CALL FOR PAPERS: please circulate
INTERSECTIONS 2003

Bridging Boundaries: Contemporary Thought in Communication and Culture
A Graduate Student Conference hosted by the students of the Joint Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture
York University and Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
March 14-15, 2003

The Joint Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture at York University and Ryerson University is one of the newest graduate programmes to forge academic ground between the fields of communication and culture. The students of this programme have developed this conference to facilitate exploration into the relevant themes, concepts and issues emerging across the boundaries of communications and cultural studies.

PARTICIPATION
Open to all graduate students in Canada, this interdisciplinary conference seeks to consider the question of boundaries—real or imagined, physical or theoretical—and the spaces of theory they enclose or uncover. Of particular interest are the discursive relationships existing between and across the arts, social sciences, and technology. How is contemporary theory re-imagining the boundaries between these fields of thought? How do these ‘bridges’ across disciplines open up new modes of thinking about the cultural, political, and technological landscapes in which we live?

TOPICS and THEMES
We invite both traditional papers as well as creative or artistically oriented scholarly research (i.e., multimedia work, film, video, performance) that relate to the following general themes:

• Media and Culture
  Topics could include (but not limited to) subjectivity, popular and visual culture, media studies, cultural consumption and production, media democracy, representations of sexualities/race/ethnicity, gender studies, portrayals of social class, depictions of ability/disability, semiotics and linguistics, cultures of cities, space and place.
  
• Technology in Practice
  Submissions in this category might address (but are not limited to) questions regarding technology’s emergent role in theoretical and practical debates surrounding art, authenticity, and aesthetics, negotiations of accessibility and identity, race and gender, explorations in the concepts of the cyborg, the post-human, and technoculture.
  
• Politics and Policy
  Potential areas of focus could include (but are not limited to) strategies of resistance, questions of structure and agency, deliberations about the communication and culture and the public sphere, sovereignty, accessibility, cultural policy, citizenship, globalization, copyright and intellectual property, privacy and surveillance, media ownership in Canada.

SUBMISSION FORMAT/DEADLINES
Please submit an abstract in Microsoft Word format of no more than 250 words (approx. 1 typewritten page, double spaced). Name and contact information should not appear on this page.

Please include a separate page with the following information:

1. Title of paper as it appears on your abstract
2. Name
3. Affiliation (program and university)
4. Level and year of study (ie., Master’s, 2nd year)
5. Phone number
6. E-mail address
7. Mailing address
8. Any A/V requirements (ie. Overhead projector, computer/projector, film projector, VCR, etc.)

Deadline: Monday, January 13th, 2003