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The Aesthetics and Politics of Water (ACLA 2018)

The Aesthetics and Politics of Water (ACLA 2018)

Publié le par Université de Lausanne (Source : acla.org)

The Aesthetics and Politics of Water

Organizer: Kira Rose

Co-Organizer: Maria DiBattista

 

Water has long been central to cultural, spiritual, and creative expression; its absence, presence, ebb, and flow shape how we encounter, represent, and manipulate the surrounding world. Today water is increasingly coming to the fore as our most politically contested resource, not to mention the one most vital to our socioeconomic future. We often associate water with plentitude, purification, and redemption. Potent in some contexts, these meanings become highly contested in others, such as postcolonial situations, spaces of institutionalized violence, and places where resource distribution increasingly reflects the growing gap between rich and poor.

This panel explores water’s influence on aesthetic production past, present, and future, as well as the interface between this element’s instrumental and symbolic functions. We are as interested in how water continues to mold our sense of place and self, in how literary and artistic depictions of this natural resource are shifting to reflect its changing status and availability, and in how artistic representations of water may help shape public perception and policy. We aim to bring together scholars at all stages of their research to investigate the political, ethical, religious, and aesthetic stakes of water in a variety of media – such as, but not limited to, novels, poetry, nonfiction, graphic narrative, visual art, film, dance, theater, social media, and technology – across national, historical, and geographic boundaries.

We welcome submissions relating water to the following and more:

  • Artistic and creative production
  • Cognition and perception
  • Race, ethnicity, and religion
  • Home, place, travel, and migration
  • Colonialism, imperialism, and power
  • Natural resources, climate change, wildlife, and habitat
  • Utopias, dystopias, and social futures
  • Rivers, streams, lakes, oceans, beaches, and coastlines
  • Economy, industry, technology, and cartography

Scholars are invited to submit abstracts (100-250 words) before 23 September 2017. Submissions should be sent via the convention’s website: https://www.acla.org/annual-meeting. Should you have any questions, please contact kira15rose@gmail.com.