[lg policy] CFP: The Use, Misuse and Abuse of Identity

Fri Feb 10 17:13:52 UTC 2012

Call for Papers:

The Use, Misuse and Abuse of Identity

Moving Forward 2012

9th Annual Postgraduate Conference of the College of Arts and Social Sciences

University of Aberdeen

22nd-24th June 2012

25th June Optional workshop

Keynote Speakers:                        Professor Mustapha Pasha

Professor Michael Syrotinski (TBC)

                                                               Dr Mark Fisher

Workshops led by:       Dr  Janet Stewart: The Ethics of Writing

                                                      Dr Barbara
Fennell: Collaborative Research

I wanted to be the banner of my time or a shred of its banner (Fried)

The self does not undergo modifications, it is itself a modification .
. . in the end one is only what one has: it is by having that being is
formed, and that the passive self is. (Deleuze)

          The disenchantment bred by modernity insists upon
categorization. All beings must locate, voice or assert belonging in
order to ‘benefit’ from a legitimised existence.  The acceptance of
this truth – that identity must and will be found, have focussed the
energies of intellectual and political circles on the difficulties
inherent in the creation and articulation of one’s own name. The
cultural understanding of ‘belonging’ has itself been both ‘revealed’
and deconstructed in the rational exploration for the ‘true’ meaning
of identity. And yet, definite identity has been all but negated by
the inescapable variety of sub-divisions imposed on it; state, nation,
sex, caste, creed and class – that altogether subsume the
individuality of identity and, arguably, challenge the very
possibility of belonging.  Faced with such dilemmas in the
articulation of a name, identity as a concept suffers its own crisis
of belonging.

          This year’s Moving Forward conference intends to draw upon
its tradition of interdisciplinary postgraduate dialogue to spark a
series of conversations and considerations upon this ‘crisis’, and to
reflect upon the use, misuse and abuse of identity within and without
the academy. Now in its 9th year, the conference intends to continue
its success in encouraging postgraduate research, by inviting
proposals from across the disciplines of the Arts and Social Sciences,
of no more than 300 words for the following:

1) Papers lasting 15 minutes (to be followed by Q & A)

2) Papers lasting 30 minutes (to be followed by sustained discussion
of the paper. Preference will be given to postgraduates nearing the
end of their research. To facilitate a second round of peer review,
the organisers ask that proposals which are accepted in the first
instance, be followed by the paper in its entirety no later than 2nd
March 2012)

3) Panels comprising four speakers (each speaker will be allotted 15
minutes. In addition to the 300 word abstract for each paper, a 300
word text, detailing the motivation and rationale for the proposed
panel, should also be submitted)

Suggested topics include (but are not exclusive to)

- State; Education; Voice. How do institutions fix and perpetuate
ideas of identity? Who has the right to voice identity? Is our
attachment to the idea of nationhood a learned and habituated
phenomenon?

- Gender; Sex; Sexuality. Must genetic inheritance determine our
identity? How do (gendered) language and dialect affect the
construction of self? What are the implications of the need for a
gender based identity and its place in society?

- Politics; Academia; Discourse. Is the ‘need’ for identity an assumed
truth, created and perpetuated by academic and political discourse? Is
the concept of identity necessary? What are the political implications
of our search for belonging?

- Race; Religion; Culture. How is identity constructed, limited and
promoted by institutionalised conceptions of race and religion? Can a
perversion of the problem of identity move us closer to a post-Western
‘loss’ of the world? How is identity articulated culturally in
literature, film and music?

- Technology; Post-human; Cybernetics. Has the advent of new forms of
social networking and communication changed the way historical and
social events shape the politics of identity? What are the effects of
an ever-increasing globalised and hybrid world on the identity of the
individual? How does the genre of science-fiction call into question
traditional formulations of identity?”

- Violence; Postcoloniality; History; Economy and Society. What role
does violence play in the knowledge of identity? Is it possible to
have a pacifistic knowledge of self? How do historical, domestic and
(inter)national acts of violence influence and shape modern identity?
In what ways  have the age of austerity and the financial crisis
affected socio-economic identity?  Has the growth of a global
precariat challenged the traditional view of class/ethnic identity?
Does common  (economic) experience translate to common identity?

- Language. What role can language (for example national languages,
gendered language, minority languages, dialects to etc) play in
individual and national identity building? How do the state and the
public view the role of language? In which ways is the link between
language and identity perceived and dealt with by various actors
(politicians, academics, communities, language planners etc).

Proposals for papers and panels must be submitted, along with a short
CV, and a completed registration form on www.movingforward.edu.tf and
include no less than three key-words. Online registration is open
until Friday 2nd March 2012.

The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.

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