SLSA (it used to be SLS) was the very first scholarly conference I ever attended and presented at as a grad student. I have been to two SLSAs and have found them to be very interesting, interdisciplinarily diverse (sometimes chaotically so, but that can be profound), and fun. I am hoping to apply to this coming year’s conference with something video gamey:
CALL FOR PAPERS: 25th Annual Meeting of the Society for Literature Science and the Arts 2011
PLACE: Kitchener, Ontario
VENUE: Delta Hotel Kitchener, THEMUSEUM, Critical Media Lab (all within three short city blocks)
DATES: September 22-25, 2011
SITE COORDINATOR: Marcel O’Gorman, University of Waterloo
PROGRAM CHAIRS: Melissa Littlefield and Robert Markley, U. of Illinois; Susan Squier, Penn State U.
DUE DATE FOR PANEL, POSTER, AND ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTIONS: April 1, 2011
NOTIFICATION FOR ACCEPTANCE OF SUBMISSIONS: June 15, 2011
SLSA MEMBERSHIP: Participants in the 2011 conference must be 2011 members of the Society for Literature Science and the Arts. For more information about SLSA, please visit the organization website at www.litsciarts.org.
PHARMAKON
The theme for 2011 is “PHARMAKON,” that which can both kill and cure. From Socrates’ hemlock to nuclear radiation, the pharmakon offers an opportunity to explore the concept of indeterminacy as it applies to a number of research topics, including the following:
• bioarts
• critical media theory
• bioethics
• medical humanities
• new frontiers in digital media
• animal studies
• environmentalism and ecological studies
• new directions in rhetoric and writing studies
• the history and philosophy of science
• gender and/in science studies
PLEASE NOTE: This is an open conference where a wide range of work will be welcome. Proposed topics can represent ANY work in literature and science, history of science, philosophy of science, science and art, or science studies.
Plenary speakers for 2011 are BERNARD STIEGLER (Institut de Recherche et d’Innovation, Author of Technics and Time, etc.) and ISABELLE STENGERS (Université de Bruxelles, author of Cosmopolitics, etc.).
For panel contributions, submit a 250-word abstract with title. Pre-organized panels for consideration can contain an additional summary paragraph along with proposed session title. Submit proposals and register at http://www.litsciarts.org/slsa11/.
NEW FOR 2011: Poster Presentations. Poster presentations are traditionally under the purview of scientific conferences. This year, SLSA would like to challenge the boundaries of the poster presentation as well as provide space for more scientists to get involved with the society. If you would like to present your research in the form of a poster, we will have dedicated space to do so. Presenters will have an opportunity to discuss their work informally, and they MUST attend the conference for their work to be shown.
THE “A” IN SLSA
This year’s conference will include, among other interventions, bicycle tours of contemporary public art. For 2011, we are teaming up with THEMUSEUM of Kitchener and the Contemporary Art Forum of Kitchener + Area (CAFKA). THEMUSEUM will be exhibiting a retrospective of computational art entitled Rethinking Art & Machine (RAM), and CAFKA will be holding its biennial festival of public art, which will provide a larger context for the conference. The theme for CAFKA 2011 is “survive.resist”. This collaboration is designed to place more emphasis on the “A” in SLSA. To this end, we welcome panel proposals from artists and scholars interested in public art and the theme of “survive.resist,” in addition to arts-oriented papers and panels on the theme of “PHARMAKON.”
We invite proposals from artists for an SLSA exhibition to be held in the Critical Media Lab. Proposals will be considered in the context of the conference theme of “PHARMAKON.” Please visit the Critical Media Lab web site to better understand the context for this exhibition (http://criticalmedia.uwaterloo.ca). Artistic proposals must include a 1-2-page description that clearly outlines the project and its relationship to “Pharmakon,” as well as technical and space requirements. Artists must also provide up to 5 pages of images and/or a URL to a web site that clearly illustrates the proposed work and/or previous work that is relevant to the proposal. All submissions and questions should be addressed to Marcel O’Gorman (marcel@uwaterloo.ca). Participating artists will have full access to all conference activities, and will not have to pay registration fees or SLSA dues. They will also be eligible for SLSA Travel Awards (see below).
BOOK + ART PANELS: The SLSA Publications Committee is soliciting proposals from published authors, artists, and curators who wish to discuss their RECENT work in a longer format than a regular panel presentation. The panel will consist of the author/artist/curator and two respondents/commentators. Please send a brief proposal or nomination, and a list of possible respondents/commentators to Ron Broglio (Ronald.Broglio@asu.edu), who will share it with the rest of the Publications Committee (Elizabeth Wilson and Rob Mitchell).