Waves of Dissonance
Harmony, Revolution, and the Human
Written Proposal Deadline: Friday, March 1st, 2024
Conference Date: Thursday, March 28th, 2024
If waves mediate nature's clashing forces and bring a kind of order to them, what about the cycles of calm and calamity in human affairs? Waves might be born from agitation, but so are cultural changes: in each case, harmony is made from the echoes of disruption, and a new pattern asserted. And as with revolutions, the ramifications of sudden developments in art and literature flow outwards, diverting existing patterns or joining their rhythms with those of others. So, how do these forms and ideas furnish new possibilities of understanding and new frameworks for disturbance? If our interdisciplinary conference asks a single question, it might be how artistic discourses become instigators of change?
In the coming year, the 9th annual World Literature Student Conference will be seeking submissions that explore how disparate ideas flow into new possibilities, unravelling and reharmonizing the flows of the human condition alongside those of literature, art, and culture. The event takes place in the BALLROOM of the Simon Fraser University STUDENT UNION BUILDING on Burnaby Campus from 4-6PM on Thursday, March 28th 2024, and features some 30 speakers from across our campus giving 3-minute presentations on art, literature, and culture.
SUBMISSION DETAILS
This is an interdisciplinary event, and we invite students of all faculties and year levels to submit proposals that encompass literature, translation, cinema, and the image. We encourage different perspectives, including geographic, ideological, post-colonial, linguistic, psychological, or environmental approaches. Submissions from all departments will be treated with equal attention & confidentiality. A completed project is not needed at the time of proposal, only a short abstract or description of 150+ words.
EXAMPLES OF PAST PRESENTATIONS
Here is some inspiration in regards to topics & theses that past presenters have presented on.
If you have trouble coming up with a relevant topic or thesis, compare the following topics and theses to their respective conference themes.
- The Road No Longer Taken: Do Oral Stories Still Have a Place in the Modern World? (Rodman Joseph, 2018)
- The Paradox of the Passions: The Artistic Neutering of LGBTQ+ Cinema (Karina Asaikpuka, 2018)
- Traduction Intersémiotique et Censure Dans la Poésie Catalane (Liza Siamer, 2018)
- The Refugee's Tale of Hope (Hanna Choi, 2018)
- Making an ‘Other’: Native Americans in Civil War Westerns (Jasper Cattell, 2017)
- Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis: A tale of Freudian Regression (Jaiden Dembo, 2016)
- Beyond Lonely Starbucks Lovers: Agency & Persona in Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” Video (Melanie Hiepler, 2015)
- Baudrillard’s Persona Simulacra: Investigating Richard III and In the Heart of the Country (Maya Gal, 2017)
- Beyoncé and the Greeks: Using Femininity for Political Purposes (Brigitte Malana, 2016)
- The Gardener & Garden: The Internalization of Man in Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals (Elda Hajdaravoc, 2016)
