Collected and Collective Identities
A NEXUS Interdisciplinary Conference
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Friday 28 - Saturday March 29, 2008
Website: http://web.utk.edu/~nexus/

Keynote Speaker: Brent Hayes Edwards (Columbia University)
Creative Speaker: Shelley Jackson (www.ineradicablestain.com)

Deadlines for Submission: UPDATED January 15, 2008

This conference seeks to further conversation concerning the creation and structure of collectivities as well as the relationship of these collectivities to their members and the social world. Collectivities often serve as the public representations of the private self and, as such, provide an important intersection between internal subject and the external manifestation of identity. In short, these collectivities determine how we define ourselves, how others define us, and how the social world is organized.

The nexus of presentation and representation in collectivities and their members suggests many questions about the construction of the self in the world: How can we connect to and communicate with one another? Are fragmentary, multiple, or hybrid identities possible to hold both publicly and privately? Is a global collectivity possible? What does it mean to be a member of a collective? How are multiple interpretations of a collective reconciled?

Nexus 2008 seeks to discuss these questions of collectivity across disciplines, in the context of an increasingly global and virtually interconnected world. It is our hope that, by facilitating these discussions, we can explore the intersections of these forms of identification that we collect for ourselves and hold in common with others.

We welcome submissions from all disciplines, including activists and scholars without academic affiliation. Abstracts (250-300 words) are invited on a broad range of topics including but not limited to the following: