Spring 2000 Boas/Benedict Graduate Student Conference
Department of Anthropology
Columbia University
Thursday and Friday, March 23-24, 2000
ABSRACTS DUE: January 21, 2000
The theme of this conference is death, widely interpreted. Mass Transit operates as a metaphoric provocation; we call for papers which will explore the possibilities of this term and draw connections between possible interpretations.
Suggested rubrics:
- mass transit: the violence of migration, displacement, and diaspora, seen
through sites of power: work, nation and state.
- mass transit: the transformation of life and death in modernity by
technology and mass media.
- mass transit: the body as transitory: spirits and matter, mediumship and
ghosts, grave sites and memory.
We wish to unite, under the wide category of death, work emerging from a
number of disciplines, theoretical perspectives, and contexts. We are
particularly interested in intersections between metaphors (and instances)
of death and modern technology, late capitalism, and mass migrations. We
imagine that examining these sorts of issues together will be particularly
fruitful. These new groupings should help us to push beyond and together
what have been separately extremely interesting literatures: historical
memory and monumentalization; death rituals and spirits; political and
state violence.
Submissions are welcomed from a cross-section of disciplines: History,
Comparative Literature, English, Art History, Biological Anthropology and
Archaeology, Political Science, Sociology, Performance Studies,
Philosophy.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
We invite 200-300 word abstracts for the conference. Please include with
your submission a cover sheet providing your name, institutional
affiliation, address, phone number, and email. Please include copies of
any visual materials to be used. Submissions may be mailed or e-mailed.
E-mail submissions are preferred.
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