Recovery: Promises and Pitfalls, Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference 2022

Sean Patterson Announcement
Location
Alberta, Canada
Subject Fields
Humanities, Social Sciences

University of Alberta
History, Classics, and Religion Graduate Students’ Association

Recovery: Promises and Pitfalls

Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference 2022

The History, Classics, and Religion Graduate Students’ Association (HCRGSA) of the University of Alberta cordially invites graduate student submissions for our 2022 online conference. This virtual event will take place March 24th-27th, 2022 on the theme of “Recovery ”. A $100 award for ‘Best Abstract Submission’ will be offered based on the proposed paper’s relevance, quality of writing, and originality. Awards for best conference presentations will also be granted following the same criteria.

As the world adapts to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes impossible not to wonder what new realities will continue to unfold, what future we will embrace, and what past we will seek to recover. In these past two years we have experienced lost employment and newly discovered passions, economic recessions and market booms, the deaths of loved ones and rekindling of lost relationships, unity and social upheaval, confidence and doubt. Where some strive to recover a pre-COVID world, others seek to recover from the ills of pre-COVID society. With the context of our current situation in mind, we invite applicants to engage with the theme of recovery in relation to their fields of research. Our conference aims to explore the promises and pitfalls offered by those who have sought or seek recovery in its varied forms, such as territory, political and economic stability, cultural identities, sacred relics, spirituality, love, health, memories, imagined and real pasts, and much more. Recovery can be a way we bring back a surety of our past, but it can also lead to stagnation, or a rejection of those who found solace in change. Alternatively, recovery can suggest renewal and the overcoming of previous illness. In this sense, recovery is future-oriented and full of possibility. We ask applicants to interrogate recovery’s dual nature and its relationship with past and future, preserving and discovery, normalcy and divergence.

As an interdisciplinary department we advocate for the dialogue between diverse disciplinary perspectives and methodologies. We strongly encourage all related fields to apply, including, but not limited to: History, Classics, Religious Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, English, Political Science, Philosophy, Indigenous Studies, Economics, Cultural Studies, and Gender Studies.

Please submit an abstract of 250 words maximum and a short biography (~ 50 words) as a Word or PDF file to conference.hcgsa@gmail.com by February 5th, 2022. Responses will be sent out mid-February. Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes to allow for a question period afterwards. This will be a virtual event.

Contact Information

Departmental Graduate Student Conference Representative:

Sean Patterson, PhD Candidate, History, University of Alberta

sdpatter@ualberta.ca

Contact Email
conference.hcgsa@gmail.com