EH.N: CFP: Rethinking Labour

[David Gray]

CALL FOR PAPERS

Rethinking Labour: Labour, Affect and Material Culture
April 18th 19th and 20th 2008
Clinton Institute of American Studies, University College Dublin

Plenary speakers:

Andrew Ross, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis and Program 
in American Studies, New York University: "The New Geography of Work"

Sherry Linkon and John Russo, Co-Directors, Center for Labor and 
Working-Class Studies, Youngstown State University: "Learning About 
Labour: A New Working-Class Studies Perspective"

Tim Strangleman, School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social 
Research, University of Kent: "Identity, Meaning and the 
Representations of Labour: Rethinking Attachment and Loss at Work"

Recent studies have placed increased emphasis on the affective 
dimensions of labour. Social scientists, social theorists and 
historians have explored the ways in which affect shapes social 
relations, representation and identity in the labour process. At the 
same time material culture has received renewed attention as an 
important factor in shaping experience and behavior at work. The 
purpose of this conference is to explore the historical and 
contemporary implications of the labour/affect/material culture nexus 
and to generate discussion of what the "affective turn" holds for our 
understanding of labour. How are particular forms of affect produced 
and managed in the factory, the office and service work locations? 
How does material culture shape habits, dispositions and affective 
processes in the workplace? How does affect shape identity, 
performance and authority in particular kinds of work? And how might 
an analysis of the relationships between affect and material culture 
inform labour history, the sociology of work, literary studies, 
aesthetics, social theory, public history and other fields that 
examine labour?

We invite papers that address any aspect of the historical and 
contemporary relationship between labour, affect and material culture 
but especially welcome work that crosses disciplinary borders. Papers 
are invited on, but are certainly not limited to, the following 
subjects and areas:

Class
Ideology
Structures of feeling
Emotions/feelings
Aesthetics
Workplace community
Ethics, conduct and performance
Visual culture and visuality
Authority and legitimacy
Race and ethnicity
Governmentality
Literature and literacy
Gender and Sexuality
Representation
Historiography
Nationalism & Transnationalism
Identity production
Policy and economics

Please e-mail abstracts (200-300 words) for 20-minute papers to 
David.Gray at ucd.ie by January 31st. We also invite abstracts for 
panels of 3-4 presenters. Applicants will be notified by February 
15th. In the e-mail, please include the following information:

Presenter(s) name(s)
Title of paper(s)
Institutional affiliation(s)
Contact information
Audio visual requirements

Questions or further information: David Gray, Post-Doctoral Fellow, 
Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin, 
Belfield, Dublin 4: David.Gray at ucd.ie

Visit the Clinton Institute website: http://www.ucd.ie/amerstud/

**************************************
David Gray, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Fellow in American Studies
UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies
Belfield House
University College Dublin
Belfield, Dublin 4
Ireland
Tel. +353 1 716 1592
Fax +353 1 716 1562
Email: david.gray at ucd.ie
http://www.ucd.ie/amerstud/