In 1987, Gloria Anzaldúa described the US-Mexico border as an “herida abierta” (open wound). While this metaphor evoked the abrasive quality of cultural contact, its imagery gives way to the recent rhetoric of a “big beautiful wall” serving as a suture for the wound. The proposed wall is but one example worldwide: physical border fences now separate animal populations as well as human ones, while the empty spaces of demilitarized zones generate precarious protected environments. This session solicits proposals from scholars, artists, and architects working the question of borders, whether international, temporal, ecological, or conceptual, across a range of media and locations. How can the material qualities of division provide a platform for artistic expression and initiate political dialogue? What physical and environmental factors shape and alter established boundaries? In what ways can the art object engage with the presence (or absence) of a border?

Please send paper proposals to [email protected] via the submission form found on the UAAC/AAUC website: https://uaac-aauc.com/news/calls-for-papers/uaac-call-for-papers-conference-2019/

Submissions must include / Les soumissions doivent inclure:

• the name of the applicant / le nom de l’intervenante
• the applicant’s email address / l’adresse courriel de l’intervenante
• the applicant’s institutional affiliation and rank / l’affiliation institutionnelle et le titre de l’intervenante
• title of proposal / le titre de la communication
• a proposal (300 words maximum) / une proposition de communication (maximum de 300 mots)
• a brief biography (150 words maximum) / une courte biographie (maximum 150 mots)