MCLC: Social Lives of Dead Bodies--cfp

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Nedostup, Rebecca <rebecca_nedostup at brown.edu>
Subject: Social Lives of Dead Bodies--cfp
***********************************************************

The Social Lives of Dead Bodies in Modern China
Conference to be held at Brown University, Providence, RI
14-16 June 2013

Call for Papers

Much like the living, corpses‹as individuals and as groups‹must be
physically and epistemologically managed to fit into structures of
social meaning. What happens to dead bodies as meanings evolve, are
intentionally manipulated, or in extraordinary circumstances?  This
project, funded by an ACLS/CCK Comparative Studies in Chinese Society
and Culture Grant and by Brown University, gathers the best
scholarship on a population newly attracting the interdisciplinary
attention it deserves in Chinese studies: dead bodies. We look at the
mid-19th century onward, when the broadening scale and nature of
warfare; the expansion of the state and the rise of nationalism; the
rapid pace of urban and rural development; and the intersection of
new, international philanthropies with older forms of charity and
ritual pacification affected the treatment and conception of the dead.
By emphasizing the context of public performance, this geographically
and temporally comparative and cross-cultural project seeks to treat
corpses as meaningful participants in the greater polity.

Scholars across the humanities and social sciences are invited to
submit paper proposals on topics relevant to these themes. In
particular, we seek papers that address the following topics:

1)	Epistemology:  How are dead bodies seen, known, felt, or otherwise
perceived?
€	Normal/Normative/Abnormal Situations for Dead Bodies
2)	Impresarios of the Dead: How are the dead moved, circulated,
commodified or exchanged?
€	Specialists: Philanthropists, state actors, ritual specialists
€	Institutions: Funerary Commerce‹funeral parlors, religious institutions
3)	Instrumental Encounters: How are corpses marked, embalmed,
modified, or processed?
€	Investigating the dead: Forensics, medicine
€	Material culture of burial and commemoration
€	Technologies of processing the dead
4)	Reincorporation of the Dead: How are dead bodies social?  How are
they displayed, recognized, concealed, or destroyed?
€	Spectacle: Images, photos, museums
€	Remembrances: letters, obituaries
€	Quantification and individualization of death: body counts, heroes,
and martyrs
€	The unwanted dead

Works-in-progress are welcome. The conference will operate as a
workshop, with papers pre-circulated and the intended outcome a volume
with a major academic press.

Confirmed participants, in addition to the members of the Conference
Steering Committee, noted below, include pioneers of the field Evelyn
Rawski (University of Pittsburgh; Death Ritual in Late Imperial and
Modern China, The Last Emperors) and Robert P. Weller (Boston
University, Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion; Ritual and
its Consequences, Rethinking Pluralism).

Proposals must include a title and an abstract of no more then 250
words and can be submitted electronically to
deadbodiesconference at gmail.com. To receive full consideration
proposals should be submitted by January 31. Participants will be
notified of their selection by March 24. Limited funding is available
to help cover travel and lodging for participants.

Conference Steering Committee:
Rebecca Nedostup, Brown University
Caroline Reeves, Harvard University Fairbank Center
Paul R. Katz, the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
C. Julia Huang, National Tsing Hua University
Questions may be addressed to the steering committee at:
deadbodiesconference at gmail.com

Rebecca Nedostup
Associate Professor
Department of History
Brown University
nedostup at brown.edu
T: 401-863-9030