The symposium Fragile Selves will be held on March 2nd-4th, 2022, and we have the honour to host Prof. Rey Chow, Prof. Dawn Chatty, and Prof. Victoria Philips as our keynote speakers. The symposium does not focus on the Chinese area per se, but it particularly welcomes researchers and young scholars from outside the scholarly tradition of Europe and North America.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the concept of fragility has entered our lives in a much more prominent way. Our social relations and daily habits have become fragmented, and our ‘normality’ now seems to be hanging in a suspended and uncertain temporality. We realized how porous the borders of our identities are, and our definition of the self has become fragile and unstable. However, the idea of fragility — and the broadly related concepts of vulnerability and care — have been part of academic discourses and debates long before the current pandemic. Fragility and the self have been discussed from political, philosophical, literary, social, artistic, and historical perspectives that engaged with these concepts from both theoretical and empirical approaches. This symposium aims to bridge how ‘fragility’ is described, conceptualised, and discussed in various contexts and fields and across different times and spaces.
Applicants are asked to submit their abstract (max 300 words) and a short bio (max 150 words) via e-mail to fragile.selves@unive.it in .pdf format. The deadline for submission is on 30 November 2021.
Here is the direct link to the symposium page with all the relevant info:
https://www.unive.it/pag/42823?fbclid=IwAR0ABsdV6i2Kg5oDTvzbfA94YtHxg48qgznzuVg1pIC7ME8qXQRjfbXly3o
Best regards,
Rossella Roncati |
PhD Candidate, Asian and Transcultural Studies
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice / Heidelberg University
Tel: +393490772285