CFP: The Ohio State University Graduate Conference, “A Collective Address to Death”

The Ohio State University Comparative Studies Department seeks submissions for a spring graduate conference to be held May 13-14, 2022, on the theme “A Collective Address to Death.” Proposals are due by February 28, 2022. (In-person or virtual TBD)

This conference aims to extend the conversations generated through a graduate seminar centered on Religion, Medicine, and the Body to scholars across disciplines, by providing an opportunity to collectively address themes of death, dying, and what comes after.

The conference aims to bring different approaches to death into conversation with one another to broaden collective knowledges and further develop interdisciplinary perspectives on this topic. As such, the event invites scholars from different fields including, but not limited to, cultural studies, sociology,history, political science, anthropology, religious studies, gender studies, race studies, and other humanities fields. We welcome proposals for traditional panel presentations, roundtables, workshops, fine art exhibits, or “non-traditional” forms, either virtually or in person (COVID-19 dependent).

Examples of possible submission topics may deal with questions such as:

• How do we understand, communicate, translate, and/or experience death with one another?
• What are affective responses to death?
• How do communities explore/examine the affects of mass death?
• How can death give life? How do our experiences of death impact the way we understand life?
• In what ways do religion, ritual, and/or spirituality respond to death?
• How might power and/or politics intersect with death?
• How is death navigated through cultural, medical, and/or scientific discourse, and what are their impacts?

Submissions should include name, pronouns, professional affiliation (if applicable), presentation title, conference mode preference, and a 200-300 word abstract that addresses the conference theme, “A Collective Address to Death.”

For more information, contact organizer Daisy Ahlstone.