La transformation des corps

Transforming Body

Call for Papers

Cornell University, April 21-22, 2017

Presented by the Early Modern Conversions project and Cornell University

In this conference, we propose to explore the centrality of bodies to concepts and practices of conversion in the early modern world. How are bodies – animal, human, vegetal, epistemological – transformed by these concepts and practices, and how do they transform the concepts and practices by their material and virtual presences, by their own performances and practices of conversion, by their resistance to metaphysical and ontological interpretation? This Call for Papers seeks work that crosses disciplinary boundaries even as it questions the boundaries imposed by various knowledge systems on a wide range of bodies. Topics will include, but are not limited to: virtual and corporate bodies as artifacts of conversion; race and conversion; transgender bodies; bodies performing conversion; animality; beauty and seduction; bodies of knowledge; corporeal ecologies; vegetation and bodies of land and water; and monstrous/ magical/ witchlike bodies. 

Please send presentation proposals to conversion.iplai@mcgill.ca by 30 September, 2016. Proposals should be approximately 250 words in length and should provide a brief explanation of how the proposed paper or session relates to the aims of the conference. An adjudication committee will review all submissions and arrive at a decision by early December 2016. 

Conversions project members may apply to the Collaboration Fund for travel support. See here for details: http://earlymodernconversions.com/projectadmin/collaboration-fund/

Send inquiries to Kathleen Perry Long (kpl2@cornell.edu).