This post comes to you from Cultura21
From April the 24th to April the 26th 2013 the conference “Probing the Skin: Cultural representations of Our Contact Zone†takes place at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena.
The organizers Prof. Caroline Rosenthal and Prof. Dirk Vanderbeke aks for submission of papers including artistic reflections of skin related themes in literature, art, media studies, and anthropology.
The conference aims to bring academics from various disciplines together in order to discuss the role of skin, which has been neglected in the discourse of literature and culture about body and senses in the recent years.
The skin deserves a closer look, as it is the largest organ reacting to sensual stimuli and embodies the border between our inside and outside world. It is able to protect us and at the same time it identifies us. Furthermore it is an indicator for health, age and even for feelings and experiences. The skin can also be inscribed with individual and collective memories and traumata.
Possible themes for submissions are:
Skin as…
- a medium and surface. Parallels between the skin and a canvas or piece of paper
- lieux de memoire. Skin as bearing the traces of deliberate or forceful marks
- a mask and performative space. Skin hides as much as it reveals
- a contact zone, as the permeable border between inside and outside
- a third space, as something in-between nature-culture, inside-outside, body-mind
- a means of inclusion and exclusion
- a marker for identity and individuality
- a medium for the senses, for hurt, lust, pain
- a trophy, an object of value or even currency
Deadline for submissions in English is March 31st, 2012.
Please submit your abstract to one of the organizers:
Prof. Dr. Caroline Rosenthal and Prof. Dr. Dirk Vanderbeke
Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Ernst-Abbe-Platz 8
07743 Jena
caroline [dot] rosenthal [at] uni-jena [dot] de / vanderbeke [at] t-online [dot] de
Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.
Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.
The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:
– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21