Binaries

Update: Deadline Extended! Please submit by December 20th!

The University of Maryland’s Graduate English Organization invites proposals on the topic of “Binaries” for our 16th annual conference, to be held hybrid/in-person on March 3rd, 2023. 

Coming from the Latin bīnārius, the Oxford English Dictionary defines “binary” as “Of, pertaining to, characterized by, or compounded of, two; dual.” While this can be seen on one hand as collaborative and additive, binaries are also often understood as oppositional or dichotomous.These competing definitions, then, form a complicated interpretational binary.

This interdisciplinary conference welcomes papers that critique binaries and binary systems in all of their forms: their rigidity; their useful means of categorization; their failure to capture complexity; their inherently oppositional nature; their tendency for both collaboration and division; their reality. How can interrogating binaries in literature, film, television, (video) games, pedagogy, the arts, and other media forms help us to tackle concerns in humanistic disciplines? How, when, and why should we embrace or resist binaries and binaristic thinking? 

Abstracts of 250-300 words should be submitted to englgeo@umd.edu by December 20th, 2022. We welcome submissions both creative and critical. Potential presentation topics can focus on a wide range of issues including (but not limited to): 

• Gender & sexuality

• Digital / analog

• High art / pop culture

• Fact / Fiction (or post-truth)

• ‘Ivory Tower’ / public humanities

• Privacy / Performance

• Dis / ability

• Space & time

• Genre, emotional, or aesthetic binaries