Challenging Cultures of Death: Call for Papers

national | miscellaneous | press release

Wednesday August 08, 2007 14:15

by Deirdre Clancy - Institute for Feminism and Religion

Final Call for Contributions

This important conference provides activists of all hues with a chance to reflect on the sources of violence in our culture. It aims to combine contributions from exciting and innovative theorists with the lived experience of grassroots resisters.

Periods of reflection and sharing of experience and theory are often underestimated as a source of strength and wisdom, particularly in anti-war activism. I would therefore urge anyone who feels they have something to say about resistance to mainstream cultural imperatives that ask us to tolerate violence to think about contributing to this conference. If you do not feel able to do so, please think about attending and participating more informally. The information is below.

The Institute for Feminism and Religion is a not-for-profit organisation. This is a non-commercial event; the conference fee is purely to cover the costs of running it.

This is the final call for papers for this event.

Challenging Cultures of Death

Call for Papers: Final Deadline: August 31st 2007

The Center for Gender and Women's Studies, Trinity College Dublin, and the Institute for Feminism and Religion invite proposals for contributions to our forthcoming event:

Challenging Cultures of Death: A cross-cultural dialogue imagining a political and symbolic world based on life not death: mercy not sacrifice.

Keynote Speakers

Bracha L. Ettinger

Griselda Pollock

Anne Primavesi

Peggy Reeves Sanday

Genevieve Vaughan

Multi-disciplinary: Papers invited under the headings - Theory, Resistance, Theology.

Venue: Trinity College Dublin

Date: Fri 2nd Sat 3rd Sun 4th Nov 2007.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.tcd.ie/Womens_Studies/events/cultures_of_dea...s.php

http://www.instituteforfeminismandreligion.org

Call for Papers
Priority will be given to those taking a multi-disciplinary synchronic perspective, and taking imaginative approaches to presenting that maximize pre-event preparation (making papers available in advance) and interactive modes of engagement with participants. We also hope to balance incisive critique with concrete strategies for practical action.

THEORY

Given the violent history of the 20th century, the threats facing humanity and the Earth, and the resurgence of violent religious fundamentalisms in the 21st century, Enlightenment optimism toward the social order has now largely collapsed. Post-modernist thinkers variously interrogate the libidinal economy (Lyotard), the sacrificial social contract (Kristeva), biopolitics (Nietzsche, Foucault, Agamben), the culture of the death drives (Lacan, Irigaray), and the violence of mourning (Klein, Fornari, Butler).

Invited proposals

Proposals invited from any of the above perspectives that address the

question: Challenging cultures of death: mercy not sacrifice.

That investigate the potential of the Matrixial Sphere (Bracha Ettinger).

RESISTANCE

In the most despotic regimes, isolated individuals (Bonhoeffer, Weil, Berrigans, Day, Gandhi, Mandela, Starhawk, Aung San Suu Kyi), as well as many conscientious objectors, have resisted cultural imperatives. What enables them to resist?

Invited Proposals

That investigate resistance from the perspective of group psychology

(political or psychoanalytic)

That investigate disciplinary or spiritual practices that enable resistance

That investigate the effects of parenting and violence Theology

THEOLOGY

The main Abrahamic faiths often represent their founding acts through narratives of sacrifice. How does this relate to the cultural valorisation of death in combat, or martyrdom?

Invited Proposals

That interrogate feminist, womanist and post-colonial approaches to the political implications of sacrificial theories and theologies

That investigate current critiques of sacrifice (Girard, Irigaray, Kristeva, Maccoby, Koenigsberg)

Directions: Participants wishing to present a 10-minute contributed paper are invited to submit online a 200 to 300 words abstract for consideration by the conference committees. Abstracts should be sent by August 31st. All those submitting proposals will be informed of the conference committee's decisions by September 30th 2007 (at the latest). Online submission form http://www.tcd.ie/Womens_Studies/events/cultures_of_dea...n.php

Who Should Attend?

We hope to attract feminist theorists and activists committed to cultural critique. Contributors should aim to make their work accessible to a wide variety of participants at the event and, where appropriate, in potentially publishable form later.