CFP /// THE USES OF UTOPIA

[Naomi Woo]

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: THE USES OF UTOPIA
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26 June 2016, Clare College, University of Cambridge

A SYMPOSIUM AND CELEBRATION 
ON THE 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THOMAS MORE’S UTOPIA
with support from the Cambridge School of Arts and Humanities Graduate-Led Conference Scheme

In Fredric Jameson's Archaeologies of the Future, he writes: “can we invent a way of reading Thomas More's Utopia (1516) so as to recover something of the shock and freshness of its elegant new Latin for the first European readers?” This symposium is both interdisciplinary investigation provoked by this question, and a celebratory reading for the 500th anniversary of More’s text. 

The symposium welcomes researchers from diverse disciplines to read utopia today from their own fields, which may include but not be limited to:

politics / theology / visual arts / early modern studies / literature / divinity / architecture / geography/ philosophy / sociology / theatre / music

We invite abstracts for 15-minute papers, which may be inspired by Jameson’s provocation, or on topics related (or orthogonal) to :

More and his audiences
Humour, satire, and shock in political critique
The “indirect approach” to politics: form and function
Utopias before and after More 
Utopia and theology
Catholic and religious utopias today
Neologisms and the imagination: inventing words for good
Utopian ideas and education
Translating utopia / utopian translation
Utopia and art

Presenters from outside the traditional confines of the academy are encouraged, and we also welcome contributions from artists and creative professionals. Alternative presentations might include:

Provocations on the topics listed above (maximum 15 minutes)
Visual artworks to be exhibited on the day of the conference
Performances (maximum 15 minutes)

Please send a 250-word proposal to Naomi Woo and Sasha Amaya at [e-mail] by FRIDAY 15 APRIL  Any further inquiries in advance of this date may be directed to Naomi Woo at [e-mail].