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 CONFERENCE THEME: INTERSECTIONS: LITERATURE, TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE

Intersections: Literature, Technology, Science
Eighth Annual English Graduate Organization Conference, presented in association with the Liberal Arts and Sciences Graduate Organization.

October 21-22, 2011
Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL
Keynote Speakers:

Jackie Orr is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University and the author of Panic Diaries: A Genealogy of Panic Disorder (Duke). Her research focuses on contemporary and feminist theory; critical studies of technology, science and psychiatry; and cultural politics.

Steve Tomasula is the author of the novels The Book of Portraiture (FC2); IN & OZ (Ministry of Whimsy); VAS: An Opera in Flatland (University of Chicago), an acclaimed novel of the biotech revolution; and most recently, TOC: A New-Media Novel (FC2/University of Alabama).

The English Graduate Organization of Western Illinois University invites submissions for our eighth annual conference. This year the conference will focus on issues of science in the humanities. We are interested in how the humanities work to navigate an increasingly scientific world, as well as how the humanities contribute vital modes of understanding, responses to and novel uses of science and technology. We seek papers and panels that address the intersections of science, technology, and the liberal arts.

Possible topics can include, but are not limited to:

Literature and the sciences/technologies
Writing Studies and the sciences/technologies
Intersections of "the three cultures": Social Sciences, Sciences and the Humanities
Technological dissemination and the public sphere
History of exhibition and understanding the human body through science, literature, and technology
Inhuman subjectivities? Humans, animals and "others"
Environment and ecology through narrative and poetics
New Media and environmentalism
Evolution of science and its narrative conceptualization
History of the book and other literary technologies
Implications of digital archives on science and humanities
Genetics and/as a medium for art
Revolutions in scientific rhetoric
Intersection of science and religion
Technology and accessibility of scientific discourse
Academic space and scientific positioning
Implications of revolutions in science on the future of writing

The EGO/LASGO conference intends to explore all areas of English Studies including pedagogy, cultural studies, literary studies, linguistics, and critical theory. In addition, we welcome interdisciplinary participation from all scholars in the liberal arts Ð humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences Ð who have an interest in scientific and technological developments, discourses and their dissemination.

Please send 500-word abstracts to ego@wiu.edu by September 23rd 2011. We welcome submissions by u. s. mail as well: English Graduate Organization, Department of English and Journalism, 1 University Circle, Macomb IL 61455-1390.

This event is co-sponsored by EGO, LASGO, the Department of English and Journalism, the University Theme Committee, The Visiting Lecturers Committee, The College of Arts and Sciences, and the ProvostÕs Office.