[ecrea] Call for Papers Center for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College University of London

Borders and Frontiers: A contemporary interdisciplinary exploration:

22-23 June 2016, in association with The Centre for Cultural Studies,
Goldsmiths College, University of  London

“What we have come to call a globalized world harbors fundamental tensions
between opening and barricading, fusion and partition, erasure and
reinscription.  These tensions materialize as increasingly liberalized
borders, on the one hand, and the devotion of unprecedented funds, energies,
and technologies to border fortification, on the other.” (Wendy Brown
(2010), Walled States, Waning Sovereignty, p. 7-8).

While Brown is specifically discussing walls and physical barriers in her
book, what is clear from this introductory quote is the tension between
borders and frontiers, or openings and closings in our contemporary world.
This conference seeks to interrogate these concepts in an interdisciplinary
manner, asking: what is a border, what is a frontier, and are they the same
thing?  Looking to space, the body, economics, sovereignty, citizenship and
genealogy, this conference will examine these similar yet connotationally
different terms through the lense of our world today.

We invite papers and art practice responding to the following themes:

Space:

While Space has been called the final frontier, an unbounded place of
potential and possibility, the movement of sovereign and commercial
interests beyond our globe raises questions about the extension of borders
in a postglobal moment. A study into the ambiguity of sovereignty and power
in outer space is something that must be considered as we reach into the
abyss and push our frontiers, and borders, further.

Body:

In a post- and trans humanist moment, explosion of norms and the
transgression of gendered, sexual, and bodily boundaries has become
prevalent. Is there truth to the discourse of infinite possibilities or is
this simply a chimera manifesting technologies which play into the hands of
neo-liberal governmentality?

Economy:

Borders and frontiers are becoming increasingly blurred and simultaneously
clarified today. The liquidity of capital has increased, while each country
raises a wall to protect its labour. Moreover, economic disparity is
widening, causing politics to move in radical directions. What is the
meaning of a border and frontier in the contemporary political economy?

Citizenship:

People have been forced to leave their country and become refugees
throughout the history of humanity.  The displacement of refugees from
outside of and within Europe since World War One has never ceased. Borders
and citizenships are the foundational notions of mass human movements. Has
Europe opened frontiers for possibilities of citizenship, or does the
current situation demonstrate the fantasy of the idea of open movement of
peoples that Europe was founded on.




Genealogy:

The history of demarcation brings us back to antiquity, where the realms of
the sacred and the profane, good and evil, public and private, inside and
outside, were strongly separated. Modern cartographical representation and
institutional understanding of the border as a line has reduced the
complexity of the concept of border. Walls enhance the spectacle of borders
and their performative ritual of expulsion. Can walls and borders be
conceived within an 'epistemic' framework, and as producers of time and
space in contemporary global capitalism?



This interdisciplinary conference is open to artists and academics
interested in interrogating and contesting concepts of borders and
frontiers. We welcome applications for presentations and video/art practice
responses to the above themes, in particular from MA, Phd and early career
academics and artists.

Abstracts: 250 words, with title, name of presenter(s), email and
institutional affiliation, submit as a word document (not pdf) by email to
(amurr010 /at/ gold.ac.uk)

Submission deadline for applications: 22nd April.




---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------