[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: Transitional Spaces and Places: Exploring Boundaries, Borders, and Intersections (grad) (5/15/06; 10/6/06-10/8/06)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

TRANSITIONAL SPACES & PLACES:
EXPLORING BOUNDARIES, BORDERS, & INTERSECTIONS

Fordham University
New York City
October 6-8, 2006

Keynote Speaker: TBA

This interdisciplinary graduate conference seeks to explore issues of
environment and the degree to which human beings, animals, and other
living or non-living creatures relate to their surroundings. Our
emphasis will be not only on adapting (or failing to adapt) to these
surrounding spaces, but on the degree to which we challenge these
constructions of place. How have philosophers conceptualized space and
place? Can the two terms be defined and used interchangeably? Is there a
distinction to be made (in literature, history, science, etc.) between
actual and imagined spaces? How do specific literary works, genres,
authors, etc. characterize environment? Is it merely a background
setting, or does it assume a more powerful symbolic and/or literal
[interactional] role? In what ways do travel narratives, historical
accounts, geographic records, etc. push the boundaries and challenge the
borders between various places? How do space and place pertain to
nationhood, national identity, ethnicity, religion, etc.? In what ways
to writers, political scientists, ecologists, environmental historians,
etc. encourage us to cross over borders, push boundaries, and embrace
intersections? These are just some of the many questions that we would
like to explore. Below are several suggested panel themes, but we invite
related proposals, along with proposals for round table discussions as well.

I.)   Ecological Interconnectedness: Romantic or Postmodern?
II.)  Geographies, Geologies, and Ecosystems
III.) Exploring Environmental Histories
IV.)  Environmental Activism & Socio-Political Eco-Criticism
V.)   Place Vs. Space
VI.)  Travel Narratives
VII.) Representations of Astronomy (Outer Space) in Literature
VIII.)Spaces of the Body
IX.)  Transatlantic Considerations
X.)   Urban Environments (The City)/Urban Pastoralism
XI.)  Waterscapes & Landscapes
XII.) Utopias and Dystopias
XIII.)Borders and Borderlands
XIV.) Intra-ethnic translations
XV.)  Being Bicultural
XVI.) The US/Mexico Border
XVII.) Asian/American
XVIII.)Gendered Spaces

Please send your 300 word abstract to fordhamgeaconference at gmail.com no
later than May 15, 2006.




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