CFP: conference on obscenity

[Adi Hastings]

   CALL FOR PAPERS

   OBSCENITY:

   AN OBERMANN CENTER HUMANITIES SYMPOSIUM

   THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

   MARCH 1-4, 2007

   In 1966, anthropologist Mary Douglas published her groundbreaking  
study, /Purity and Danger:  An Analysis of the Concept of Pollution  
and Taboo/, asserting that ?dirt? is a ?universal theme across human  
societies.?  Douglas issued her book during a period of massive  
liberalization of censorship practices in English-speaking societies  
that led lawyer Charles Rembar to declare ?the end of obscenity.?   
Where Douglas saw a universal cultural theme, Rembar saw a concept  
that had lost its cultural significance.  The proximity of these  
claims indicates a persistent paradox:  while the category of  
obscenity would appear to be ?universal,? its meaning is so vague and  
variable that it is almost impossible to pin down in what this  
universality consists.   

   The opening of the 21st century is a felicitous time to interrogate  
the ?universality? of obscenity in terms of the globalization of  
culture and postmodern skepticism in the human sciences. This  
symposium is intended to enable an interdisciplinary and  
cross-cultural dialogue that will analyze this notoriously vague yet  
apparently perennial concept in an historical and global context.   
Possible topics will include, but will not be limited to, the  
following:  How do definitions of obscenity vary across cultures and  
historical periods?  How do identity categories of race, ethnicity,  
class, gender, sexuality, and disability inflect or inform issues of  
obscenity?  What is the relation between verbal and visual instances  
of obscenity?  To what degree is religion implicated in definitions of  
obscenity?  How is obscenity inflected or informed by family  
structures and practices?  How do issues of obscenity vary across  
institutional locations?  In what ways are attacks on obscenity  
related to media ownership and the development of new media?  How is  
obscenity related to cognate concepts such as indecency, pornography,  
and profanity?

   Speakers include Nadine Strossen (New York University), Michael  
Taussig (Columbia University), John D. Peters (University of Iowa),  
Laura Kipnis (Northwestern University), Linda Williams (UC Berkeley),  
Judith Krug (American Library
Association), and Lamia Karim (University of Oregon).

   Please submit 300-word abstracts online at

   http://www.uiowa.edu/obermann/obscenity[1]

   by December 1, 2006.

   Address any questions to Loren Glass at obscenity at uiowa.edu[2]

Links:
------
[1] http://www.uiowa.edu/obermann/obscenity
[2] mailto:obscenity at uiowa.edu

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