Virtual: Carolina Conference for Romance Studies: ‘The Body (Eco-) Politic’

Join the Graduate Romance Association of the Department of Romance Studies on March 26-27 for a virtual conference which welcomes professors, students, and independent scholars. Over the past twenty-four years, this conference has grown tremendously and is now one of the largest conferences in the country coordinated entirely by graduate students. Each year, professors and graduate students from all over the globe present papers on literature, film, and interdisciplinary topics in French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. For registration and participation information, follow this link. 

Recent environmental disasters call attention to the timeliness of understanding the impact of human activities on the bio-geo-chemical cycles of the planet. A specific role in this discussion has been played by ecocriticism and, more broadly, the burgeoning field of the environmental humanities. Placing the human as a component of the natural-cultural realm, the environmental humanities’ discourse seeks to transcend traditional Western epistemologies, contesting anthropocentric understandings of the world. This requires embracing a perspective in which nature and culture, human and nonhuman, rather than being the oppositional poles of a dichotomy are indeed elements of a complexity. In fact, the term “environment” has implications beyond the natural sphere. Stemming from the French word “environ,” this term speaks generally to that which surrounds us, opening larger conversations about how humans interact with and are shaped by, the many different natural, discursive, spatial, and political environments within our societies.

The 2020-2021 Keynote Address will be given by Elena Past on ferrania, or analog afterlives in the digital age. Elena Past is a professor of Italian at Wayne State University and her research focuses on contemporary Italian literature and cinema. Click here for the full schedule for the conference. 

Email 2020ccrs@gmail.com with any questions.