Call for Seminar Applications and Papers for the GSA Body Studies Network
Forty-Sixth Annual Meeting of German Studies Association (GSA)
Houston,TX / September 15-18, 2022
Coordinators: Caroline Weist, German Studies (caroline.weist@richmond.edu); Paul Dobryden, German Studies (pad9q@virginia.edu); Katya Motyl, History (katherina.motyl@temple.edu); Heikki Lempa, History (lempah@moravian.edu)
The Body Studies Network of the German Studies Association now invites applications for a sponsored seminar, “Vulnerability and Embodied Subjectivity,” and for sponsored panels for the upcoming September 15-18, 2022 conference in Houston, TX. Please contact any of the coordinators with questions about the calls.
Seminar: Vulnerability and Embodied Subjectivity
Application Deadline: March 14, 2022
Like a radioactive tracer that illuminates the body’s internal flows, COVID-19 has revealed in great detail the myriad forms of contact, exchange, and circulation that constitute society. Despite efforts to mystify those pathways in the name of personal freedom, this pandemic has exposed the intimacy and fragility of connections between animals and people, bodies and material environments, citizens and infrastructures of care, the beginning and end of supply chains, and between fellow human subjects. In light of this urgent situation, this seminar will examine foundational discussions of vulnerability, interdependence, and precarity in German Studies and beyond, including but not limited to disability studies, philosophy, history, cultural studies, and political theory. How can traditions of thinking about vulnerability orient us, both historically and in the present? What new directions can related work in other disciplines suggest for research on the German-speaking world, and what can we bring to broader discussions of vulnerability in the humanities?
The seminar will have a hybrid format to facilitate discussion of both existing scholarship and participants’ research. By March 14, we ask that interested authors use the GSA application portal (https://thegsa46.secure-platform.com/a) to submit a brief statement on how the seminar topic fits with an existing project and/or one that they plan to undertake. By August 15, accepted participants will need to submit profiles of their projects (750-1000 words).
Note: Applicants who are not selected for the seminar would be given an extended deadline to submit a paper for a panel.
Paper and Panel Proposals
Application Deadline: March 11, 2022
We will consider proposals that examine the history, culture, gender, sex, race, ethnicity, and ability of the body in the German-speaking world. Papers that integrate global and/or postcolonial perspectives are particularly encouraged. There are no disciplinary, geographic, or temporal restrictions. All scholars who work with German-language texts, German-speaking areas, or sources that address German + Bodies in some way are encouraged to submit individual papers or full panels of 3-4 papers (please see https://thegsa.org/conference/submission-guidelines for details on panel composition).
As the official GSA submission deadline is March 28, 2022, we ask that interested authors send abstracts (300 words) and a short bio directly to any of the coordinators (please do not use the GSA portal) by Friday, March 11, 2022. The GSA Body Studies Network coordinators will then assemble a group of panels, providing moderators and commentators if needed, and submit them to the GSA under the auspices of the Network.
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