Bodies in (R)Evolution: Labor, Embodiment, and Resistance (NeMLA)
The covid-19 pandemic not only sparked conversations on the gendered division of household chores and care but also brought to light the paradox of the “essential-worker.” Despite being deemed “essential” to society, these workers-often women, immigrants, and people of color were paid low wages and treated as expendable. However, amidst these challenges, the pandemic also catalyzed the expansion of alternative labor forms and care networks, beyond capitalist economies and social relations. This roundtable seeks to facilitate a discussion on the intersections of arts and literature, labor, and body politics, examining how modern and contemporary narratives of work, movement, and labor challenge dominant power structures and envision (r)evolutionary futures. Panelists are invited to explore how arts and literature interrogate the commodification of bodies, labor exploitation, the work-life divide, and struggles for bodily autonomy, offering insights into the transformative potential of arts and literature as sites of embodied (r)evolutionary imagination. Proposals from all disciplines are welcome.
Potential themes and areas of investigation for this panel include, but are not limited to:
- Representations of Labor and Alienation in Arts and Literature: the experiences of laborers, migrant workers, and marginalized communities, and critiques of the dehumanizing effects of capitalist exploitation and labor precarity.
- Gendered Labor and Social Reproduction: Analyzing the gendered dimensions of labor, and the separation between production and reproduction
Corporeal Inscriptions: Exploring how literature grapples with the embodied experiences of violence, trauma, and bodily harm, and the ways in which these narratives resist erasure. - Literature, Sexuality, and (R)Evolutionary Embodiments: Investigating how literature disrupts normative conceptions of the body, desire, and sexuality, offering subversive narratives of bodily (r)evolution and resistance.
Protest, Performance, and Embodied Politics: engagement with embodied forms of protest, performance, and bodily resistance, from street activism to artistic interventions. - Literature and the Politics of Wellness: the politics of self-care, mental health, and bodily autonomy, and challenges the neoliberal commodification of wellness.
- Collective Labor and Community Economies: exploring networks and forms of labor grounded on politics of cooperation and interdependence
- Labor and the Landscape: examining environmental degradation and population displacement, local knowledges and practices, and the coexistence with other-than-humans
Submission Guidelines:
Abstracts of 250 words or less, in English, French, or Spanish should be submitted through the NeMLA portal.
https://www.nemla.org/convention.html
Noran Mohamed