CALL FOR PAPERS: Youth Creators, Thinkers, and Expressions of “Child Consciousness”
A JOINT SESSION OF ARCYP AND ACCUTE AT THE CONGRESS OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO AND WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY, WATERLOO, ONTARIO
MAY 28-31, 2012
DEADLINE: November 15, 2011
For Merleau-Ponty, the danger of “dogmatic rationalism” in psychological models of development is the creation of a false dichotomy between two “impermeable” mentalities — that of the child and that of the adult — a hierarchy that fixes “adult experience within concepts such as the ‘representation of the world'” and “renders communication between the adult and the child theoretically impossible.” These quagmires are vindicated for Merleau-Ponty by the “extraordinary ‘anticipations’ of the child’s thought.” We invite papers that analyze various examples of child and youth creative and philosophical consciousness and cultural production. How do young creators and thinkers disrupt the notion that the products of their thought are defined as extraordinary for what they ‘anticipate’ rather than for what they ‘are’? How do they make permeable the division between adult
and child/youth experiences, ‘representations of the world,’ and effective knowledge?
Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:
- young people as creators of culture and cultural expression;
- young people as co-creators or collaborators;
- young people as scholars, philosophers, theorists;
- young people’s writing, visual art, film;
- youth and digital media, such as YouTube, blogs, fan fiction, etc.;
- the material conditions, dissemination, and transmission of youth cultural and philosophical thought and expression.
Following the instructions under Option # 1 at www.accute.ca/generalcall.html, send your 700-word proposal (or 8-10 page double-spaced paper), a Proposal Submissions Information Sheet, and a 100-word abstract and 50-word bio-bibliographical statement, as three attachments to an email addressed to admin@arcyp.ca by November 15 2011.
NOTES: You must be a current member of ARCYP or ACCUTE to submit to this session. Rejected submissions will not be moved into the general “pool” of ACCUTE submissions.