CALL FOR PAPERS:
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF EUROPE WORKSHOP
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ANNOUNCES:
UTOPIAN PROJECTIONS, DYSTOPIAN HORIZONS:
UNSETTLED POLARITIES IN
(EU)ROPEAN TIME & SPACE
GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE, MAY 18, 2001
Europe is a place where geographic orientations and dichotomies
(North vs. South, East vs. West, the Atlantic Fringe) have been
tropes of powerful distinctions as well as geopolitical and
economic ordering principles. This common referencing of spatial
poles replicates itself in the temporal sphere, wherein utopian
and/or dystopian visions are projected onto other times, in various
imagined pasts and futures; these temporal projections then become
a frame for social action in much the same way as the spatial
poles. Unlike previous eras, however, now the EU as a governing
body has become available as one of the premier foils for this
"projective imaginary." The tropes of geography and temporality
dovetail in ubiquitous debates over whether to "move toward [or
away from] Europe." Examples include: the way in which some on the
left in Sweden pin nostalgic hopes for the return of the welfare
state by creating it within the EU; the way in which Spanish
frustration over the reorganization of labor becomes indexed with
EU membership and fears of being subsumed under the puritan work
ethic in the "Northern" model; the way in which Slovenes index
membership within the EU as the decisive break with their "Balkan"
past. Thus, we find that with the potential expansion of the EU,
the meanings attached to the geographic and temporal oppositions
are currently in flux and undergoing redefinition, while the EU
itself is being employed as a strategic resource in these battles
over meaning.
Hence, this graduate student conference aims to discuss this
positioning of the EU within a series of currently ambiguous
oppositional poles. How is this evolving governing body being
imagined in relation to them? How are various groups attempting to
employ it as the propelling force of their own politics? How are
recent moves toward expansion eastward going to alter these polar
oppositions within Europe while either exiling or drawing in places
traditionally considered "outside of" Europe? How can anthropology
and other social sciences approach these problems with new
methodologies or sites of interest?
Limited travel funds may be available to graduate students travelling
from within North America.
PLEASE SEND 250 WORD ABSTRACTS AND A CV BY WEDNESDAY MARCH 7TH TO:
Attn: Anthropology of Europe Workshop
Department of Anthropology
University of Chicago
1126 E. 59th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
USA
Address any questions to Gustav Peebles or Drew Gilbert at:
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