Call for papers

One witness and experiences violence everywhere one turns – in the physical, material, spatial, temporal, structural, psychological, symbolic, and epistemic domains. In Gore Capitalism, Valencia Sayak claims that “[v]iolence and its spectacularization now cut across all fields of knowledge and action; it has become the preeminent model for the analysis of contemporary reality.” Hence, the renewed academic interest in violence that has been burgeoning in recent decades in various disciplines is not surprising. However, the theory and critical study of violence remain lacking in many fields. Even when violence is discussed and analyzed, it tends to be isolated by academic barriers preventing us from comprehending this phenomenon or comparing it across different fields. 

We thus plan a two-day interdisciplinary conference at Tel Aviv University dedicated to rethinking violence. This conference is conducted in response to the current (glocal) state of affairs while also following the humanist traditions of thought, critique, and resistance regarding violence. The conference has three key objectives: providing an interdisciplinary venue for multiple perspectives, articulations and manifestations of violence; exchanging thoughtful feedback for the participants’ research; and developing new understandings of violence. We see the three objectives as interrelated and imminent for each other's success.  

In this open call for papers and applications, we intentionally do not predefine the concept of violence so that different conceptualizations can be pursued. We view the conceptualization process as affecting the concept's implications. Thus, a significant emphasis will be put on the question, “What is violence?". However, this question is subjected to specific conditions - geographically, disciplinary, discursively, etc. - under which one may generate different answers. We will therefore place another emphasis on contextualizing violence.

Several central pillars are to be addressed at our conference. First, we cannot ignore the local and ongoing issue of Palestine/Israel while also accounting for the wider theoretical frame of postcolonialism, settler colonialism, decolonization, and violence. A second imperative pillar is how violence operates regarding sexualized, gendered, and queer bodies. Third, we will examine the idea of violence perpetrated against animals and other non-humans. Lastly, we will inquire about our arena – the academy – and its affinities to types of violence. These four broad thematic considerations will hold the grounds to explore violence from varied perspectives, including, but not limited to, material, epistemic, ontological, symbolic, and institutionalized violence. 

Our inquiry into violence will not ignore the political and ethical issues of resistance and the justification of violence: What does resistance have to do with violence? Can violence sometimes be justified, and what constitutes, if any at all, its legitimacy? To address these questions and others, the conference will examine different perspectives on (non-)violence and resistance in relation to the contexts in which they occur.

The conference will host several types of meetings and activities. These will include workshops, panels, roundtables, and a keynote lecture. 

• Workshops dealing with foundational problems concerning research on violence will be held as interactive discussions led by one or a few facilitators. The main aim of these workshops is to support participants in developing their own research.

• Roundtables and Panels are sessions that include short presentations of a few papers. These sessions will address current issues and new theorizations while allowing an open discussion between the audience and the participants.  

• Keynote lecture by Dr. Daniel Loick (University of Amsterdam).

The conference will be held mainly in English, with the possibility of Hebrew and Arabic sessions. Due to its international nature and following COVID-19 recommendations, the conference will be held in a hybrid format. Please inform us through the application form if you are interested in participating in-person or online. 

We invite scholars to send paper proposals - either work in progress or published - to be presented in panels and roundtables. We also welcome scholars whose research is related to the idea of violence to apply for participation in the conference’s workshops. We highly encourage young scholars and advanced graduate students to apply for the workshops.

• Participants interested in presenting a paper in the roundtable and panel sessions are invited to submit a narrative CV and a paper proposal (300 words) instead of a cover letter. 

• Scholars interested in participating in the conference and its workshops are invited to apply with a narrative CV and a brief (250 words) cover letter. 

We welcome contributions from faculty and post-graduate students across the humanities and social sciences, regardless of their theoretical or methodological orientations.

Suggested Topics

Possible paper and research topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Conceptualizations of violence

• Gendered and sexual violence

• Colonial and racialized violence 

• Violence and the non-human realm

• Violence in the Anthropocene 

• Violence and/as resistance 

Submissions for Considering Violence 2023 are currently closed. 

See you next year.