Call for Papers
Harvard University Graduate Conference, April 9, 2022
*To Be Held In-Person*
Views from the Exosphere: Contemporary Slavic Literatures, From Up Close and Far Away
Co-organizers: Joanna Burdzel, Brett Donohoe, Roy Ginsberg, Anna Ivanov, Rachael Neidinger, Harvard University
The exosphere is the most distant layer of a planet's atmosphere that still binds objects to a body's gravitational pull. The image of the exosphere, as a conceptual metaphor, guides our conference. Adopting this receding vantage point, paradoxically, creates a sense of proximity, as sites formerly separated by huge distances begin to appear as mere neighbors — zooming out makes distinct bodies seem all the closer. On a discursive level, approaching the study of Slavic literatures in this way seems promising, as richly informed readings of individual works or artists can often contain echoes of trends and through lines operating on a broader scale in unexpected ways. From the exosphere, however, such resonances become appreciable, and the contingency of varied, seemingly unconnected entities becomes all the more apparent. Our conference proposes to adopt this approach and see what productive pairings can be found when unlikely works find themselves in close proximity on our panels. What might one say about Olga Tokarczuk and the situation of contemporary Polish prose, for example, in discussion with another scholar talking about queer Bosnian poetry? We hope to uncover connections that can be seen from the exosphere that might be otherwise missed.
At the center we would like to consider the contemporary condition of Slavic literatures, writers, research, and cultural production. Our conference strives to bring the past into dialogue with the urgent questions facing Slavic studies today, and to bring voices, historical events, narrative genres, and artistic forms together in new ways. Without preambles on “minor literatures” or the revising of canons, we seek to create a truly hybrid space for productive, living, generative scholarly connections. Indeed, in a purely hermeneutic gesture, we hope to emulate the satellite, embodying its position in the exosphere and operating through its dual macroscopic and microscopic scales of vision and processing. Such an approach, we envision, will provide richly contextualized analyses of individual works or artists, while placement on a panel with scholars presenting on different traditions will uncover latent commonalities and deeper understandings of the themes and topics discussed.
We invite submissions of 300-word abstracts that detail any number of themes or readings of Slavic literatures and cultures through a transnational and exospheric lens. Panels will be organized based on submissions; possible panels may include the following:
Immigrations and the Émigrés
Memories, Histories, Societies
Performances and Definitions
Genders and Sexualities
Racial, Ethnic, Linguistic “Minorities”
Spiritualities, Cults, Religions
Visual cultures: Film, Art, Ephemera, Graphic novels and the Video Game
Media and Technologies
Translations, Appropriations, Adaptations
Theory: the decolonial, the post-X
Format
This conference will be held in person on Harvard’s campus in the Thompson Room at the Barker Center at 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, contingent upon CDC and local guidelines. Presenters will have 15-20 minutes to share their paper, followed by commentary from the panel discussant, then open discussion. This conference is intended to provide graduate students with the opportunity to present their work, receive constructive feedback and forge connections with fellow researchers.
The working language of this conference will be English.
Submission Details
We encourage submissions of 300-word abstracts that engage with any number of themes or readings of Slavic literatures and cultures, past and present. Papers are not restricted to contemporary literature and culture, but should approach literature and other cultural materials through modern transnational or exospheric perspectives.
Please submit abstracts (300 words or less) and a short bio (3-4 sentences) to exosphereconference@gmail.com.
The deadline for submissions is February 28, 2022. Please submit all files as Word documents. Notification of acceptance will be sent during the first week of March.
We will be able to provide small travel subsidies to help defray travel costs for conference participants. Final amounts will be dependent on funding.
Any questions should be addressed to exosphereconference@gmail.com.
We look forward to your contributions!