Call for Papers
Utopia and Reality: Contrasting Visions and the Everyday
"Utopia is that which is in contradiction with reality."
- Albert Camus
Can this dichotomy be upheld? Are there not utopian visions that have become part of our everyday life (often failing to live up to the initial expectations when transformed from fiction to fact)?
We are instantly drawn to utopia, the sketch of would-be, could-be worlds. Political, social, economic, literary and individual utopias have or could have altered the world in numerous ways - sometimes brutally in a coup d'état, sometimes gradually in the realm of thought, and sometimes not at all. This conference will be a site of exploration for all possible concepts of utopia and dystopia, and how they affect and relate to reality.
Abstract and Paper Submission
We welcome the proposition of pre-formed panels; panels may be composed of three to four presenters. Individual submissions are also accepted. We recommend you join forces with other students and colleagues at your university (or other universities) to prepare your panels. Individual speakers will be allotted 30 minutes, and panel sessions will be 60 minutes long.
Please submit a 300 to 500-word abstract (in English) of your main argument to scias@lrz.uni-muenchen.de before July 1, 2010. Please remember to add your name, university affiliation, e-mail address, and phone number. Responses to inquiries and notification of acceptance will be sent via e-mail. Pre-formed panelists: please provide an additional summary of 200 words discussing the scope of the panel, along with a list of panel participants.
Please submit your full papers (8-10 pages) before September 30, 2010. This is to ensure that the other people in your session are familiar with your argument.
Categories
Individual talks and panels can be inspired by, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Literature/Film/Video games
- Gender/Sexuality/Feminist Theory
- Ethnicity
- History
- Political Science
- Economy
- Utopian Communities
- Structuralist and Post-Structuralist Thought
We are looking forward to a weekend of intellectual debate and getting to know each other.