Call for Papers: Middle East Bodies in Motion (USA)
Deadline November 30, 2014
Bodies in Motion: Middle East Migrations
The Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora
Studiesat North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North
Carolina, USA)
March 20-22, 2015.
This conference seeks to enrich scholarly narratives of migration by reflecting upon bodies in movement and the lived experiences of men and women who have migrated from, to, and in what came to be called the Middle East.
The Khayrallah Center welcomes paper proposals that address the ways
migration redraws notions of gender and bodily comportment that men and women act out in new settings, the attempts of states and other powers
to discipline and control the bodies of moving people, and the impact of migration
on bodies and mind. We welcome proposals addressing these and the following
questions:
•In what ways might diasporic bodies mark the lives of those who stay behind?
•How do Middle East migrations relate to public health, ideas of disease, hygiene, and the body?
•How can the study of Middle East migrants help us understand discourses, and
practices, of gender, sociability, society and culture?
•How do Middle East migrations influence the representation of the body in clothes, public performances, literary productions, etc.?
• How might the vantage point of the Middle East animate theoretical and
historiographical explorations of the body in transit and in check – of bodies
held back and scrutinized at the border or secluded in camps, of thwarted migrants and illicit movers, or of refugees stripped of the trappings of statehood?
Please send paper proposals in MS Word or PDF format via email to the organizers at the following address:
Proposals should have a title and abstract of no more than 300 words, and should include contact information and institutional affiliation.
The Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies will provide
financial support to help fund travel. In addition, the Center will provide
housing, as well as meals for the participants. Some of the papers will be selected for subsequent publication in Mashriq&Mahjar: Journal of Middle East Migration Studies.
Andrew Arsan (Cambridge University); John Karam (DePaul University); Akram Khater (NC State University)
