Call for Submissions 2022
Call for Submissions
Annual Conference of the Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies at Heidelberg University, 29-30 April 2022, on “Worlds ending - Ending worlds?”
Outline
The Käte Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS) at the Heidelberg University is pleased to announce a call for individual paper and panel proposals to be included in our annual conference, 29-30 April 2022, in Heidelberg, Germany. Our call for submissions aims at scholars not only from the humanities, but also from the social and natural sciences. We will particularly welcome proposals which foster transdisciplinary discussions from different fields and backgrounds.
Topics of the Conference
Topics discussed at our first annual conference on “Worlds ending – Ending worlds?” are the following: How do we conceptualise the end of the world? What of the many worlds that have already ended? And how do we conceptualise new, post-apocalyptic worlds? What of the many new worlds that have been conceptualised in the past? As anthropogenic climate change, increasingly polarized politics, and the COVID-19 pandemic anticipate the end of worlds, the idea of the apocalypse is gaining traction in popular and scholarly discourses. Apocalyptic imaginaries saturate artistic practices, media-narratives, political debates, socio-economic discourses and speculative imaginations. Simultaneously, apocalypses, and their imagined aftermaths, produce emancipatory and creative potentials that engage the possibility of plural worlds, embodied futurities, and non-linear temporalities. The premise of a/the ‘world’ (as the object of end time scenarios) provides an acute lens on these developments. It also poses interesting prospects in theorizing the convergence of crisis and world-making activities in exploring the possibilities of new worlds.
The ‘world’ as a conceptual problem, in this sense, is central for understanding apocalyptic transformation, its wide-ranging entanglements with past, present and future experiences of catastrophe (including colonialism, disaster and racial capitalism, antimigration sentiments, epidemics, securitization, economic disparity, algorithmic governance, nuclear threats, anthropocentrism, sexism, white supremacy, etc.). However, the concepts of ‘world’, ‘worlds’, and ‘worlding’ also have consequences for engaging with the ontological and epistemological promises of the ‘end’ and its real and imagined ‘aftermaths’.
We invite both scholars from the humanities and the social and natural sciences invested in the end of worlds to join us for a two-day conference to share their thoughts, questions, and provocations on the concept of ‘world/s’ with the aim to inspire productive exchanges about past and present formations of the apocalypse. The conference will put a specific focus on these concerns in the context of the Americas and Asia.
Submit a Panel or a Paper Proposal
For individual paper proposals, we request scholars to submit an abstract of 300-500 words (including the title) that outline their original research to be presented at the conference along with a short CV.
Scholars who wish to conduct collaborative research projects are invited to submit panel proposals. We request prospective panel chairs to apply with a short panel abstract (max 200 words including title) for a session of 90 min (3x30min). The application should include a list of participants, titles of individual papers, individual paper abstracts (300-500 words) and short CVs of all participants. Panel participants do not need to send an additional individual application.
Deadline for the submission of proposals for individual papers and panels is 15 October 2021. You will be notified about the acceptance of your proposal by 15 November 2021.
We are planning to put forward an edited collection about the theme of the conference featuring selected papers from our panels. A decision about which papers to include will be made with respect to scholarly quality, originality, and relevance. The editors will invite the selected participants after the conference to submit an article.
Conference Fees &Travel and Accommodation Grants
No conference fee or registration fee will be charged. Limited travel and accommodation funds are available upon request.
Visa Requirements and COVID-19
Visa requirements or travel restrictions may vary due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, according to the visitor’s nationality, and the situation. The organizers are not responsible for procuring a visa or necessary COVID-19 travel documents.
Please, direct your applications and inquiries to: capas@uni-heidelberg.de