variety of positions inside and 
outside the university. Therefore, while we welcome traditional academic 
papers and panels, we also encourage contributions that experiment with 
alternative formats and intervene in the traditional disciplinary 
formations and exclusionary conceptions and practices of the academic 
(see session format options listed below). We are particularly 
interested in proposals for sessions designed to document and advance 
existing forms of collective action or catalyze new collaborations. We 
encourage submissions from individuals working beyond the boundaries of 
the university: artists, activists, independent scholars, professionals, 
community organizers, and community college educators.
Important Dates:

  * Submission System Open: Monday, October 14, 2019
  * *EXTENDED DEADLINE for Submissions: Monday, Jan 20, 2020*
  * Early Bird Registration: Tuesday, October 15, 2019 until Friday,
    March 2, 2020.
  * Friday, January 17, 2020: Notifications sent out
  * Friday, March 2, 2020: Early Registration Ends, Regular Registration
    Rate Begins
  * Friday, May, 1, 2020: Last day to register to participate in the
    conference. If you do not register by this date and are not a
    current member, your name will be dropped from the program.


LOCATION
The 2020 conference will be held at Columbia College Chicago in Chicago, 
Illinois, located in the South Loop of downtown Chicago. It is easily 
accessible via public transit from both Chicago O’Hare airport and 
Chicago Midway airport. A CSA hotel block for members will be announced 
at a later date.

SUBMISSION PROCESS
All proposals should be submitted through Easy Chair using the following 
link:
https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=csa20200
The submission system will be open by Monday, October 14, 2019. Please 
prepare all the materials required to propose your session according to 
the given directions before you begin electronic submission. All program 
information--names, presentation titles, and institutional 
affiliations--will be based on initial conference submissions. Please 
avoid lengthy presentation and session titles, use normal capitalization 
and standard fonts, and include your name and affiliations as you would 
like them to appear on the conference program schedule.

INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIPS include individual memberships for up to seven 
affiliate faculty, staff and students at member institutions. Graduate 
students who wish to submit proposals are strongly encouraged to speak 
with their Department Chair or Program Director about institutional 
membership and where possible, make use of the complimentary individual 
memberships and therefore reduced registration rates. Full benefits of 
institutional membership are described here:
http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/institutions 
<http://secure-web.cisco.com/1F2G2G19QKeznYwPicVYHNS6ilzRUBCNx_0jLpQhhDtI6MleBJnI3wKGORBPZC44wSwMW0QIUjoWZZQ0bzMc9x-ECAs7minxugOUZkM04G6iW_Z8hOrNIssagrLmuDtyEuB1S-PePp3JYC1f_U5NaT5QQZPqbakSCiyytHPJKJNheWn_oJRyBi1plBOIZ5rMPXg2JP05y4V4YdAfGeu9zpzVqrAqmP6NWHsfRgCLiU3cqP-3oT37mhQ0-V25IDA42WhQSWqRZCxXGq7VTL3HtzXLyMp_3TBaIV4EzYZKYKrMTrY8pkxfF2D6-7woTHj2EG4oXAQfnKC9P9S-v-kpbvwL1Zw-pczucMGCAnZ1tOgNsJoShyszUWbBanm36vQj5ErdfXUeZ-m8uzUmtOyc1ta8iQRUx_eIRIIcmWLtBrw5kl4fal_lpQSVLgjjlcTHb/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.culturalstudiesassociation.org%2Finstitutions>

REGISTRATION:
In order to participate in the conference and be listed in the program, 
all those accepted to participate must register before Friday, May 1, 
2020. And remember: registration for the conference and membership in 
the CSA are separate transactions (and both are required to present).
Register here.

TRAVEL GRANTS
CSA offers a limited number of travel grants, for which graduate and 
advanced undergraduate students can apply. Only those who are individual 
members, have been accepted to participate, and have registered for the 
conference are eligible to apply for a travel grant. Other details and 
criteria are listed here: Travel grants may be found here. 
<https://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/travel-grants.html><https://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/travel-grants.html>
Important Note about Technology Requests: accepted participants should 
send their technology requests to Michelle Fehsenfeld at 
(contact /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org) 
<mailto:(contact /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org)>. Technology requests 
must be made by Friday, May 1, 2020.

CONFERENCE FORMATS
While we accept individual paper proposals, we especially encourage 
submissions of pre-constituted sessions. Proposals with participants 
from multiple institutions will be given preference.
All sessions are 90 minutes long. All conference formats are intended to 
encourage the presentation and discussion of projects at different 
stages of development and to foster intellectual exchange and 
collaboration. Please feel free to adapt the suggested formats or 
propose others in order to suit your session’s goals. If you have any 
questions, please address them to Michelle Fehsenfeld at: 
(contact /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org) 
<mailto:(contact /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org)>

PRE-CONSTITUTED PAPER PANELS: Pre-constituted panels allow 3-4 
individuals to each offer 15-20 minute presentations, leaving 30-45 
minutes of the session for questions and discussion. Panels should have 
a chair/moderator and may have a discussant. Proposals for 
pre-constituted panels must include: the title of the panel; the name, 
title affiliation, and contact information of the panel organizer; the 
names, titles, affiliations, and email addresses of all panelists, and a 
chair and/or discussant; a description of the panel's topic (<500 
words); and abstracts for each presentation (<150 words). 
Pre-constituted panels are preferred to individual paper submissions.

INDIVIDUAL PAPERS: Individuals may submit a proposal to present a 15-20 
minute paper. Selected papers will be combined into panels at the 
discretion of the Program Committee. Individual paper proposals must 
include: the title of the paper; the name, title, affiliation, and email 
address of the author; and an abstract of the paper (<500 words).

ROUNDTABLES: Roundtables allow a group of participants to convene with 
the goal of generating discussion around a shared concern. In contrast 
to panels, roundtables typically involve shorter position or dialogue 
statements (5-10 minutes) in response to questions distributed in 
advance by the organizer. The majority of roundtable sessions should be 
devoted to discussion. Roundtables are limited to no more than five 
participants, including the organizer. We encourage roundtables 
involving participants from different institutions, centers, and 
organizations. Proposals for roundtables must include: the title of the 
roundtable; the name, title, affiliation, and contact information of the 
roundtable organizer; the names, titles, affiliations, and email 
addresses of the proposed roundtable participants; and a description of 
the position statements, questions, or debates that will be under 
discussion (<500 words).

PRAXIS SESSIONS: Praxis sessions allow a facilitator or facilitating 
team to set an agenda, pose opening questions, and/or organize hands-on 
participant activities, collaborations, or skill-shares. Successful 
praxis sessions will be organized around a specific objective, 
productively engage a cultural studies audience, and orient itself 
towards participants with minimal knowledge of the subject matter. 
Sessions organized around the development of ongoing creative, artistic, 
and activist projects are highly encouraged. The facilitator or team is 
responsible for framing the session, gathering responses and results 
from participants, helping everyone digest them, and (where applicable) 
suggesting possible fora for extending the discussion. Proposals for 
praxis sessions must include: the title of the session; the name, title, 
affiliation, and contact information the facilitators; a brief statement 
explaining the session’s connection to the conference theme and 
describing the activities to be undertaken (<500 words) and a short 
description of the session (<150 words) to appear in the conference 
program. Please direct any questions about praxis sessions to Michelle 
Fehsenfeld at (contact /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org) 
<mailto:(contact /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org)>

SEMINARS: Seminars are small-group (maximum 15 individuals) discussion 
sessions for which participants prepare in advance of the conference. In 
previous years, preparation has involved shared readings, pre-circulated 
''position papers'' by seminar leaders and/or participants, and other 
forms of pre-conference collaboration. We particularly invite proposals 
for seminars designed to advance emerging lines of inquiry and 
research/teaching initiatives within cultural studies broadly construed. 
We also invite seminars designed to generate future collaborations among 
conference attendees, particularly through the formation of working 
groups. A limited number of seminars will be selected. Once the seminars 
are chosen, a call for participants in those seminars will be announced 
on the CSA webpage and listserv. Those who wish to participate in a 
particular seminar must apply to the seminar leader(s) directly by March 
2, 2020. Individuals interested in participating in (rather than 
leading) a seminar should consult the list of seminars and the 
instructions for signing up for them, to be available on the conference 
website by April 13, 2020. Seminar leader(s) will be responsible for 
providing the program committee with a confirmed list of participants 
(names, affiliations, and email addresses required) for inclusion in the 
conference program no later than May 1, 2019. Seminars will be marked in 
the conference programs as either closed to non-participants or open to 
all conference attendees. Proposals for seminars should include: the 
title of the seminar; the name, title, affiliation, and contact 
information of the seminar leader(s); and a description of the issues 
and questions that will be raised in discussion and an overview of the 
work to be completed by participants in advance of the seminar (<500 
words). Please direct questions about seminars 
(seminars /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org) 
<mailto:(seminars /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org)>. Please note that for 
them to run at the conference, seminars accepted for inclusion by the 
program committee must garner a minimum of 8 participants, including the 
seminar leader(s).

MEET THE AUTHOR: Author Meets Critic Sessions are designed to bring 
authors of recent books deemed to be important contributions to the 
field of cultural studies together with discussants selected to provide 
different viewpoints. Books published one to three years before the 
conference (for example, for the 2013 conference, only books published 
between 2010-2012 could be nominated) are eligible for nomination. Only 
CSA members may submit nominations. Self-nominations are not accepted.

WORKING GROUP CALLS FOR PROPOSAL:

WORKING GROUP SESSIONS: CSA has a number of ongoing working groups. 
Working Group submissions can can either be an individual paper or 
pre-constituted panel and must be made through CSA’s online EasyChair 
submission portal. Choose either the Working Group Panel or Working 
Group Paper tracks, complete the submission information, and choose the 
appropriate working group from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the 
page. Specific themed calls for some working groups are listed below; 
check the Working Groups page of the CSA website for the most updated 
calls: http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/workinggroups. 
<https://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/working-groups.html>

MAKE(R) SPACE
The Make(r) Space is a space for the collaborative and praxis driven 
portions of Cultural Studies – making space for art, making space for 
political activism, making space for new modes of knowledge exchange. It 
is our goal that this space will be created for those that have been 
historically and systemically left out of these conversations: artists, 
activists, poets, and other cultural critics and makers. We want to 
create a space that helps the CSA fulfill some of the implicit praxis 
portion of its goals to “create and promote an effective community of 
cultural studies practitioners and scholars.” Building on the poets, 
dancers, painters, and activists already interested in the space, we 
welcome proposals for exhibits, performances, workshops, skill shares, 
story telling, and other ways of meaning-making and art-making in the 
world that consider the theme of “Interventions.” We especially 
encourage Make(r) Space submissions from individuals working beyond the 
boundaries of the university: artists, activists, independent scholars, 
professionals, community organizers, contingent faculty, and community 
college educators. Please email Make(r)Space submissions by March 13, 
2020 to: (makerspace /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org) 
<mailto:(makerspace /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org)>

LATERAL WORKSHOP: Lateral, the journal of the Cultural Studies 
Association invites submissions of emerging work for constructive 
feedback with the Lateral editors and cultural studies scholars at the 
Cultural Studies Association 2020 Conference. We especially invite 
participation from junior scholars, graduate students, and those working 
beyond the bounds of the university, as well as those who intend to 
eventually submit their work to Lateral (workshop papers that are later 
submitted to the journal will undergo regular editorial and peer 
review). Participants will be notified of their acceptance into the 
workshop by mid-January, and complete drafts of articles (approximately 
4,000–9,000 words in length) will be due mid-May and circulated to 
workshop participants at least two weeks before the conference. Strong 
submissions will situate their considerations of cultural practices, 
critical theories, and/or pedagogies within established and emerging 
conversations on racism, capitalism, sexuality, gender, ability, and 
colonialism. Prospective workshop participants, including those 
presenting work at the 2020 CSA Conference, should submit abstracts (no 
more than 500 words) or draft articles (approximately 4,000–9,000 words 
in length) through the submission system by the deadline for 
submissions. The journal can be accessed at csalateral.org 
<https://csalateral.org/>

PANEL CHAIRS: We are always in need of people to serve as panel chairs. 
To volunteer to do so, please submit your name, title, affiliation, and 
email address, as well as a brief list of your research interests to 
(sean.johnson.andrews /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(sean.johnson.andrews /at/ gmail.com)>, 
Chair of the Program Committee.



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