The world imagined the COVID crisis as a single event, something that had a beginning and would have a conclusion. Events were rescheduled for an indefinite (but hopefully near) future in which the pandemic had subsided. The virus would briefly cause a rupture--but soon things would return to the normal past. After more than two full years, it has become clear that crises don't work that way. Though this was made clear on an everyday life basis by the COVID situation, it holds true for all crises--or even all events--that shape the world.

The present moment calls for a new understanding of what an event is. We tend to identify points of rupture to understand catastrophe, war, outbreak, innovation, change, and transformation. In a rapidly shifting world, ruptures not only disrupt; they mark points of change by directing our attention to specific events, times, and places. Thinking through breaks, we periodize pre- and post-, define aesthetic movements, and identify “turns” of theoretical breakthrough. But apart from the usefulness of thinking in terms of rupture, what happens when we no longer privilege the exceptional event? What becomes possible when we turn to uneventfulness, the everyday, and the ordinary? We invite papers that open up alternative responses and different possibilities about how we experience, imagine, and conceptualize rupture and continuity. The papers do not have to be limited to English literature; critical approaches from various fields across cultural studies (including film/media studies), theater studies, and linguistics are also welcome. 

COEDA 2022 is open for submissions. Papers should be 15-20 minutes long in presentation. Please email your title, 250-word abstract, and a short bio in a Word document to coedasnu2022@gmail.com by May 31, 2022.  

For further inquiry, please contact:

Student Representative

Sunbinn Lee  coedasnu2022@gmail.com 

Faculty Representatives

Prof. Haejoo Kim  haejookim@snu.ac.kr 

Prof. Vanessa Lim  vanessalim@snu.ac.kr

 Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Periodization

• Modernity

•  Trauma

• Environmental crisis

• (Post-)Apocalypse

•  War

•  Pandemic (from the Black Death to COVID-19)

•  The everyday and the quotidian

• Boundaries and borders

• Rural/urban spaces

• Narrative and lyric temporality

•  Postcolonialism

•  Gender & sexuality

•  Global capitalism