IN/VISIBLE: REPRESENTATION, DISCOURSE, PRACTICES, DISPOSITIFS
The University of Palermo together with the joint PhD programme Studi Culturali Europei/ Europäische Kulturstudien organizes the interdisciplinary graduate conference “IN / VISIBLE: REPRESENTATION, DISCOURSE, PRACTICES, DISPOSITIFS” (University of Palermo, 22 October 2019). The international conference will focus on the different aspects of in/visibility from a cultural, philosophical, literary and artistic, historical and sociological perspective. The chosen working languages are Italian and English.
From their position at the crossroads among the humanities, cultural studies testify to the coexistence of heterogeneous objects, techniques and forms of knowledge that are heterogeneous. From this perspective, in / visibility constitutes one of the aspects each discipline – from literary criticism to psychoanalysis, from history to gender studies- can somehow shed light on. The road that leads to the investigation of the representation of the in/visible is not univocal, but inherently plural and intrinsically interdisciplinary.
From this perspective, IN / VISIBLE: REPRESENTATION, DISCOURSE, PRACTICES, DISPOSITIFS” is designed as a moment of dialogue between different methodological perspectives that, looking at the in / visible from different points of view, also differ in the omissions and concealments that the choice of each point of view brings.
The international graduate conference also takes part in an academic tradition – that of Palermo and Düsseldorf, precisely – which commits to carry out research on in / visibility across disciplines.
How is the materiality of the visible world inscribed in its cultural representations? What are the more or less visible actors and mechanisms in the genesis of a cultural artefact? Should the visible / invisible binomial be considered as an anthropological constant or as the effect of a certain epistemological constellation? To what extent does visibility coincide with power and, therefore, how should one represent the in/visible? These are just some of the questions that cultural studies, in their innate interdisciplinarity and methodological heterogeneity can formulate with respect to the issue.
The international conference, organized by the graduate students in European Cultural Studies (XXXIII cycle) at the Universities of Palermo and Düsseldorf, is addressed to young scholars (graduate and postgraduate students) from the humanities, with the aim of favouring moments of confrontation, exchange, opening and learning. Participants are invited to present their own considerations on the possible materializations of the visible, according to the interests and methods of their own research and / or discipline, to offer food for thought to a consciously heterogeneous audience.
Topics:
The international conference will focus on the different aspects of in/visibility from a cultural, philosophical, literary and artistic, historical and sociological perspective. Abstracts (in PDF) written in Italian and English must not exceed 250 words. Please attach a short bio and a short CV. Please send your abstract to: invisibile2019palermo@gmail.com. Young scholars (graduate and post-graduate students) wishing to participate are invited to send abstracts that focus primarily – but not exclusively – on the following topics:
● In/visible and the arts:
– Masks of the in/visible
– In / visible and myth
– Visual and sound representations of the in / visible
– Symbolism and in / visibility
– In/visible in literary theory
– Magic, manticism and in/visibility
● In / visible and human action:
– Sociology and in / visibility
– Mediology of the in/visible
– In / visible languages
– Visible / invisible and expected / unexpected;
● In / visibility policies and schemes:
– In / visible and identity
– Minorities and in / visibility
– In/visibility and incommunicability
– Visibility / invisibility and legitimacy / illegitimacy.