[ecrea] CFP: 2015 Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference Call for Proposals Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (US)

The 2015 CFP information is also available here:
http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/conference


Annual Conference
CFP: 2015 Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference Call for Proposals
Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Cultural Studies Association (US)

Another University Is Possible: Praxis, Activism, and the Promise of
Critical Pedagogy


Riverside Convention Center, Riverside, Greater Los Angeles Area, California
21-24 May, 2015


SUBMIT A PROPOSAL TODAY!

Important Dates:
*       September 15, 2014: Submission System Opens  NOW OPEN
*       December 15, 2014: Submissions Due
*       February 15, 2015: Notifications Sent Out
*       February 15, 2015: Early Registration Opens
*       April 15, 2015: Early Registration Ends and Late Registration Begins

The Cultural Studies Association (CSA) invites proposals from its current
and future members for participation in its thirteenth annual meeting in
the Riverside Convention Center, Riverside, Greater Los Angeles Area,
California.

Proposals from all areas and on all topics of relevance to cultural
studies are welcome, and are not limited to proposals that critically and
creatively engage this year's highlighted problematic.

This year’s theme, “Another University is Possible: Praxis, Activism, and
the Promise of Critical Pedagogy,” plays on the World Social Forum’s
motto, “Another World is Possible.” It expresses a commitment to the
intellectual and political project of a radically different university.
Moving beyond policy and pundit-driven discussions of the state and the
future of higher education, we seek proposals that highlight
socially-engaged scholarship and activism, and projects that explore the
transformative possibilities embedded in the present. What forms and
formations of research, pedagogy, praxis, and activism have emerged from
the struggles being waged in, around, through, and in spite of
institutions of higher education? What roles can culture, theory,
imagination, and technology play in these struggles? Taking up cultural
studies' historical commitment to the interrogation of the relations among
knowledge, power, and social transformation, the 2015 Cultural Studies
Association conference seeks to provide an insurgent intellectual space
for imagining, enacting, and mapping new forms of knowledge production and
scholarly communication and community.

We are particularly interested in work that links the global neo-liberal
conjuncture of higher education to local acts of collective resistance and
action, and back again. We want to know more about how students, staff,
faculty, administrators, and community partners are responding to the
current social, legal, economic, financial, political, cultural,
institutional, and intellectual challenges and possibilities: student debt
as a means of financing higher education institutions; court cases that
attack the history and practice of affirmative action; the rise in union
activity on campuses; the re-entrenchment of the "humanities" as a
division under "crisis"; the emergent emphasis on MOOCs and other online
forms of education that extend the already dominant casualization of
academic labor; the emergence of public and digital pedagogy and
scholarship; the ambivalent politics of academic freedom; the reduction of
education to vocational training and degrees to commodified credentials;
the role of universities in reproducing or amplifying (rather than
reducing) the social inequalities of contemporary capitalism; and the
university as a site of capital accumulation and dispossession, among many
other trends and tendencies.

As at previous CSA conferences, this year's conference aims to provide
multiple 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. While we welcome traditional
academic papers and panels, we strongly encourage contributions that
experiment with alternative formats and challenge the traditional
disciplinary formations and exclusionary conceptions and practices of the
academic.  We are particularly interested in proposals for sessions
designed to document and advance existing forms of collective action or
catalyze new collaborations.  We also encourage submissions from
individuals working beyond the boundaries of the university: artists,
activists, independent scholars, professionals, community organizers, and
community college educators.

Proposals from all areas and on all topics of relevance to cultural
studies are welcome, and are not limited to proposals that critically and
creatively engage this year's highlighted problematic. We welcome
proposals from a range of disciplinary and topical positions, including
literature, history, sociology, geography, politics, anthropology,
communication(s), popular culture, cultural theory, queer studies,
critical race studies, feminist studies, post-colonial studies, legal
studies, science studies, media and film studies, material cultural
studies, platform studies, visual art and performance studies.

About the Riverside Convention Center, Greater Los Angeles Area, California
The 2015 conference will be held at the beautiful, brand-new Riverside
Convention Center, in downtown Riverside, Greater Los Angeles Area,
California. The closest airport to Riverside, California, for those of you
flying in, is the Ontario, CA International Airport (ONT--sometimes
referred to as the LA/Ontario International Airport).  More information
about the venue, the city of Riverside, and the greater Los Angeles Area
is available here:

http://www.riversidecvb.com/riverside-convention-center

Riverside is a hidden gem of Southern California, less than a half hour
drive from the Ontario, CA International Airport, less than an hour's
drive from LA and about 90 minutes from San Diego. With its progressive
landmarks, lively downtown, many fine restaurants, galleries and museums,
and its proximity to so much of Southern California's beautiful natural
scenery and cultural sites, Riverside is a truly inviting and wonderful
site for our conference.

Riverside is also home to several institutions of higher learning, with
nearly fifty thousand college students populating the city, Riverside
breeds an overall vibe of ambitious, critical energy. Riverside's colleges
and universities include: University of California, Riverside - One of the
fastest growing colleges in the nation, UC Riverside is a national leader
in cutting-edge research, community collaboration, and student diversity,
La Sierra University, named "the most diverse university in the western
U.S." for the past four years by U.S. News & World Report, California
Baptist University, and Riverside City College.

Submission Process and Timeline
All proposals should be submitted through the CSA online system, available
at www.culturalstudiesassociation.org. Submission of proposals is limited
to current CSA members. See the benefits of membership and become a member
at www.culturalstudiesassociation.org.

The submission system will be open by September 15, 2014. Please prepare
all the materials required to propose your session according to the given
directions before you begin electronic submission. Notifications of
acceptance/rejection will be sent no later than February 15, 2015.

In order to be listed in the program, conference registration must be
completed online before May 1, 2015. 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 include your name and
affiliations as you would like them to appear on the conference program
schedule.

Important Note about Technology Requests
All sessions run for 90 minutes and will have access to basic internet
connection.  However, please note that unlike previous years, only about
50% of the rooms will have access to audiovisual equipment (projector,
screen, speakers, etc.). Sessions that require audio-visual space or
technical equipment must request these at the time of submission.  The
Program Committee will do its best to provide reasonable accommodations,
but accommodations are contingent upon the availability of resources and
equipment. Any technology requests should be included as a note in the
body of the initial submission, with a follow up email to Michelle
Fehsenfeld at (contact /at/ culturalstudiesassociation.org).   Please only
request projectors, screens, and speakers only if you plan to use them.
The CSA will be charged for every piece of equipment we rent/request.  A
limited number of laptop computers will be available upon request but
participants are expected to bring their own computers.

Please note that all session organizers/submitters must be CSA members for
the 2015 calendar year at the time of submission

Conference Formats
Note: While we accept individual paper proposals, we especially encourage
submissions of pre-constituted sessions. We also invite proposals that
engage with this conference location and its many resources.

All conference formats – papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, and
seminars – 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)

PRE-CONSTITUTED PANELS: Pre-constituted panels allow a team of 3-4
individuals to present their research, work, and/or experiences, leaving
30-45 minutes of the session for questions and discussion. Panels should
include 3-4 participants. Proposals for pre-constituted panels should
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: Successful papers will reach several constituencies of
the organization and will connect analysis to social, political, economic,
or ethical questions. Proposals for papers should include: the title of
the paper; the name, title, affiliation, and email address of the author;
and an abstract of the 20 minute paper (<500 words). Pre-constituted
panels are recommended over individual paper submissions, though we
welcome both.

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 should 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 should include:
the title of the session; the name, title, affiliation, and contact
information of the (lead) facilitator and of any co-facilitators; a brief
statement explaining the session’s connection to the conference theme and
describing the activities to be undertaken (<500 words). Please direct any
questions about praxis sessions to Michelle Fehsenfeld at
(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. Once a limited number of seminar topics and leaders are chosen,
the seminars will be announced through the CSA's various public email
lists. Participants will contact the seminar leader(s) directly who will
then inform the Program Committee who will participate in the seminar.
Seminars will be marked in the conference programs as either closed to
non-participants or open to all conference attendees. A limited number of
seminars will be selected by the program committee, with a call for
participants in the chosen seminars announced on the CSA webpage and
listserv no later than 15 February 2015. Interested parties will apply
directly to the seminar leader(s) for admission to the session by 1 April
2015. 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 15 April 2015. 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). 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 at the conference website by 15 February 2015. Please
direct questions about seminars to
(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).

WORKING GROUP SESSIONS: All working groups have two sessions at their
command. Working groups may elect to post calls on the CSA site for papers
and internal submission procedures or handle the creation of their two
working group sessions by other means. Working groups will facilitate the
creation of two sessions drawing from, but not limited to, working group
members. Working groups should create their proposals according to the
specifications listed under their session format. When submitting to the
conference website, working groups should select “Working Group” as their
session format and include a note in the body of their submission
designating the session as an official submission of the working group.
Only Working Group organizers should submit Working Group session
proposals through the conference submission system.  A listing of all CSA
Working Groups is available here:
http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/workinggroups

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 through the
conference website.

Registration Fees
Like our membership fees, the registration fees will be on a sliding scale:

Income Level/Status    Members    Non-Members
Student/ Retired/ Underemployed    $40    $280
Up to $40K    $90    $280
Up to $60K    $110    $280
Up to $80K    $130    $280
$80K and over    $150    $280
NOTE: There will be a late fee of $50 charged to all registrants after
April 15, 2015.



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