CALL-FOR-PAPERS

CALL FOR PAPERS

SITES/CITES OF TRAUMA

The entire spectrum of trauma – its trajectory from cause to effect, from perpetrating agent to manifest affliction, from personal to collective and vice versa – is subject to transformation as a result of trauma’s siting and re[s?]citing in new media environments. We also realize, of course, that labeling certain events ‘trauma’ also can be a variously vectored political act -- sometimes strategically covering inconvenient political conflicts by means of a terminological sleight of hand; sometimes strategically hiding acts of resistance to oppressive circumstances by appealing to a seemingly ‘apolitical’ medical category. These politics of trauma, too, have likely been transformed by their siting in new media where the assignment and

assertion of trauma are now taking place. Departing from this thesis, we invite fellow scholars doing research on the relationship between new media and traumatic events, to join in a workshop (and subsequent publication) with the aim to compare notes on the enlistment of media to broadcast, amplify, alleviate, escape, inhabit, exacerbate and/or otherwise mediate the many faces, forms, and strategies of trauma. Trauma in our framework is conceptually and geographically widely conceived; and might for example pertain to: war and war-torn regions and/or populations; political violence (terrorism and/or state-sponsored oppression); politicized medical discourse (e.g., Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and who is allowed to claim it), natural disasters and their aftermath; acute medical emergencies; living/dying with a potentially terminal illness. Such events have been catalysts for a diverse array of new media, including: discussion forums, chat sites, alternative journalism online, telemedicine, webring support groups, blogging, podding, video-making, hacking and defacement activities, organizational networks, and computer-mediated counseling.

Questions we seek to address include:

What challenges (both opportunities and problems) do spatially- and temporally-elastic media (and the human associations they engender) introduce in the

experiencing, handling and representation of traumatic events?

How do new media transform the distinctions between private suffering and group suffering, possibly creating shifts in scale between the personal and the collective?

How do new media increase (or, perchance) decrease the velocity with which new discourse about trauma spread or change?

Do wired and unwired communities experience or utilize trauma differently?

In what ways do digital vs. real, online vs. offline worlds converge and/or diverge during traumatic times; and how might trauma lead to the reification or alternatively the dissolution of such divides?

What novel correlations between trauma, identity, and place are arising; alternatively what existing correlations are being reinforced?

How might the nature of trauma – trauma as a dimension of human lives and as a dimension of geopolitical relations – be changing in relation to new media applications?

We are keenly interested in empirically-rich work that is also theorized to address questions of technology, agency, sociality, power and subjectivity. We especially welcome reflective work that speaks on methodology and how relations between the researcher and the research subject/object are influenced by new media. Our goal is to gather approximately 12-15 scholars working in this area from any discipline, to share our respective research and work towards a published collection based on the proposed workshop (to be held in Sweden, preliminarily scheduled for

August 2007, expenses paid).

Interested persons please send a 2-3 page description of your research outlining the empirical and theoretical aspects, the particular questions you examine, and how you conceptualize your work in relation to the themes raised above. Prospectus should be sent simultaneously to both organizers via email by April 20, 2007.

Kyra Landzelius

Dept. of Science and Technology Studies

Gothenburg University

kyra.landzelius@sts.gu.se

Mark Whitaker

Dept. Of Anthropology

University of South Carolina

MarkW@usca.edu