CFP: Graduate Conference: Global Identities in a Digital Age (Toronto, Nov 13, 2015; Deadline: July 30, 2015)
A joint graduate conference by the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo
Date: November 13th, 2015
Location: Hart House, University of Toronto
Deadline for abstracts: July 30th, 2015
Keynote speakers: tba
As inhabitants of a digital global space, we all form identities that
may or may not differ greatly from our non-virtual selves. Informed
and manipulated by mass media, the construction of our identities is,
more than ever, shaped by global discourses. Ideas of nationalism,
race, and gender are formed and re-formed in ways impossible to
recreate in a non-digital environment.
In 2013 the German chancellor Angela Merkel famously dubbed the
internet ‘Neuland’. While far from being unknown territory for German
culture, the language of choice for much of the internet’s content is
undoubtedly English. How does German-language culture respond to this?
Since language and identity are so closely intertwined, how much
influence does English have on non-native speakers? How do German
speakers, writers, artists position themselves in a global
environment? Do they embrace it? Do they subvert it, undermine it?
We welcome submissions from graduate students on the PhD and Master
level on the topic of global identities in a digital age which could
be explored from one of these vantage points:
Media identification
Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality, Age, Nation
Disability
Avatars
Social Media
Digital German Culture
The Role of the Cinema
Physicality vs. the Virtual
Texts and Hypertexts
Nature
Futurism
Post-Nationalism
Post-Humanism
Gaming
Celebrity and Iconicity
Borders and boundaries
Abstracts are accepted in German and English but please note that this
is an English-language conference. All presentations will be held in
English. Please submit your abstract (approximately 250 words) by July
30 to grad.conference.15@gmail.com.
Important Dates
Deadline for proposal submission : July 30th, 2015
Notification of acceptance: August 25th, 2015
Conference : November 13th, 2015
