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Bridges and Borders: The Archive

Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) and on Zoom
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
Categories: Graduate Conference, Interdisciplinary, Popular Culture, Aesthetics, Anthropology/Sociology, Classical Studies, Cultural Studies, Environmental Studies, Film, TV, & Media, Food Studies, History, Philosophy
Event Date: 2025-04-11 to 2025-04-12 Abstract Due: 2025-02-17 Submit Abstract

Bridges and Borders: The Archive

April 11-12, 2025 | Proposals Due by February 17, 2025

Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA) and on Zoom 

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Abdulhamit Arvas (University of Pennsylvania) 

Bridges and Borders is an annual, interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference presented by the Carnegie Mellon University Department of English in collaboration with the Department of Languages, Cultures, and Applied Linguistics.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Neither knowledge nor memory exist in isolation. Rather, the creation, transmission, and evolution of knowledge and memory hinge on specific social practices and structures, both material and immaterial. The Bridges and Borders theme this year is The Archive, understood as anything from institutionally maintained collections of rare materials to oral histories and memories. For scholars in the humanities, archives are not merely tools for finding sources for our research. Archival practices shape the actions of archivists; political agents; and visitors from historians, to critics, to students, to researchers and the layperson. Such practices also raise questions about institutions and the boundaries between the institution and the archive -- and of the archive itself.

We ask participants at this conference to think deeply and critically about what gets preserved, how preservation disrupts our understanding of history and memory, how the language and cultural context of an archive grants or restricts access, who gets to decide what gets archived, and what remains excluded or silenced. Work stemming from research in archives is welcome, but moreover, we seek to explore and challenge the conventional definition of the archive and think critically about how the archive is constructed materially, conceptually, and historically. 

For this year’s hybrid conference, we invite proposals for papers, roundtable discussions, creative pieces, workshops, and pre-constituted panels from graduate students across disciplines. 

This conference asks: 

What is an archive? How is knowledge constructed by an archive?
In what ways can the archive be reimagined or reconceptualized beyond its traditional definitions? 
How do archives reinforce or challenge systems of power, privilege, and representation?
How are archives and archival practices linked to identity, both in terms of those who access and those who are represented in archives? 
What role do archives play in preserving marginalized voices or histories? How can we recuperate voices that have been silenced in archives? 
What methodological approaches can researchers draw on to interrogate or deconstruct archives? 
How does culture serve as an archive of a people and how does language/language ability influence access to those spaces/archives/cultures?
How can archives inform creative practices, public history, or pedagogy? 
Where is the boundary between the visitor and the archive? 
 

KEYWORDS AND CONCEPTS 

We welcome proposals from across Humanities disciplines that consider the following keywords and concepts:

Literary and Cultural Studies
Archival studies
Film and media studies
Museum studies
Institutional studies
Rhetoric
History 
Art history 
Theater and drama studies
Gender and sexuality studies
Critical race studies 
Marxist approaches 
Translation 
Second Language Acquisition and pedagogy
Data and Second Language Acquisition
Language documentation
Language revitalization
Linguistic landscape
Family Language Policy
Language documentation 
Historical linguistic archives 
Archives of multilingual communities
Ethnography
Comparative literary studies 
Education 
Creative Writing 
Curation 
Preservation
Institutional funding and defunding 
Archival infrastructures
Censorship and moderation
Mobilities and spatial formation
Archives and power
Archives and accessibility
Digitization and digital mediation 
Recalcitrant or precarious materiality
Hostile or resistant materials
Destruction and loss 
Aleatory occurrences (i.e, “acts of God” such as fire, flood, decay, earthquakes)
Obsolescence (i.e., old, incompatible technology)
Archival silences and absence
Collective memory
Remembering and forgetting
 

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Submission Types

Research Presentation: Participants present research from coursework, dissertation, or extracurricular projects. Works in progress welcome!

Project Showcase: Participants display, read, or otherwise showcase something they have created (e.g., a poem, a creative work, a website, a document design project).

Preconstituted Panels or Roundtable Sessions: Participants submit a preorganized panel, typically made up of 3-4 paper presentations. We welcome panels that grow from graduate seminars with students at the same university or branch out across disciplinary and university boundaries.

Please submit abstracts or proposals of 250 words or fewer by Monday, February 17, 2025 via the link on our website: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/research-and-publications/bridges-and-borders.html 

This conference will be held in a hybrid format, with presentations delivered both in-person on Carnegie Mellon's campus in Pittsburgh, PA, and on Zoom. Please indicate your preference for presentation modality when submitting. 

 

Questions?

Email bridgesandborders@andrew.cmu.edu to get in touch with the conference organizers, Elizabeth Dieterich and Laura DeLuca. 

https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/research-and-publications/bridges-and-borders.html

bridgesandborders@andrew.cmu.edu

Laura DeLuca and Elizabeth Dieterich