CALL. 01.12.2019: Writing Ancient and Medieval Same-Sex Desire: Goals, Methods, Challenges - Welling
FECHA LÍMITE/DEADLINE/SCADENZA: 01/12/2019
FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 30/06-01-02/07/2020
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Victoria University of Wellington (Wellington, New Zealand)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Mark Masterson (Victoria University of Wellington)
INFO: web - writingsamesexdesire@gmail.com
This call for papers is for a conference to take place June 30-July 2, 2020 at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, on the topic of writing about same-sex desire in ancient and medieval societies.
Derek Krueger (UNC Greensboro), Mark Masterson (Victoria University of Wellington), Nancy Rabinowitz (Hamilton College), and Shaun Tougher (Cardiff University) will be providing plenary addresses.
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For several decades now, scholars have devoted attention to same-sex desire in both ancient times and the centuries that followed. Not surprisingly, there have been vigorous debates over how to go about it. These debates have been framed in various ways. Here are some examples:
essentialism VERSUS constructivism;
Foucauldian discourse analysis VERSUS approaches inspired by psychoanalysis;
(the impossibility of) objective history VERSUS (overly) subjective history;
perception of commonalities across time VERSUS rigorously historicizing insistence on the past's alterity;
positivism VERSUS imaginative reconstruction of contemporaneous receptions.
These dichotomies, which are both reductive and don't exhaust the possibilities, continue to crackle with contention. They also continue to undergird and even disturb current scholarly endeavours.
We are looking for papers (30 minutes in length) in which scholars not only speak about primary source material but also reflect explicitly on the theoretical orientation of their work (see the dichotomies above for examples) and the purpose(s) of (their) scholarship on same-sex desire. An additional objective of this conference will be an edited volume of papers that will aim to showcase a variety of approaches to this important topic.
Please send proposals (c. 500 words) to Mark Masterson (writingsamesexdesire@gmail.com) by 1 December 2019. If you have any questions, please send them to him at this address also.
In your proposal include
the primary source material/historical milieu to be discussed, and
the general theoretical basis of the work