EUROPA ! EUROPA ?

First bi-annual conference of the European Network for Avant-Garde and
Modernism Studies (EAM)

29-31 May 2008 - Ghent University, Belgium

With initiatives in the cross-disciplinary fields of avant-garde and
modernism studies booming throughout European academia, time has come to
provide a more permanent platform in Europe for scholars to meet and discuss
their research. The European Network for Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies
(EAM) will devote itself to the study of the avant-garde and modernism in
Europe within a global setting, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. EAM will promote interdisciplinary and intermedial research on
experimental aesthetics and poetics, and aims to encourage an interest in
the cultural dimensions and contexts of the avant-garde and modernism. EAM
aspires to embrace the wide variety within avant-garde and modernism
studies, and welcomes all scholars engaged in these areas of research to
participate in its first bi-annual conference.

Europa ! Europa ? The first EAM conference will focus on the relation
between the avant-garde, modernism and Europe. Conference proposals and
papers can be composed in English, French or German. Confirmed key-note
speakers include Charles Altieri (University of California, Berkeley),
Astradur Eysteinsson (University of Iceland, Reykjavik), William Marx
(University of Orléans and University Institute of France) and Piotr
Piotrowski (Mickiewicz University, Poznan - Poland).

Theme

EAM's first conference will focus on the relation between the avant-garde,
modernism and Europe. Although we welcome panel, roundtable and paper
proposals on any aspect of this relation, we are particularly interested in
new research into three topics.

1. We seek to bring out the complexity of the European avant-garde and
modernism by relating it to Europe's intricate history, multiculturalism and
multilingualism. Transnational and cosmopolitan phenomena in many respects,
the avant-garde and modernism are also entrenched in regional and national
cultural contexts that determine their artistic production. Our pivotal
point of interest is just how these local contexts colour more general
trends within the avant-garde and modernism. Is there a contrast between
avant-gardes and modernisms from culturally central and peripheral regions
in Europe? How have avant-garde and modernist non-Europeans, exiles and
expats viewed Europe's avant-gardes and modernisms? Has the role of gender,
class and other identity-related aspects tended to differ in the rise of
various European avant-gardes and modernisms? To what extent has
transnational travel determined the face of the avant-garde and modernism in
Europe? Has the (belated) introduction of certain media and technologies led
to differences in avant-garde and modernist artistic production throughout
the continent? And has there ever been any particular European flavour to
the avant-garde and modernism?

2. We wish to inquire into the divergent cultural views on Europe taking
shape in avant-garde and modernist practices. We have come to accept that
the heterogeneous use of the terms "avant-garde," "modernism" and their
cognates mirror the continent's cultural and historical complexity. Yet to
date research into how the avant-garde and modernism have dealt with
"Europe" itself has remained dispersed, even though it is a truism that the
European avant-garde and modernism have always tended to display an
ambivalent attitude towards "Europe." What was the "old" Europe that
avant-gardists and modernists rebelled against? Which cultural and
philosophical stakes were invested in making Europe new or different? To
what extent has the idea or cultural construction of Europe differed
geographically and historically?

3. We aim to chart a composite image of the "other Europe(s)" that have
emerged from the (contemporary) avant-garde and experimental modernism. As
Anatol Stern's Polish avant-garde poetry book Europa (1925) reads, only by
appeasing their "hunger with the / fatted / flesh of / Europe" artists can
yield change. Like many avant-garde and modernist works, Stern's Europa
draws on "Europe" as an (anthropomorphic) object that has to be digested
first and then redesigned. What have these redesigns amounted to? Which
works, techniques or facets of the avant-garde and modernism have been
somewhat neglected, yet require proper attention to grasp the force of these
movements in European culture and aesthetics? To what extent does the
tension between avant-gardes and arrière-gardes deserve scrutiny? Which
other European communities have the avant-garde and modernism produced? Do
avant-garde and modernist groups amount to an "other" or subaltern Europe
themselves? And to what extent have medial and cross-medial issues tended to
colour the "other Europe"?

Call for Papers

Languages

Conference proposals and papers can be composed in English, French or
German. Other languages will only be considered for panel presentations.

Call for Panel Proposals

(Deadline: 1 September 2007)

Panels feature 3 speakers who read 15-20 minute papers on a shared field of
interest, followed by discussion. We encourage interdisciplinary proposals
and discourage panels on single artists or authors. Panels composed of
participants from a single department at a single institution are unlikely
to be accepted. Panels are 70 minutes in length.

Panel proposals should contain the following information:

(i) The panel's title and a 500-word abstract of the panel as a whole.

(ii) The organiser(s)'s name, institutional affiliation, discipline,
position or title, and contact information (mailing address, phone, fax and
e-mail address).

(iii) The chair's name, institutional affiliation, discipline, position or
title, and contact information. If you do not identify a chair, we will
assign one. Please note that the chair should not be included under (iv).

(iv) The names, institutional affiliations, disciplines, positions or
titles, and contact information of the 3 speakers.

(v) A brief (2-3 sentences) academic biography of each panel member.

Please be so kind as to send us this information in the order given here.
Send proposals to: eam-europeugent.be. Upon acceptance, speakers will be
contacted individually to provide 200-word abstracts.

Call for Roundtable Proposals

(Deadline: 1 September 2007)

Roundtables offer scholars an opportunity to discuss a well-defined topic of
common interest. A maximum of 6 participants write brief "position papers"
(4 pages) that are read and circulated before the conference. During the
roundtable participants briefly present position statements, after which a
discussion between participants (and the audience) takes place. The main aim
of roundtables is to help create networks and collective publication
projects. We welcome roundtables featuring participants from multiple
disciplines, and discourage roundtables on single authors or artists.
Roundtables composed of participants from a single department at a single
institution are unlikely to be accepted. Roundtables are 70 minutes in
length. The programme will not list paper titles, only the participants’
names.

Roundtable-proposals should contain the following information:

(i) The roundtable's proposed title and a 500-word description of the
roundtable’s topic and rationale.

(ii) The organiser's name, a one page curriculum vitae, and contact
information (mailing address, phone, fax and e-mail address).

(iii) The moderator's name, institutional affiliation, discipline, position
or title, and contact information. If you do not identify a moderator, we
will assign one. Please note that the moderator should not be included under
(iv).

(iv) The names, institutional affiliations, disciplines, positions or
titles, and contact information of at least 5 (and maximum 6) debaters who
will participate in the roundtable.

Please be so kind as to send us this information in the order given here. If
you are planning a collective publication or anthology on the proposed
topic, please mention so. Send proposals to: eam-europeugent.be.

Call for Papers

(Deadline: 1 October 2007)

This call's deadline is set at a later date because we give preference to
collaborative proposals (roundtables and panels). Scholars who wish to
propose individual papers are advised to check the conference website in
summer 2007 for more information on submissions.

For further information please see http://www.eam-europe.ugent.be/