Call For Papers: Queering the Quotidian

book-and-mouseQueering the Quotidian: Differential and Contested Spaces Within Neoliberalism

The Society for Radical Geography, Spatial Theory, and Everyday Life invites submissions for our annual symposium to be held March 07, 2014 at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. This year’s theme is “Queering the Quotidian: Differential and Contested Spaces Within Neoliberalism,” and our keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Jen Jack Gieseking of the Digital and Computational Studies Initiative at Bowdoin College. Gieseking’s work examines the everyday co-productions of space and identity that support or inhibit social, spatial, and economic justice in urban and digital environments, with a special focus on sexuality and gender.

While many critical interrogations of neoliberalism understandably consider it ubiquitous in its ability to permeate and restructure individual experience and everyday life, this symposium seeks to highlight its moments of instability, incongruence, and unexpected contradiction. This year’s symposium invites research that rethinks theories of the everyday; of particular interest is work that engages queer possibility and impossibility in the production of space and everyday practice within neoliberalism.

In addition to our theme, we will gladly consider abstracts that are more broadly concerned with the following areas of inquiry:

Spatial practices/everyday life

Feminist and queer geographies

Heterotopias, subtopias, and differential space

Phenomenology and sensory experiences of space

Non-places and/or abject space

Geological intersections with geography

Ecologies of space

The right to the city

We are open to receiving proposals for non-traditional presentations and from individuals at various stages in their research. All participants will be allotted the same amount of time to use however they see fit. Participants may choose to present a conference paper, a project overview, or even a set of research questions tailored to stimulate dialogue between the presenter and attendees. This symposium is committed to producing sustained conversations and a collaborative environment for scholars whose work engages our society’s specific interests in radical geography, spatial theory, and everyday life.

Those interested may submit proposals of no more than 500 words to symposium co-organizers Tahereh Aghdasifar and Andrea Miller at radicalspaces@gmail.com by November 01, 2013. Presenters will be notified of their acceptance by December 01, 2013. For more information on the symposium and the Society for Radical Geography, Spatial Theory, and Everyday Life, see our website at http://radicalspacesblog.wordpress.com/ and like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/radicalspaces.