Convergence 2012: The Geo/Body Politics of Emancipation

Convergence 2012: The Geo/Body Politics of Emancipation November 9th, 10th, and 11th 2012 Duke University Call For Participation The year 2011 marked an explosion of radical mobilization, from student protests and occupations to uprisings and insurrections. These events were characterized by the embodied reclaiming of public space, demands for economic, social, and political change, and instrumentalization of technology to communicate, organize, and revolt. As these political struggles spread globally, artists, activists, and scholars have engaged and responded to these actions by generating militant research practices, radical art gestures, and networked communities. The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics Graduate Student Initiative invites graduate students from the humanities, arts, and social sciences to come together for our Convergence 2012 to discuss contemporary notions of emancipation, liberation, revolution, occupation, geopolitics, “artivism,” and militant research, and to consider the lived tensions of these concepts in bodies, knowledge, and locations. In the spirit of the Hemispheric Institute Encuentros, Convergence 2012 intends to bring together about 100 participants to generate a space of intensive connections between scholarship, artistic expression, and politics, promoting embodied practices — performance — as a vehicle for the creation of new meaning and the transmission of cultural values, memory and identity. During the three days of Convergence 2012, we aim to explore new political potentials for emancipation, liberation, and revolution. Invited Speakers and Artists include: Andy Bichlbaum (The Yes Men), Colectivo Situaciones (Argentina), Counter-Cartographies Collective (Durham NC), Ricardo Dominguez (UCSD), Esther Gabara (Duke University), Macarena Gómez-Barris (USC), Jack Halberstam (USC), Michael Hardt (Duke University), Brian Holmes (activist), Josh Kun (USC), Pedro Lasch (Duke University), Diane Nelson (Duke University), Walter Mignolo (Duke University), Spirithouse (Durham NC), Diana Taylor (NYU), and Wu Tsang (performer/filmmaker) Who Can Apply Hemi GSI is a forum for graduate students, so applicants must be currently pursuing a graduate degree (MA, MFA or PhD) in the humanities, arts, or social sciences. How To Apply Interested participants must apply to be part of a work group (see side menu on our website). To apply, please fill out the online Application Form, and email your CV, a 250 word bio, and a 500-word abstract of your proposed project to hemi.gsi@gmail.com. Make sure you indicate the name of your desired work group in the subject of the email, and that your submitted documents are in Word format (.doc or .docx). Please note that the maximum number of participants per work group will be 10. Deadline: July 1, 2012 Website: http://bit.ly/JFvuFd Application Form: http://bit.ly/J1yU2v Contact: hemi.gsi@gmail.com Organizers Leticia Robles-Moreno, New York University Zach Blas, Duke University Ana Paulina Lee, University of Southern California Duke University Co-Organizers Kency Cornejo, Laura Jaramillo, Melody Jue, Camila Maroja, China Medel, Amanda Suhey, and Jasmina Tumbas Convergence 2012 is made possible by the generous support of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University; Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Dean of Humanities, The John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, Provost of the Arts, Center for International Studies, The Graduate School, The Literature Program, Romance Studies, Center for Caribbean and Latin American Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, Center for Latino Studies in the Global South, HASTAC, Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts Program, Women’s Studies, History, Theater, Arts of the Moving Image, Center for Global Studies and the Humanities, and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University; the Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture Doctoral Program at the University of Southern California; and the Department of Performance Studies at New York University.