Call for Papers
Urban Experience
Art, Literature, Architecture, Film, Museums, Creative Writing, and New Media
University of St. Thomas, April 24, 2020

The University of St. Thomas Art History, English, Museum Studies, and Creative Writing graduate programs will host an interdisciplinary conference on Friday, April 24, 2020. While papers addressing any aspect of literature, film, art history, architecture, museum studies, new media, and cultural studies will be considered, the graduate programs particularly welcome proposals for papers exploring the conference theme across all time periods, media, and geographical regions. We are also seeking creative writers to read original work related to the conference theme during a lunchtime reading performance.

Urban Experience is central to many works of art, literature, and museums as sites of political and cultural struggle, both affirming and challenging the status quo. The aim of this conference is to explore this theme in an interdisciplinary way, engaging a wide variety of approaches, traditions, innovations, and points of view, in texts from any historical moment.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Writing/Viewing Urban Experience: Human rights; immigration; housing; museums; memorials; gentrification; neighborhoods; politics; crime; education; activism; redistricting; planning; urban sprawl; transportation; migration; immigration; translation; progress; labor.

• Literature, Art, and Urban Environments: Sustainability; climate change; waterways; urban wildlife; native species; parks; deconstruction and reconstruction of the environment.

• Urban Identities in Literature and Art: Gender; sexuality; race; abilities; ethnicity; intersectionality; safe spaces; Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements; class division; poverty; prostitution; human trafficking; homelessness.

• Urban Literacy/Art/Cultural Histories: Local; national; international; anthropocentric; dystopic; utopic.

• Technology, Visuality, and Textuality in the Urban Environment: Artificial intelligence; artificial reality; solar energy; contagion; social networking; traffic.

• Creative Reactions to the City: Street art; performance art; installations; built environment; public art; creative writing; music; architecture; landscape art; urban gothic.

We encourage analyses of artistic, literary, architectural, historical, cultural, cinematic, digital, and/or other textualities. Proposals for whole panels (three presenters) or roundtables (four or more presenters) are welcome in addition to individual papers. We also welcome creative writing samples from writers who would like to read their work during the conference.

For consideration, please submit a 400-word abstract for individual papers, panels, or roundtables, or a 5-10 page creative writing sample, to citiesconference2020@gmail.com by March 1, 2020.