CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS
REGULATED LIBERTIES: NEGOTIATING FREEDOM IN ART, CULTURE AND MEDIA
1st Rethinking Art Studies (REARS) conference in Turku
August 20-22, 2009
University of Turku, Finland
Freedom is a heavily charged notion with a vast conceptual width. Yet,
the question of freedom and its regulation remains inadequately studied
in the field of art, culture and media. Research has often relied
conceptually on dichotomies and concentrated on revealing different
kinds of power structures and forms of oppression, which tends to
simplify the complex nature of freedom and constraint. The conference is
dedicated to rethinking cultural power in new inventive ways not based
on a dichotomous logic of domination and resistance. The concept of
"regulated liberties" denotes a more complex relationship of negotiation
between the dominant and its subjects.
The aim of the conference is to relate art, culture and media to
questions concerning freedom, emancipation and resistance. The overall
conference topic disperses on the theoretical fields of subjectivity,
social structures, and representation. The conference provides a forum
for the development of innovative and creative research concerning
temporal/spatial dimensions, genres and identity production in art,
culture and media.
Confirmed keynote speakers: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Angela McRobbie
The conference organising committee invites proposals for panels and
individual papers. Possible topics may include (but are not limited to)
the following:
How have the concepts of freedom and emancipation been employed in the
context of art, culture and media?
In what ways do culture and art regulate conduct in (neo)liberal
regimes and vice versa?
How do culturally sanctioned representations impose hegemonic identities?
In what ways should genres be (re)thought in art? Are they regulating
regimes?
Under what circumstances does resistance take place, and is it
necessarily conscious and intentional?
In what ways are subjects produced both as objects of regulatory norms
and as agents capable of resisting these norms?
How does embodiment work as a corporeal nexus for several axis of
power, as a gendered, racialised, and sexualised signifier of multiple
regulatory norms?
How could the role of institutions and economy be conceptualised in new
and productive ways?
Abstracts (200--300 words) for twenty-minute papers as well as proposals
for 2 hour panels should be submitted as an email attachment to
reglib@utu.fi by December 1st 2008. Please use your surname as the
document title. Abstract should be sent in the following format: (1)
Title (2) Presenter(s) (3) Institutional affiliation (4) Email (5)
Abstract. Panel proposals should include (1) Title of the panel (2) Name
and contact information of the chair (3) Abstracts of the presenters.
Presenters will be notified of acceptance by January 15th 2009.
Contact informaton: reglib@utu.fi.
The conference is organized by School of Art Studies, University of
Turku, Finland
http://www.hum.utu.fi/laitokset/taiteidentutkimus/en/
