(Another) 2010 AAA Preliminary Call for Papers

[Nathaniel Dumas]

Dear Colleagues,

Like many of you, I am working on organizing a session for this year's 2010
AAAs, entitled "How We Formulate “Circulate-able” Selves: Introductions as a
Social and Political Discourse Genre." I have posted the description below
to solicit contributions. Also, if you are interested in helping me
co-organize this panel, that would also be great. (My other co-organizer is
now unable to participate this year.) If you have any further questions,
feel free to contact me at ndumas at berkeley.edu. Moreover, feel free to
circulate to other interested colleagues.

Best,
Nathaniel W. Dumas
Doctoral Candidate, University of California Berkeley

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Panel Title: How We Formulate “Circulate-able” Selves: Introductions as a
Social and Political Discourse Genre


When scholars generally talk of “circulation,” the focus is usually on the
movement and introduction of a particular “something” into a new context,
where that “something” is imbued with new meanings while also retaining
aspects of its previous location. This is particularly evident when we
introduce others and ourselves to new people. “Introductions,” as discourse
genres, are significant sites for understanding circulation on two levels.
First, an examination of the genre allows scholars to investigate how social
actors construct an object—or complex sign (a self)—for circulation from one
group or network to the next. Second, such an examination provides an
opportunity to understand how persons use various strategies of
introductions to co-coordinate the circulation of particular social
positions and position-takings from one communicative context into another.
Indeed, there is much at stake beyond simply getting to know new people.
Despite the importance and ubiquitous nature of this practice in widely
diverse communities, introductions have been understudied and undertheorized
by anthropologists and scholars in related fields. Thus, this panel aims to
add to previous studies by incorporating linguistic, discursive, and
ethnographic perspectives on introductions among various cultures/groups and
their ethnopragmatic notions of selves. 

More broadly, we seek to locate introductions as a pathway into examining
questions of (a) what people can circulate in terms of identities, (b) who
can restrict and enable circulation by way of introductions, and (c) how
people do such restricting and enabling as part of broader social, cultural
and political projects of circulating identities, power, and bodies.
Additionally, our goal is to understand how this particular communicative
event is interdiscursive with other genres in which people talk about and,
thereby, circulate a “self” as a complex semiotic sign within power-laden
contexts.

To achieve these conceptual goals, we invite scholars from diverse
conceptual and methodological backgrounds to submit papers that explore
introductions in this light. Papers can include data from everyday and
institutional talk or computer-mediated communication. We also welcome
submissions that focus on children and adolescents. Additionally, we
encourage submitters to consider analyses that take into account the role of
the audience in co-authoring introductions.

For more information, contact ndumas at berkeley.edu.