Call for Papers: Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, New York, February 24-28, 2012
Bodies, Borders, and Territory
Feminist geographers are increasingly engaging foundational, long-standing geopolitical debates through the lens of the body, both as a scale and a site of study, while also introducing previously neglected questions and perspectives. An attention to bodies
has revealed that geopolitical conflicts are felt in a variety of ways at micro-scales, and that these conflicts are often shaped by the everyday experiences of bodies on the ground. At the same time, scholars have effectively demonstrated that bodies themselves
are frequently contested in much the same ways as territory: they are treated as frontiers and interiors, they are counted and managed, and they are often invoked to represent the fate or well-being of territory and imagined communities at larger scales.
This session aims to explore the intersections of bodies and territory, with a particular focus on borders and boundaries. Some of the questions we aim to address include: Through what sorts of structures and processes is the body made into territory? How
are borders enforced through bodies, and how do bodies themselves become borders? How are bodies mapped onto territory and how are territories mapped or marked onto bodies? In what ways do bodies make borders porous, and how are bodies themselves unbounded?
How might bodies expand the possibilities of resistance to uneven power structures and oppressive political projects, and how do people resist being used as objects for geopolitical ends? We hope to explore these questions and themes in an interactive format,
and in the spirit of feminist geopolitics, we encourage papers that are informed by fieldwork and that engage critically with methodologies and researcher subjectivities.
Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words by 15 September 2011 to Sara Smith ([log in to unmask]), Agnes Chew ([log in to unmask]), and Nathan Swanson ([log in to unmask]). Feel free to contact us with questions about the session.
This session is sponsored by the Geographical Perspectives on Women (GPOW) specialty group, and the Political Geography Specialty Group.
Organizers: Mabel Gergan, Pavithra Kathanadhi, Agnes Chew, Nathan Swanson, and Sara Smith
Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Sara H. Smith
Assistant Professor
Geography
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
