International Conference
Gendering the Urban Imaginary: Fantasy, Affect, Transgression
12-13 May 2017
Keynote speaker: John McLeod
University of Leeds, UK
University of Debrecen, Institute of English and American Studies
Organisers:
Ágnes Györke, Senior Lecturer, Department of British Studies
Imola Bülgözdi, Senior Lecturer, North American Department
Call for Papers
The Gender, Translocality and the City Research Group at the University of Debrecen is pleased to announce its second annual conference, which is going to explore the role of gender, fantasy, and emotion in the production of urban space. Papers focusing on urban fantasy in twentieth- and twenty-first-century anglophone literary, visual and cultural studies are invited for presentation, and we also encourage submissions relying on psychogeographical approaches to explore the (post)modern imaginary of city life. Papers investigating the modern(ist) city, postmodern labyrinths, art and the aestheticization of urban space, the playable city, uncanny metropolises, paranormal urban worlds, suburban and subterranean space, spectral cities and fantasy scapes, for instance, are welcome. Presentations addressing "the mutually defining relation between bodies and cities" (Elizabeth Grosz) will be considered as well, especially if focusing on the "atmosphere" (Teresa Brennan) or "sense of place" (Jon Anderson) as the articulation of affective traces which define subjectivities in relation to specific environments. We also encourage submissions on topics such as transgressions, fear, and the city; metamorphoses, enjoyment, and urban space; emapthy and the city; and so on.Theoretical contributions investigating the intersections between affect theory and city studies, including, but not limited to, the works of Sarah Ahmed, Elspeth Probyn, Carolyn Pedwell, for instance, and Michel De Certeau, Elizabeth Wilson, Elizabeth Grosz, etc., are also within our scope of interest.
We particularly welcome submissions exploring gendered readings of the following themes:
• The imaginary of everyday life
• Fantasies of corporeality
• Street art and the aestheticization of urban space
• The city and empathy
• The femme fatale and the urban imaginary
• The ideal city and fantastic dystopias
• Metamorphoses, enjoyment, and the city
• Compassion, forgiveness, and the city
• Nightmare and the city
• Shame, shaming, and the city
• Fear, vulnerability, and the city
• Transgression, terror, and urban space
• Embodied placemaking and fantasy
• Virtual geographies: embodiment and affect in cyberspace
• Urban identities, rootedness and the "sense of place"
Please send 300-400-word abstracts to urbanimaginary@gmail.com before 6 February 2017.
Advanced MA and PhD students are warmly encouraged to submit abstracts to present papers in regular sessions, and the conference also aims to provide an opportunity for them to discuss their research projects related to the theme of the call (dissertation proposals, chapters, articles, etc.). Graduate students are invited to organise 60-minute or 90-minute roundtable discussions and workshops with 3-4 participants. Please submit a 400-word proposal about the issues to be discussed, including the format you would prefer, and a 300-word summary of the role of each student in your group (for instance, moderator, respondent, etc.).
Deadline: 6 February 2017.
Notification of acceptance: 15 February 2017.
Selected papers will be published in a thematic issue of the Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, a peer-reviewed journal listed by the MLA and available on ProQuest and JSTOR.
Registration fee : 30 EUR (normal); 20 EUR (students)
Partial registration fee waivers are available to participants from low and middle income countries, please apply before 28 February 2017.
Contact Info:
Gender, Translocality and the City Research Group
University of Debrecen, Institute of English and American Studies
Organisers:
Ágnes Györke, Senior Lecturer, Department of British Studies
Imola Bülgözdi, Senior Lecturer, North American Department
Contact Email:
