CFP: A Collective Address to Death

Call for Submissions 

A Collective Address to Death 

The Ohio State University Comparative Studies Department 

Spring Conference | May 13-14, 2022 

https://go.osu.edu/addressing-death/

(In-person or virtual TBD)

A Collective Address to Death

The Ohio State University Comparative Studies Department seeks submissions for a spring graduate conference to be held May 13-14, 2022. This conference aims to extend the conversations generated through a graduate seminar centered on Religion, Medicine, and the Body to scholars across disciplines, by providing an opportunity to collectively address themes of death, dying, and what comes after. 

We recognize that different communities address death and afterlife in various ways. Political violence and responsive protests, wars, mass shootings, the prison industrial complex, dysfunctional medical support systems, increasing rates of extinction, and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic have made death a hot topic of discussion. This conference aims to bring different approaches to death into conversation with one another to broaden collective knowledges and further develop interdisciplinary perspectives on this topic. As such, the event invites scholars from different fields including, but not limited to, cultural studies, sociology, history, political science, anthropology, religious studies, gender studies, race studies, and other humanities fields. We welcome proposals for traditional panel presentations, roundtables, workshops, fine art exhibits, or “non-traditional” forms, either virtually or in person (COVID-19 dependent). Examples of possible submission topics may deal with questions such as:

• How do we understand, communicate, translate, and/or experience death with one another?
• What are affective responses to death? How do communities explore/examine the affects of mass death?
• How can death give life? How do our experiences of death impact the way we understand life?
• In what ways do religion, ritual, and/or spirituality respond to death?
• How might power and/or politics intersect with death?
• How is death navigated through cultural, medical, and/or scientific discourse, and what are their impacts? 

Proposals can be submitted by filling out this Google Form by February 28, 2022, with panel announcements, speakers, and schedule to follow. Submissions should include name, pronouns, professional affiliation (if applicable), presentation title, conference mode preference, and an abstract of 200-300 words that addresses the conference theme, "A Collective Address to Death.