AAA 2010 CFP: Give Voice a Voice: Anthropologies of the Voice

[Jessica Taylor]

CFP for AAA 2010

Panel topic: Give Voice a Voice:  Anthropologies of the Voice

What is voice(s)? Do voice(s) circulate or do they echo? This panel focuses
on new work being done in anthropology on the voice and its travels.  Just
like the body, which is increasingly viewed as something which must be
historicized and contextualized, "the voice" is not a natural object, but a
discursive category (with physical manifestations) which is produced in
particular moments in time and space. Yet, when "voice" is used in
anthropology, even linguistic anthropology, it often slides into metaphor.  

This panel will examine both the metaphors of voice and the regimes which
work to form and differentiate it. For example, how does voice become heard
a site of authenticity?  How do certain voices draw attention (or have
attention drawn) to their materiality (their excess of language)? How do
some voices become connected the referentiality of the rational speaking
subject? How do technologies which enable the circulation of voices
separated from their accompanying bodies change or create the meanings of
voice?

Papers in this panel will give us an insight into "voice" as a category
continually in development, with particular interactions with categories
such as gender, race, class, nation and technology. We are particularly
interested in specific examinations - ethnographic, historical, textual and
theoretical - of this evolving topic.

Possible topics for papers could include:

The materiality of voice(s)
Voice as a metaphor
Is voice a category across cultures?
How are others' voices circulated and constructed?
Can the voice(s) be written?
Techniques/practices which work to form voice(s)
Voice in artistic practice
Regimes of voice(s)

And anything else voice related.
 
Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words (include a title), along
with your contact information (name, institutional affiliation, department,
and email address) to Jessica Taylor (University of Toronto) at
jessica.taylor at utoronto.ca by March 24, 2010.