Specters, Hauntings and Archives Graduate Conference

University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
15 - 16 January 2009

Deadline: November 5, 2008.

Organizers: Anthie Argyriou, Tanja Baudoin, Moosje Goosen, Patricia de Vries, Arnisa Zeqo

‘So far gone am I in the dark side of the earth, that its other side, the theoretic bright one, seems but uncertain twilight to me.' (Melville, Moby Dick). The world of theory and art has recently been inhabited by dark spirits and haunted historical subjects: from the writings of Derrida on spectres to Hal Foster's definition of the artist as archivist, to postcolonial and trauma studies. This conference proposes to ‘roam' rather than to define a ground for theory in the ever growing and ambiguous discourse on hauntology, spectrality, and archivization. Supported by the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, the Institute of Culture and History (University of Amsterdam) and the Dutch Postgraduate School for Art History (OSK, Utrecht), this 2009 graduate conference aims for an interdisciplinary approach and a platform for the exchange of ideas between graduates, PhD students, more established scholars and artists who are at different stages of their research.We seek proposals for papers from different research fields in the Humanities and the Arts and also encourage participation from artists. Topics for discussion may include, but are not limited to:

- the figure of the ghost in film, literature and visual arts.

- the interplay between the spectral and notions of a/visuality.

- the political dimension of ghosts and archives

- documents as monuments

- memory and amnesia in the city

- Zeitgeist: spiritual revenants in popular culture

- the work of mourning

- the return of the dead

Please send an abstract of 300-500 words and a brief paragraph about your recent research project(s) to Tanja Baudoin at ghostconference@graduate.org. Artists are kindly asked to provide (some) visuals as well. Proposals are accepted until the 5th of November 2008. The abstracts will then be evaluated by the organizational team and potential speakers will be notified. Keynote speakers include Prof. Deborah Cherry, Prof. Colin Davis, Dr. Michael Newton, Ass. Prof. Esther Peeren, Prof. Donald Preziosi and Dr. Jean-Francois Chevrier.