Call for Papers
War and the Body
Interdisciplinary one day conference
Centre for European & International Studies
Research, University of Portsmouth and the War and Media Network
Friday June 11th 2010
Imperial War Museum, London UK.
War is fundamentally embodied, ?the most
radically embodying event in which human beings
ever collectively participate? (Scarry, 1985:
71). War is enacted and experienced through the
surveillance, classification, wounding, rape,
mutilation, torture, death and display of human
bodies. Diverse bodies are mobilized,
disciplined, drilled, augmented, sacrificed,
decorated, produced in war. The history of war
is one of corporeal destruction and
reconstruction, from the conversion of civilian
bodies for military service to the battle for
hearts and minds. The reality of war is not
just politics by any other means, but politics incarnate.
War and the Body invites proposals that seek to
explore the embodied history of war as well as
recent transformations in warfare. Through what
practices, techniques and metaphors has war
historically occupied various bodies? From
advanced warfighters to private military
contractors, child soldiering to ethnic
cleansing, is war assuming predatory new
embodied formations? To what extent is war
deterritorialized and brought home through
bodily practices such as militarized leisure and
fashion, security and surveillant assemblages?
How do bodies bear witness to the histories and
transformative power of war through
representations of bodily violence and corporeal memorializations?
Recognizing the growing interest in the
embodiment of human life and social action
across the humanities and social sciences, War
and the Body aims to bring together
international scholars and researchers from a
variety of disciplinary backgrounds and
perspectives who share a common thematic concern
with the intertwining of war and the body. As
such, it acknowledges the importance of the body
as an increasingly productive site for
rethinking and retooling the historical and sociological imaginations.
Empirical analyses and theoretical contributions
are welcome. Anticipated questions and topics
may include, but are not limited to:
· How are military principles and values
inculcated, and resisted, in civilian bodies?
· How are war and political violence lived
and experienced through the body?
· What bodies does war traverse, inscribe, produce?
· Bodies and weaponry
· War and human vulnerability
· Corporeal aftermaths, memorializations and mourning
· Representing war and the body: cinema,
literature, documentary, photography, new media
· Cultural histories of war and embodiment
· The body politic: wounded nations, national traumas
· The militarization of human sensation
Please send abstracts of proposed papers (max
500 words), together with brief biographical
details by 31st December 2009 to:
(kevin.mcsorley /at/ port.ac.uk). All proposals are
subject to a review process. Selected papers
from the conference will be published as a
themed issue of a relevant journal or edited collection.
For more information please visit:
<http://www.warandmedia.org/warandbody/>http://www.warandmedia.org/warandbody/
Organizing Committee
Kevin McSorley, University of Portsmouth ((kevin.mcsorley /at/ port.ac.uk))
Sarah Maltby, City University, London ((sarah.maltby.1 /at/ city.ac.uk))
Gavin Schaffer, University of Portsmouth ((gavin.schaffer /at/ port.ac.uk))
This conference is supported by the Centre for
European & International Studies Research,
University of Portsmouth
(<http://www.port.ac.uk/research/ceisr)>http://www.port.ac.uk/research/ceisr)
and the War and Media Network
(<http://www.warandmedia.org/)>http://www.warandmedia.org/)
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Dr Sarah Maltby
Lecturer
Department of Sociology
City University Northampton Square London EC1V 0HB
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7040 4172
www.city.ac.uk
Office Hours from Sept 2009: Monday 3 - 4; Wednesday 12 - 1; Thursday 3 - 4.
Office Number: 6th Floor, Social Science Building, D627
War and Media Network
<http://www.warandmedia.org/>http://www.warandmedia.org/
Email: (maltby /at/ warandmedia.org)
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