CALL FOR PAPERS
“Urban Cuts: Appropriation and Resistance in the American City”
Second Visual Culture Graduate Student Conference, Department of
American Studies, Saint Louis University

The Department of American Studies at Saint Louis University
invites papers for its Second Visual Culture Graduate Student
Conference, to be held April 16-18, 2010 in St. Louis, Missouri.
This year’s conference theme,
“Urban Cuts: Appropriation and Resistance in the American City,”
coincides with the “Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark” exhibition
at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis. Matta-Clark
carved out and dissected abandoned urban buildings to reveal their
internal structure and emphasize the constructedness of urban space.
Though many of his works were destroyed following his artistic
intervention, some pieces of these vanished buildings remain and
will be exhibited, along with related visual materials, at the
Pulitzer. Referred to as “cuts” by Matta-Clark, these fragments
remind us of the ephemeral and constantly evolving nature of the
American built environment, shaped by the choices and actions of
individuals and groups who generate change and the often-obscured
efforts to resist claims to public space.

We welcome proposals from all disciplines exploring visual
representations of conflicting uses and contested meanings of
urban space. Taking a cue from Matta-Clark’s “cuts,” we seek
contributions addressing the effects of changes in urban geography
on people’s daily lives. We are particularly interested in projects
that examine the role of photography, film, advertising, fine art,
performance, architecture, design, and/or new media.

We encourage submissions by graduate students working
transnationally and comparatively on urban environments. Topics may
include, but are not limited to, the following themes:

- Representation & Iconography of Urban Space

- Demolition, Destruction & Displacement

- Fractured/Fragmented Space

- Contested Ownership

- Political Activism through Urban Space

- Memory & Subjectivity

- “Anarchitecture” as concept and practice

- Abandonment & Neglect

- Urban Renewal

- Urban Performance as Resistance

Please submit a 250-word abstract and a curriculum vitae by
February 1, 2010 to vcc2010slu.edu.
For questions, please contact Elizabeth Wolfson
(vcc2010slu.edu).

For more information, visit the conference web site:
http://www.slu.edu/x32606.xml