CFP: Contests and Contestations: Bodies and Nation in Canadian History

Call for papers: Contests and Contestations: Bodies and Nation in Canadian
History

Proposals for papers are invited for an edited collection on the body in
Canadian history. We are seeking essays on the body and embodiment broadly
conceived that critically explore the political, social and cultural
contestations over the body and bodies in the Canadian context. The volume
aims to challenge approaches of the body as ahistorical and asocial, and
seeks to position the contested body as another category of analysis towards
understanding Canadian history. As contested spaces, bodies are
historically constructed and inscribed with political, social, and cultural
meanings. In turn, these meanings have come to shape historical
conceptualizations of nation, gender, race, class, and sexuality. Although
often referred to in the singular (as ‘the body’), Canadian history and the
nation have been composed of a multiplicity of bodies and notions of
embodiment that have often been in contest both metaphorically and
literally. This collection aims to bring together aspects of these
histories to explore some of the implications for the nation. We especially
encourage submissions that discuss beauty contests and
nationhood/citizenship as well as critical junctures between Canadian and
transnational/global bodies and ideas of embodiment. Other potential topic
areas include but are not limited to:

· colonialism and the colonial/colonized body or embodied experiences of
colonialization, race, and violence

· gender/sexuality and bodies especially historical notions of femininity
and masculinity in relation to nation/citizenship

· childhood and adolescence/the aging/aged body: as separate themes or
understanding the body historically as temporal space

· cultural representations and performances: burlesque/stripping, artistic
performances, dance, the body as a site of cultural contest and negotiation,
spectacle and the extraordinary body on display (e.g. freak shows, circuses
and midway exhibitions)

· medicine and science: notions of the healthy/unhealthy body or bodies and
nation-building (such as a rethinking of bodies, nation, and the eugenics
movement), cosmetic surgery

· dis/ability: science, technology, and medical intervention, historical
constructions of disability and ability

· bodies/athletic bodies and sports

· productive bodies: bodies at work, industrialization and the body,
workplace bodies and national health, (re) productive bodies and nation-building

The editors will review proposals and authors of accepted proposals will be
invited to contribute to the collection. All manuscripts will be externally
peer reviewed.

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract, working title and brief biography by
September 15, 2009.

Completed manuscripts (6000-8000 words) are due on April 15, 2010.

Please send queries and/or completed proposals in a Word document to:

Patrizia Gentile
Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies
Carleton University
patrizia_gentile@carleton.ca