"Owning it" is a call to own ourselves as practicioners of theory, and to understand theory not as an external, static edifice but rather as a shifting ground constituted by our collective, everyday theoretical practices.

This conference invites papers that explore those practices; that examine the role of graduate students as producers and consumers of theory; that initiate dialogue between different orientations toward theory; that imagine new directions for literary theory, and that ask what it means to practice theory is what has been labeled a "post-theoretical" academic landscape. It is also a chance to investigate the political ramifications of theoretical work, including inviting speculations on the causes and consequences of the on-going backlash to theory. We encourage submissions that take strong positions on these issues, as well as papers that comment on methodological practices in a more reflective mode.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Literary Theory and the Social Sciences
• Politicization/ depoliticization and Theory
• Theory and the Culture Wars
• Future Theory
• Hostility to Theory
• Theory and Undergraduate Education
• Paradigm Shifts in Theory
• Theory and the Classroom
• Theory and Popular Culture
• Theory and Postmodernism
• Theory and the Para-literary
• Class/ Race/ Gender/ Sexuality and Theory
• Theory and Advertising
• Theory and Visual Culture
• Feminism and Theory
• Woman as Producers of Theory
• Theory and Justice
• Relativism
• The Uses of History in Literary Theory
• Theory and Deconstructions
• Forgotten Theories
• Theory and Class Revolution
• Theory and Materiality
• Theory and/of the Body
• Theoretical Language/ Jargon
• The Aesthetics of Theory
• Composition/ Rhetoric and Theory