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<div class="moz-forward-container">Passend zur letzten GeoRundmail,
so might be of interest to some..</div>
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<div dir="ltr">j<br>
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<th valign="BASELINE" nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT">Von:
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<td>Eva Boesenberg <a
href="mailto:eva.boesenberg@cms.hu-berlin.de"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"><eva.boesenberg@cms.hu-berlin.de></a></td>
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<br>
"Everybody's Business: Toilets as a Contested Space"<br>
<br>
Conference at Humboldt University, Berlin<br>
November 18-20, 2021<br>
<br>
Call for Papers<br>
<br>
Located in domestic realms as well as between public and
private spheres, toilets are secret and discreet, liminal,
as much as eminently open political, and often contested
spaces. They offer safety and comfort for ordinary
physical necessities for the more privileged, open up room
for diverse transgressive moves, and have been an issue of
politics for centuries. Toilets facilitate movement
through public spaces, significantly co-constructing
social hierarchies such as gender, sexuality, 'race,' age,
religion, and ability. Who has access to (public) toilets
and who does not? Whose needs are served, and how? These
questions are currently the subject of legal battles and
controversial debates not only in the US. At the same
time, restrooms are sites of potential and social
interaction in which physical closeness and shared urges
translate into intimacies at different levels. Toilet
spaces are also culturally specific, the result of
distinct practices: There are water cultures and paper
cultures, with toilet paper users divided into "folders"
and "ballers." Design and architecture impact on whether
the use of restrooms is experienced as safe, relaxing, and
even pleasurable – or its opposite. <br>
The meaning of toilets is also psychological and
emotional, as is attested by the toilet paper ‘shortage’
during the current Covid-19 crisis – not necessarily a
German idiosyncrasy. Release of one's bodily fluids is
correlated with a sense of heightened vulnerability.
Psychoanalytically and culturally, feces are linked to
conceptions of the abject and death – as well as to money
and economics. Toiletries, bathroom design, and sanitation
infrastructure constitute a huge (consumer) market.
Finally, the ways in which we manage the disposal of
bodily waste has enormous ecological repercussions. To
discuss restroom space and toilets, then, is not only to
engage with past and present practices, but also with
possible futures. Accordingly, in 19 November 2001, the
World Toilet Organization was founded and its inaugural
World Toilet Summit drew global attention to what is
considered a sanitation crisis. Thus, in one way or
another, toilets – and their absence – figure prominently
in our personal lives, in world politics, and in the arts
and culture. Yet even though they frame an ordinary
practice essential for well-being and survival, toilets
and the multiple issues and questions they raise have so
far received limited attention in cultural studies. <br>
The conference takes the twentieth anniversary of the
World Toilet Organization and of World Toilet Day in
November 2021 as an occasion to explore the cultural
politics of toilets and the topic of restroom cultures in
a transdisciplinary, intercultural manner, inviting
contributions from cultural and literary studies, history,
sociology, and other pertinent disciplines. Possible
issues for presentations include, but are not limited to,
the following:<br>
<br>
representations of restrooms in literature and film<br>
restroom access for trans and inter<br>
doing gender in the restroom <br>
cripping the restroom<br>
the role of toilets in LGBTIQ history<br>
restrooms and 'race'<br>
toilets and settler colonialism<br>
(post)colonial perspectives on toilet cultures<br>
restroom design and architecture<br>
ecological dimensions of toilets and sanitation
infrastructure<br>
<br>
Please send abstracts of approximately one page via email
to:<br>
<br>
Prof. Dr. Eva Boesenberg
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke <br>
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik Humboldt-Universität
und Keltologie <br>
Unter den Linden 6
Nordamerikastudienprogramm<br>
10099 Berlin
Rheinische
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn; Regina-Pacis-Weg 5,
53113 Bonn <br>
<a href="mailto:eva.boesenberg@staff.hu-berlin.de"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">eva.boesenberg@staff.hu-berlin.de</a>
<a
href="mailto:office@nap-uni-bonn.de" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">office@nap-uni-bonn.de</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Please send your abstracts via email to both addresses by
February 28, 2021.<br>
<br>
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