Call: Papers wanted for "Embodied Politics in Visual Autobiography"

Call for Papers

Embodied Politics in Visual Autobiography

We invite contributions for a proposed collection of essays on visual
autobiography, focusing on health, bodies, and embodied subjectivities.
The collection will consider how cultural practices of self-narration
and self-portraiture image and imagine unruly bodies and, in so doing,
respond to Patricia Zimmerman's call for "radical media democracies
that animate contentious public spheres" (2000, p. xx).

How are health, dis/ability, and the body theorized, materialized, and
politicized in visual autobiographies, including forms such as
photography, video art, graphic memoir, film, body art and performance,
and digital media? We are particularly interested in the potential of
visual autobiographies to:
-explore how bodies negotiate disciplinary regimes and technologies
-produce counterdiscursive manoeuvres and new representational spaces
-investigate how power/knowledge relations constitute embodiments
-provoke critical and ethical reflection

We welcome contributions from academic- and arts-based researchers and
practitioners. We encourage a wide range of critical perspectives:
cultural studies, critical theory, disability studies, feminist
studies, critical race studies, diaspora studies, queer studies,
Aboriginal studies, globalization studies, literary studies, art
history, music, media studies, theatre and performance studies.
Analytic approaches could involve: textual analysis; histories,
presents, and futures; practices and practitioners; and pedagogy.

Possible topics:
dis/ability
sickness/wellness
disease
bodies negotiating borders and boundaries
traded and disappeared bodies
trauma and testimony
memory and memorializing
monstrosity
care of the self
care-giving
fatness and body size
aging
body alterations and transformations
environments
activisms

Send a 300- to 500-word abstract, working title, and a brief bio, by
email in a Word attachment, to Sarah Brophy (brophys@mcmaster.ca) and Janice Hladki (hladkij@mcmaster.ca) on or before May 15, 2008.
Inquiries are also welcome. Final papers should range in length from
4000-8000 words.

About the editors: Sarah Brophy is an Associate Professor in English
and Cultural Studies, McMaster University. Janice Hladki is an
Associate Professor in Theatre and Film Studies, McMaster University.