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.

Call: "Comin' Out Swingin': Sexualities in Improvisation" interdisciplinary symposium seeks writers and artists

> Hi all,
>
> Our friends and colleagues at UBC are holding an
> interdisciplinary symposium on contemporary improvised musics in
> Vancouver on November 16 & 17, 2007 titled "Comin' Out Swingin':
> Sexualities in Improvisation".
>
> Please find attached and below the call for papers for the
> symposium, an exciting opportunity for engaging in dialogue
> around improvisational music, gender, and sexuality.
>
> Gregory Fenton
> Managing Editor
> Critical Studies in Improvisation/ Études critiques en
> improvisation
> 519-824-4120 Ext 56547
>
> CALL FOR PAPERS
>
> Comin’ Out Swingin’: Sexualities in Improvisation
> A Symposium
> Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
> November 16 & 17 2007
>
> Improvised and Creative New Musics have been on the upswing in
> recent years, but listeners, critics and scholars have said
> little, so far, about the relationships of the various forms and
> practices of improvisation to gender and sexuality. Compositions
> and performances in recent years by such prominent artists as
> Fred Hersch, Marilyn Lerner, Patricia Barber, Irene Schweizer,
> Maggie Nicols, Gary Burton, Pauline Oliveros, Lori Freedman,
> Steve Lacy and Irene Aebi, Miya Masaoka, Evan Parker, Peter
> Brötzmann and many others have placed the cultural politics of
> gender directly at issue, while many recorded works from the
> history of improvised music and jazz (from Valaida Snow to Cecil
> Taylor, from Billy Strayhorn to Andy Bey) provoke a
> reconsideration of the music’s relationship to sexuality and
> identity.
>
> With an ear to addressing this gap, th e second Creative Music
> Think Tank presented by Coastal Jazz and Blues Society in
> conjunction with St. John’s College and the Department of
> English at the University of British Columbia) invites proposals
> for critical and scholarly conference papers on gender,
> sexuality and improvisation. Essays can range from theoretical
> to practical, from aesthetic to political in their aims and
> methods, and interdisciplinary work is both welcome and
> encouraged. We are especially interested in provocative,
> informed work that deals with improvisation in as unlimited a
> sense as possible. Submissions are invited from both academic
> and non-academic writers and critics.
>
> The symposium will be held in Vancouver from November 16 & 17,
> 2007, and will be coordinated with a set of evening concerts.
> Selected papers from the conference will be published in a
> special issue of Critical Studies in Improvisation,
> http://www.criticalimprov.com/public/csi/index.html. Possible
> themes and areas of interest for conference presentations may
> include, but are not limited to, any of the following topics:
>
>
> Queer Music
> Sexing the Ear of the Other
> Women in Contemporary Creative Music
> Body Languages: Fingering, Tonguing, Blowing
> Performance and Performativity
> The Poetics of Improvisation: Speaking in Music
> Musical Affect, the Textures of Feeling
> The Politics of Dissonance: Fractured Identities
> Improvising Masculinities
> The Instrument as Prosthesis
> Radical Subcultures: Revolting Noise
> The History of Sexuality in/and Contemporary Creative Music
> Transitive Genders: Playing with Our Selves
> The Erotics of Close Listening
> Bump and Grind: Rhythm and Corporealities
> Mixed Media, Cyborg Songs
> Extemporaneous Positions: Improvising Sexualities
> Auscultation and other Apparatuses of Audience
> Other than Music: Confronting Idioms of the Heteronormative
>
>
>
> Please submit conference-paper proposals of no more than 500
> words — finished papers should conform to a 20-minute delivery —
> by July 15, 2007 to Dr. Kevin McNeilly
> mcneilly@interchange.ubc.ca or Dr. Julie Smith
> julie@coastaljazz.ca
>
>
> k_and_e_99@yahoo.com
>
>

Call: Ottawa Family Services seeking artists to work with children from LGBTA families

February 15, 2007

Family Services à la famille Ottawa is a non-profit agency that
provides counseling, education, and support to individuals, couples,
families, and the community.

Currently, we are working together with the gay, lesbian, bi, trans,
two spirit, and questioning (glbttq) community to support the inclusion
of children from glbttq families in childcare services, early childhood
centres, and elementary schools. The project is called Around the
Rainbow and is funded by Human Resources and Development Canada.

Community artists will play an invaluable role in this project. There
are many opportunities for artists to facilitate the creation of art,
in all forms, to express the beauty of diverse family. Artists are
invited to share their vision(s) of diverse family by facilitating a
community art activity. Though the focus throughout the project is on
gay, lesbian, bi, trans, two-spirit, and queer families with children
ages 0-6, the project also celebrates all families in our community.
We are open to any and all creative, innovative ideas you have for one
to three hour workshops, and hope that you will submit a proposal to us
outlining your background, areas of expertise, ideas, and a proposed
budget. We’ll use the proposals to match artists with different
community sites, as needs arise.

Your participation and input will ensure the success of Around the
Rainbow. If we work together, we will ensure that all our children
live in an inclusive, safe and welcoming community.

Please contact Marika directly to indicate your interest in this
project. You will receive a follow up call promptly. Thank you!

In Community,

Marika Jemma
Community Artist, Around the Rainbow
Family Services à la famille Ottawa
cell: 613-266-3737
jemma@magma.ca

http://www.around-therainbow.com/