Call for Papers

2nd  Global Conference

Saturday 7th July 2012 – Monday 9th July 2012
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

In recent years academics from a range of positions have increasingly turned their critical attention to the subject of racial whiteness. Publications include historical accounts detailing the emergence of whiteness as a racial category, cultural studies exploring the meaning of whiteness across a variety of locations, film and television scholars examining narratives about white people, reflecting white themes, white obsessions, and white anxieties. Consistent with the shift in critical studies away from minority identity formations to consider ‘normative’ identities, the study of whiteness is increasingly understood as central to understanding the operation of ‘race’ as a form of social categorisation.

Inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspectives are sought from those engaged in any field relevant to the study of whiteness including media and film studies, performance and creative writing, cultural theory, sociology, psychology and medical.

Papers, presentations, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

• Appropriation of racial ‘otherness’ within white culture
• Images of whiteness in serial television
• Nationally-specific formations of white identity
• Whiteness and multiculturalism
• Constructions of whiteness in painting, photography and the visual arts
• Performances of/performing ‘whiteness’
• Writing whiteness in fiction/non-fiction
• The politics and ethics of White Studies
• Racial whiteness, fashion and cosmetics industries
• Whiteness and absence, emptiness and death
• Teaching whiteness
• Intersections between whiteness, gender and sexuality
• Conceptions of whiteness in non-white cultures
• Images of whiteness in non-white cultures
• Whiteness and consumer culture
• Music and music videos and whiteness

Papers will also be considered on any related theme.  300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 17th February 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 11th May 2012. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Whiteness2 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).  Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs
Ewan Kirkland
University of Brighton
Senior Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies
United Kingdom
Email: ekirklanduk@yahoo.co.uk

Colette Balmain
Independent Scholar
United Kingdom
E-mail: cb@inter-disciplinary.net

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
E-mail: white2@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the ‘Ethos’ series of research projects, which in turn belong to the Critical Issues programmes of ID.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be published in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into 20-25 page chapters for publication in a themed dialogic ISBN hard copy volume.

Style Sheets
In preparing your papers, please pay strict attention to the following style sheets

*****Updated Style Sheets*****

• Download Full Style Sheet – v7.4d (pdf)
• Download Chicago Style Reference Sheet 1.2d (pdf)
• Download Template Document (Word)