The third annual, interdisciplinary conference hosted by the English Graduate Organization (EGO) will take place April 3-5, 2003. This year's theme, "Insatiable Crises: Producing Obsessions, Evils, and Traumas," focuses on the juxtaposition of the seemingly incompatible concepts of _insatiability_ and _crises_ in order to consider the vulnerability and actuality of being "in crisis" in consumer-driven societies. Without trivializing the pain and suffering inherent in _crisis_, we wish to explore how desire informs the theoretical perspectives from which we consider the ever-present commotion and turmoil in varied lives and communities. Not only are we interested in notions of ethics, intelligence/ignorance, and diversity, but we are also interested in the problems of greed, hate, and freedom that are raised by recent crises.

We seek papers that analyze and question the variety of spaces that crises inhabit including, but not limited to, academic disciplines, urban development, and international relations. Some possible questions include:

• What does it mean to be in crisis?
• What is immanent within crisis?
• How does one respond to crisis?
• In what ways does one seek and possibly thrive on crisis?
• What role does desire play in forming (or informing) theoretical perspectives of crisis?
• What sort of violence has the Institution done to the notion of crisis?
• How might one view crisis as transgression?
• How has crisis been constructed historically?
• How does the "free market" generate/prevent crisis?
• To what extent are crises real and/or imagined?
• How are class, gender, or race in crisis?
• In what ways has crisis been used and/or misused?
• How is crisis an ontological phenomenon?

We invite papers and/or presentations that investigate these notions from a variety of perspectives, including American and British literature and culture, Film and Media studies, History, Romance Languages, German and Slavic Languages, Anthropology, Sociology, Fine Arts, Architecture, Music, and Political Science.

Procedures and Deadlines:

Deadline: 31 January 2003

Proposals must include your name, e-mail address, mailing address, telephone number, institutional affiliation, technology requests, presentation title, and 300-word abstract.

Submit proposals via email or to the address below.

Electronic submissions are preferred, but not required. Panel proposals are also welcomed and encouraged.

For any further information contact EGO President Julie A. Sinn at or visit our website.