Nikita Dhawan (Frankfurt Research Center for Postcolonial
Studies [FRCPS], Excellence Cluster "Formation of Normative Orders"
Goethe-University Frankfurt), Antke Engel (Institute for Queer Theory,
Berlin/Hamburg), Christoph Holzhey (ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural
Inquiry), Volker Woltersdorff (SFB "Cultures of the Performative", FU
Berlin), Berlin
Confirmed Speakers: Lisa Duggan, Kevin Floyd, Josephine Ho, Ratna Kapur,
Desiree Lewis, Anne McClintock, Donald Morton
The conference seeks to explore how desire not only sustains current
economies, but also carries the potential for inciting new forms of
understanding and doing economy. We propose to focus on the notion of
desire as a tool to explore economy's sexual dimension as much as the
economic dimension of sexuality. Drawing on Queer Theory we understand
desire as historically structured by heterosexual norms, while
simultaneously functioning as a structuring force itself - thus
inscribing reproductive heteronormativity to subjectivity and society.
Presuming that desire can be envisioned beyond heteronormative
restrictions and that this bears on the idea of justice, the question
arises whether the pursuit of economic and sexual justice can be made to
coincide when economy is queered by desire. Rather than a realisable
universal norm, the term justice is employed as a contestable term,
offering possibility for debate and political practice. The conference's
twin interest lies in unpacking how sexuality is implicit in economic
processes and in unfolding how economy is linked to sexuality. How do
current global economic processes (including production, reproduction,
consumption, circulation, speculation) constitute specific sexual
identities and practices that collaborate in relations of exploitation,
domination, and subjectivation? Conversely, how do ways of organizing
sexuality influence economic processes?
In addition to exploring the reciprocal relation between sexuality and
economy, the conference inquires into how a queer reconceptualization of
desire may emerge as a destabilizing and transformative force in
economic relations. One of the aims of the conference is to fashion
space for imagining "other" economies or imagining economy "otherwise",
as well as for the deployment of the concept of desire in ways that
allow for a reworking of social relationships and economic practices.
The presumption here is that global capitalism is not a monolith;
rather, there exist diverse capitalisms and diverse economies. For
instance, economic practices in the fields of migration and diasporas,
subcultural economies, gift and barter economies and cooperative
economies do not all conform to the capitalist logics.
"Desiring Just Economies / Just Economies of Desire" is an
international, transdisciplinary conference that welcomes a wide range
of presentations, from academic papers to experimental writing, lecture
performances, and visual presentations. We invite scholars,
activists
and artists inspired by queer and postcolonial theory to submit
abstracts that relate to the questions raised in the full CFP available
at: http://www.desiring-just-economies.de
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 20 January 2010
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dhawan, Engel, Holzhey, Woltersdorff
cfp@desiring-just-economies.de