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Genealogies of sympathy in texts

Genealogies of sympathy in texts

Publié le par Perrine Coudurier (Source : The Graduate Student Caucus of the MLA)

MLA, Austin

Subject(s) matter: genealogies of sympathy in texts

The painful current events involving the deaths of a number of African American people shook the United States and triggered the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. This recognition of the other’s life as worthy has a history that manifested itself in particular through texts. Whether written, visual or oral, these texts represent and express the systemic power relations at play in the creation of selfhood and alterity. How is the subjectivity of the other represented, acknowledged and regulated by the textual support? What are the textual techniques that are used to create or produce empathy? Of special interest are texts that exemplify the identification between the reader and the fictive character’s hardship and suffering, through constructed barriers of gender, class, race and place. The presentations should not exceed 15 minutes. We encourage graduate students from all literary traditions to submit an abstract.

Grad experiences: past, present, future

We seek interventions for a roundtable on grad experiences. As the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) celebrated its centennial in January 2015, the Chronicle of Higher Education published a piece on a very significant event in the history of liberal education titled “The Day the Purpose of College Changed.” It took a speech by the newly elected Republican governor Ronald Reagan questioning the usefulness of “intellectual curiosity” that he qualified as “luxury” to change the lives of students all over the US forever. “After February 28, 1967, the main reason to go was to get a job.” As for graduate students, their experiences and the way they apprehend college education today are drastically different from the way they did in the past. The challenges they face with the current state of the job market and budget cuts make the future even more uncertain. This panel will explore the future of graduate students in the job market and investigate the value of “intellectual curiosity”. From hope that reforms will help improve the market to considering alt-ac jobs, what are the best and the most realistic options for current graduate students?

Possible topics include Alt-Ac careers, being a graduate student after retirement, considerations on the job market, Unions and Adjuncts…

The Graduate Student Caucus, an affiliate organization of the MLA, invites proposals for papers to be presented at the 2016 MLA annual convention (Austin, TX, January 7-10, 2016). Please send abstracts of up to 250 words to gradstudentcaucus@gmail.com by March 19, 2015.