CFP: Arriving at Confluence, DSO Graduate Conference (Due 3/1)

Arriving at Confluence

An Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference at New York University


“Thus I have made as it were a small globe of the intellectual world, as truly and faithfully as I could discover.” - Francis Bacon, 1605

The John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University is pleased to announce a call for papers for our first graduate conference, Arriving at Confluence. The conference will be held on Saturday, April 28th, 2012.

Confluence here means bringing the knowledge and methodologies of multiple academic disciplines together. The modern world in particular may best be understood at the points where different bodies of knowledge, different means of exploring the world, and different ways of expressing insight meet. This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore how contemporary issues and recent global phenomena can be better understood through the interaction of multiple discourses in a variety of academic fields, including not only the social sciences but also the natural sciences and humanities.

Understanding the knowledge enterprise as a search for answers to questions that often transcend traditional disciplinary limits has implications for discussions on a variety of topics, including (but certainly not limited to): the state and popular government, capitalism and markets, revolution and evolution, socialism, nationalism, globalization, corporatism, mass media and technology, modernism and postmodernism, identity and diversity.

We invite papers by current graduate students from all disciplines. These may be theoretical, empirical, applied, or narrative (or a combination of the above). We are particularly interested in work that crosses traditional academic boundaries, applying ‘conventional’ insights and methodologies to novel problems, and/or applying new ways of thinking and organizing knowledge to old questions. We are also interested in work that considers new ways of expressing insight in a heavily mediated world where traditional forms of narrative and exposition may (or may not) be giving way to paradigms in digital mediation. We are interested in contributors who examine the questions of modernity through the lenses multiple disciplines.

Arriving at Confluence will also feature work by selected contributors to the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 issues of Anamesa, the Draper Program’s interdisciplinary journal.

Please submit a 300-350 word abstract for a 15-20 minute paper/presentation to dsonyu@gmail.com by March 1st, 2012. Accepted presenters will be notified by email no later than March 8th, 2012.