Call for Papers & Call for Artists

Call for Papers

The international conference Breaking Boundaries: Academia, Activism and the Arts proposes to bring into focus and critically question common grounds and boundaries between and within the Humanities, political activity and aesthetic production. Indeed, what is the role of the Humanities in our universities and in wider society today? How do - or should - they engage with other disciplines and with our contemporary political scenarios? As far-right movements gain popularity across Europe, and old and new discriminations appear legitimized by some political leaders around the world, how is it possible to challenge these from within academia? Is it still possible to separate academic work and political activism? How have the arts engaged with political activism in the past and how are they engaging with it today? Can closer interactions between artistic practices, academic work and activism support resistance to widespread political, economic and social discriminations against the various “Others” of our communities?

Intersections between different approaches to the representation and analysis of reality have been present in both artistic and academic debates throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. From the Frankfurt School to the establishment of Cultural Studies, to Feminist, Postcolonial and Comparative Studies, the active role of academic production as a way of engaging with the political has evolved within the field of Humanities and the Social Sciences. Similarly, the way some artistic movements have questioned and challenged the prevailing economic and political systems, as well as the role of the art institution within them, has taken different shapes and led to new forms and theorizations.

Recently, the word artivism (art + activism) has found its way into academia and is used, for example, by Asante (2009) to describe artists who use their creative skills to fight political injustice and oppression. As McCartney reminds us, however, "although artivism is a relatively new term, the practice of art and activism has a far longer history, and may be more recognisable in particular forms of creative resistance" (McCartney, 2018: 25). The ways in which artists, scholars and activists have, throughout history and in different media, incorporated, subverted and resisted ideological and political discourses by offering new ways of looking at and experiencing reality will be the thread guiding our discussion. At the same time, we ask: what is the role of scholars and of the field of Humanities in a neoliberal context, and how might insights coming from artists’ engagement in activism and acts of resistance inform academic practice?

We welcome proposals by academics, students and independent researchers from any discipline or scholarly field, as well as by artists and activists concerned with the relationship between different art forms, political activism and the role of academia, relating to different cultural and geopolitical contexts.

In particular, proposals might address, but need not be limited to, the following subjects:

Challenging representations of female, male and non binary identities
Feminism and the neoliberal context
Rewriting and reframing the canon through translation
Feminist, Queer and Postcolonial translation
Representations of non-normative corporalities in the arts
Documentary dance, site-specific dance and participatory dance
Cultural agents and artistic collectives as triggers or obstacles to social change
Subversive practices in literary and artistic creation
Questioning the role and limits of the canon in literary studies
Narratives of migration and diaspora
Academic and cultural boycott as political strategies
Rethinking postcolonial subjects in theory and practice
Cultural resistance in militarized contexts

We invite proposals (max. 300 words) for a 20 minute presentation in English or Portuguese. Proposals should also include the title of the paper, proponent’s name, institutional affiliation (if any), contact details, and a brief biographical note (max. 150 words). Proposals should be sent to the following address: breakingboundaries@letras.ulisboa.pt

The conference’s working languages will be English and Portuguese. Please note that there will not be simultaneous translation.

Important Dates:

Final Deadline for Proposal Submissions: 28/06/2019

Notification of Acceptance: 10/07/2019

Early Bird Registration Deadline: 31/07/2019

Last Day for Conference Registration: 20/08/2019

Registration Fees:

Standard Fee: € 80

Early Bird: € 65

Students Standard Fee: € 55

Students Early Bird: € 40

Works cited:

Asante, M. K. (2009). It’s Bigger than Hip-Hop. The Rise of the Post Hip-Hop Generation. New York: St. Martins Press.

McCartney, N. (2018). Death of the Artist. Art World Dissidents and their Alternative Identities. London: I. B. Tauris.

Call for Artists

The upcoming international conference Breaking Boundaries: Academia, Activism, and the Arts proposes to bring into focus and critically question common grounds and boundaries between and within the Humanities, political activity and aesthetic production. Over the course of two days, and in a range of formats, with the input of artists, scholars, activists and all those who fall between those boundaries, we propose to engage with a series of questions prompted by current social and political phenomena. As far-right movements gain popularity across Europe, and old and new discriminations appear legitimized by some political leaders around the world, we ask: What is the role of the arts in the current political climate and how can they influence and engage with large- and small-scale politics? How can these artistic processes form and inform academic discourse and what can academic discourse gain from direct dialogue with the arts? What spaces of resistance can be forged in the spheres of art and academy?

We welcome artistic projects - individual or collective - that reflect the topics discussed in the conference. In particular we seek pieces and performances that, via different aesthetic approaches and in relation to different cultural and geopolitical contexts, represent and question the relationship between the arts and political activism, as well as the role of academia in political and artistic fields.

We welcome submissions in all formats, including, but not limited to:

Photography
Video Art
Short Film
Illustration
Cartoon
Performance
Spoken Word Poetry
Musical Piece/Song
Dance

In the cases of performance or video projection duration should be limited to a maximum of 20 minutes. We also inform proponents that the conference’s working languages will be English and Portuguese. We ask that any practical requirements for artworks’ exhibition are clearly stated in the proposal.

Artists whose work is selected are invited to attend the conference and will have the opportunity to present and discuss their work with the participants of the event.

A proposal of an artistic object or performance (max. 500 words) or alternatively a copy of the proposed artwork(s), along with a brief biographical note of the artist(s) (max. 200 words) can be sent to the following email address: breakingboundaries@letras.ulisboa.pt

If you have any doubts, please feel free to contact us at the same email address.

Important Dates:

Final Deadline for Submissions: 28/06/2019

Notification of Acceptance: 10/07/2019