FYI:
Call for Papers: Conference
Fat Studies: Identity, Agency, and Embodiment
Venue: Massey University, Palmerston North New Zealand
Date: 29-30 June, 2016
Abstract submission deadline: 1 Feb 2016 Extended to 1 March 2016 Contact: Cat Pausé, PhD c.pause@massey.ac.nz
Fat Studies is a post-disciplinary field of study that confronts and critiques cultural constraints against notions of “fatness” and “the fat body”; explores fat bodies as they live in, are shaped by, and remake the world; and theorises how society conceptualises and pathologises fat bodies. Fat Studies scholars identify and discuss mainstream and alternative discourses on fatness, analyse size as a social justice issue at the intersection of oppression, and critically appraise size oppression as it is manifested in various societal institutions (medicine, media, education, etc).
All submissions are welcome, but please ensure your proposal fits within the academic framework of Fat Studies. Please also be mindful that Fat Studies is an academic discipline and not merely an umbrella term for all discussions of fat bodies. Additionally, we encourage submitters to rethink using words like “obesity” and “overweight” in their presentations unless they are used ironically, within quotes, or accompanied by a political analysis.
In your submission, please include the title of your paper/presentation, an abstract, and a short bio. We welcome papers and performances from academics, researchers, intellectuals, scholars, activists, and artists, in any field of study, and at any stage in their career. Topics may include, but are not limited to
- Fat identity, fat agency, fat embodiment
- Fat ethics
- Cross-cultural or global constructions of fatness and fat bodies
- Biopolitics of fatness
- Geography and lived experience of fatness and fat bodies
- Theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding the construction, pathologisation, and/or representations, of fatness
- Intersectional approaches to fat identity, fat agency, fat embodiment
Abstracts (limited to 300 words) should be submitted as an attachment to fsnz16@massey.ac.nz. Files should be named with the author’s surname followed by _fs2016 (Jones_fs2016). Please include contact information in the body of the email, and ensure your submission includes the title of your paper/presentation, an abstract, and a short bio. TInformal enquiries concerning papers and topics are welcome before the deadline.
The abstracts of all work presented at the conference will be published in the conference proceedings.