Actualité
Appels à contributions
Reflections on Optimism

Reflections on Optimism

Publié le par Marielle Macé (Source : Silvia Baage)

The School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

University of Maryland, College Park

Announces 

The Seventh Annual SLLC Graduate Student Forum 

Reflections on Optimism

 

March 26-27, 2009

________________________

 

      “Although the world is not perfect, it is yet the best that is possible.” Centuries have passed since Leibniz made this much-debated statement, but the discourse on optimism and its role in our daily lives remains as relevant.  Academic fields from literature to psychology, from the visual arts to applied linguistics have examined the effects of optimism on the Self.  Political scientists have analyzed the consequences of trust and optimism on foreign and domestic policy. Yet the value of a literary work with an optimistic outlook is often questioned, and a jaded worldview has become a trademark of intellectualism.  The questions surrounding the function and character of optimism seem especially pressing during times of rapid change, upheaval, and crisis. What role does optimism play in the world today?  What role does it have in contemporary global cultural production? How have various cultures perceived and represented optimism across the centuries? To what extent can optimism deceive, motivate, placate, desensitize?  What is optimism?

      With these and other questions in mind, the graduate students of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Maryland cordially invite the submission of papers that offer new reflections on optimism.

      Possible topics include but are not limited to:

 

    • Crisis and Optimism
    • Utopia, Dystopia, Escapism, and Elsewhere
    • Staging Hope, Staging Despair
    • Free Will vs. Determinism
    • The Language of Optimism
    • Motivation in Education
    • Rebirth, Reconstruction, Resilience, and Healing
    • Globalism and Identity
    • Gender and Sexuality
    • Faith and Doubt

 

Abstracts are encouraged from all fields and all papers should be in English.  Please submit a 250 word abstract by December 20, 2008 to:

 

SLLC Graduate Student Forum

Sllc2009.umd@gmail.com

University of Maryland

SLLC, 3215 Jiménez Hall, College Park, MD 20742