American Studies Association of Turkey
32nd Annual American Studies Conference
Perceptions of Space and the American Experience
November 7 - 9, 2007
Hacettepe University
Ankara, Turkey
According to Michel Foucault, "space itself has a history in Western experience.. .Our epoch is one in which space takes for us the form of relations among sites." However, "despite the whole network of knowledge that enables us to delimit or formalize it, contemporary space is still not entirely desanctified. ..[it is] still nurtured by the hidden presence of the sacred." Foucault's argument suggests the intractable aspect of the concept of "space," which is constantly
eluding our grasp, and reverting back into the realm of nature and the "natural." This conference seeks to fill the scholarly vacuum that continues to exist with respect to space by removing it from the domain of the sacred, questioning its conceptualization, and exposing its manifestations within American Studies. We hope such a focus will advance the interaction between scholars who have conflicting
historical and spatial epistemologies regarding the American experience.
Space is difficult to quantify because it eludes quantification: it comprises the celestial and the terrestrial, the infinite and the infinitesimal, and being and nothingness, all at once. Despite its indefinable framework, it has been a perpetual theme within the American context. For example, in Call Me Ishmael, Charles Olson takes "SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America, from Folsom cave to now," and he "spell[s] it large because it comes large here. Large and without
mercy." On the other hand, it can also be large enough "for all modes of love and fortitude," as Ralph Waldo Emerson posits. Above all, it has a multitude of meanings, encompassing unlimited progress and its discontents; the visual and the invisible; the present and the absent; and as Foucault maintains, the sacred and the desanctified.
Hacettepe University's Department of American Culture and Literature invites proposals that consider space, broadly conceived. We particularly encourage proposals which incorporate transdisciplinary explorations of space, and welcome proposals from any field of study.
Possible themes include, but are not limited to:
* Spatial Boundaries/Spatial Relations
* Outer Space/Inner Space/Interspace/ Interstitial Space
* Walking Space/Living Space/Lebensraum
* Psychological/ Mental/Physical/ Space
* Private/Public/ (Inter)Personal Space
* Environmental/ Ecological Space
* Marginal Space and Agency
* Landscapes/Terrains /Regional Space
* Technoscapes/ Cyberspace/ MySpace.com
* Real/Virtual Spaces
* Urban Space/Cityscapes/ Walking Space
* Commercial(ized) Space/(Over) used Space
* Heartland/Hinterlan d
* Theatrical/Dramatic /Performance/ Performative Space
* Space, Time and Memory
* Travel Narratives/Space- phobias
* Sites/Countersites/ Utopias/Heteroto pias
* Subversive/Resistiv e Space
* (Non)violent Space
* Active/Activist Space
* Chaotic/Ordered Space
* Liminal Space/Zones/ Boundaries
* Poetics of Space/Textual/ Linguistic Space
* Space and the Body/Gendered Space
* Racial/Ethnic/ Political Space
* Imaginary/Imagined Spaces/Geographies
* Museums/Ethnographi c/Indigenous Space
* Classroom/Education al Space
* Modern/Postmodern Spaces
* Mythic/Sacred/ Symbolic/ Religious Spaces
* (Anti)Social Space
* (Sub)Cultural/ Traditional/ Spiritual Space
* Artistic/Musical Space
* Pioneering/Explorat ion Space
* Expansionism/ Manifest Destiny/Imperialism
The time allowance for all presentations is 20 minutes. An additional 10 minutes will be provided for discussion.
We also invite submissions for an undergraduate student panel.
Proposals for papers, panels, performances, exhibits, and other modes of creative expression should be sent to Tanfer Emin Tunc (asat2007@gmail. com) and Bilge Mutluay Cetintas (mutluay@hacettepe. edu.tr) and should consist of a 250 - 300 word
abstract in English, as well as a 1 - 2 paragraph c.v./biographical description for each participant.
* Deadline for submission of proposals: July 15, 2007.
* Notification for acceptance of proposals: September 1, 2007.
Further information (e.g., on accommodation and registration) will be posted on our conference website in the near future: http://www.ake. hacettepe. edu.tr/ASAT2007
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