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UCSD LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

HYBRID, MAY 26TH-27TH, 2022

In November 2022, more than 36,000 graduate students across California unified to strike for higher wages, better living conditions, adequate accommodations, and increased job security. The momentum of this movement was quelled by both pressure from the university and resistance from dominant factions within the striking community who were unwilling to push harder and longer. This event, the largest higher-education strike in US history, speaks to ruptures on multiple fronts. It marks a disruption to business as usual and an attempt at revitalizing the labor movement within the United States; it also demonstrates how ruptures can quickly subside into ripples, eventually flattened — though perhaps not entirely — by the often unbearable weight imposed by systems and structures of injustice. Submission Guidelines Proposal abstracts for papers, creative works/exhibitions, and roundtables should be no longer than 350 words. Please include 2-3 sentences of biographical information for each presenter including name, pronouns, institution (or unaffiliated/independent scholar), degrees, and one line of research interest. Our conference will be held in a hybrid modality for panels and roundtable discussions based on presenter needs. Presenters are encouraged to present in person, if possible. We will have some in-person events for presenters. The conference is open to any student enrolled in a graduate and undergraduate program in Literature or a related discipline. Email PDFs of your proposals to: rupturesofinjustice2023@gmail.com by Monday, March 27, 2023.

Call for Papers UCSD Literature Department Graduate Student Conference University of California, San Diego Hybrid, May 26th-27th, 2022 Ruptures of In/Justice “Don’t we want to be able to imagine the expansion of freedom and justice in the world… — in Turkey, in Palestine, in South Africa, in Germany, in Colombia, in Brazil, in the Philippines, in the US? If this is the case, we will have to do something quite extraordinary: We will have to go to great lengths. We cannot go on as usual. We cannot pivot the center. We cannot be moderate. We will have to be willing to stand up and say no with our combined spirits, our collective intellects, and our many bodies.” – Angela Y. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement In November 2022, more than 36,000 graduate students across California unified to strike for higher wages, better living conditions, adequate accommodations, and increased job security. The momentum of this movement was quelled by both pressure from the university and resistance from dominant factions within the striking community who were unwilling to push harder and longer. This event, the largest higher-education strike in US history, speaks to ruptures on multiple fronts. It marks a disruption to business as usual and an attempt at revitalizing the labor movement within the United States; it also demonstrates how ruptures can quickly subside into ripples, eventually flattened — though perhaps not entirely — by the often unbearable weight imposed by systems and structures of injustice. Our theme aims to discover and discuss ways in which achieving and maintaining freedom is a constant struggle that we as academics, artists/cultural producers, activists, and advocates have a responsibility to fight for. Like Davis, we also believe that “[o]ur histories never unfold in isolation. We cannot truly tell what we consider to be our own histories without knowing the other stories. And often we discover that those other stories are actually our own stories.” With these connections in mind, our conference strives to carve out a critical and creative space in which we can begin to think of ruptures of in/justice as inter-connected, often informing and sometimes contributing to one another. We welcome abstracts of critical and creative papers that explore ruptures of in/justice in presenters’ identities, lives, communities, cultures, research practices, and experiences inside and outside of the academy. We also support and encourage presentations that engage critically and creatively with oppression and that initiate opportunities to connect with one another as we reflect on the past and collaborate on ways we can disrupt these injustices in the present and future. Topics may include but need not be limited to the following: ● Personal and/or collective fragmentation, trauma, loss and/or grief, and/or healing ● Theorizing or sharing experiences from a place of marginality ● Solidarity and/or division within and/or between marginalized peoples ● Localized and/or global historical and/or contemporary events ● Reproductive justice and/or gender, queer, and/or transgender liberation ● Abolition and/or institutionalization, transformative justice, restorative justice ● Academia and/or academic discourse(s) ● The intentions and impacts of social movements and/or organizing ● Reparations after war, genocide, and/or colonialism ● Community formations and departures ● Social media’s role in ruptures ● Cross-community organizing ● The medical-industrial and/or military-industrial complex ● Militarized states, States of exception, Martial Law, Ukraine-Russia War, Palestine-Israel, Kashmir, etc. ● De/colonization and/or de/colonial spaces ● Conceptualization of and/or lived experience with disability, neurodivergence, chronic illness, and madness as rupturing ● Safe spaces, gatekeeping, and/or trigger warnings ● Inclusionary and/or exclusionary rhetoric and practices ● Literature, theater, film, music, and/or creative spaces as sites and/or sources of rupture ● Temporality, futurity, and/or ruptures in time, place, and/or space ● Hate crimes, massacres, and/or mass shootings in the United States ● Violence against marginalized people(s) in the United States and/or abroad ● Philosophical debates on related topics such as in/justice, freedom, and punishment Submitting Your Proposal ● Proposal abstracts for papers, creative works/exhibitions, and roundtables should be no longer than 350 words. ● Please include 2-3 sentences of biographical information for each presenter including name, pronouns, institution (or unaffiliated/independent scholar), degrees, and one line of research interest. ● Our conference will be held in a hybrid modality for panels and roundtable discussions based on presenter needs. Presenters are encouraged to present in person, if possible. We will have some in-person events for presenters. ● Email PDFs of your proposals to: rupturesofinjustice2023@gmail.com by Monday, March 27, 2023.