CFP: 7th Annual KNES Physical Cultural Studies Graduate Student Conference - University of Maryland

Call For Abstracts: The 7th Annual Physical Cultural Studies Graduate Student Conference:

“Epistemological Chasms: Seeking Methods for a Socially (In)Just World”

Friday April 25th, 2014

Physical Cultural Studies (PCS) – housed within the Department of Kinesiology in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland – is hosting their 7th Annual Graduate Conference on Friday April 25th, 2014 on the College Park campus in the School of Public Health. This one-day conference will consist of a series of student presentations commenced with a keynote by PCS alumnus Dr. Callie Batts Maddox. Dr. Maddox’s research focuses upon sport and physical culture within contemporary India as expressions of the intersection between lingering colonial practices and postcolonial globalization.

This year, the conference will be organized around the theme, “Epistemological Chasms: Seeking Methods for a Socially (In)Just World.” Through this theme, we aim to promote discussion on the role and presence of researchers and academic research within systems of power and inequality. Recognizing within academic institutions increasing calls for interdisciplinarity and interventions, we consider how the multiple, and at times divergent, ontological, epistemological, and methodological foundations of research may (or may not) be mobilized to address the complexity of iniquitous conditions. Do such delineations create (false) divisions? What are the relationships amongst or boundaries between research, activism, and public intellectualism? We invite papers that reflect upon these and other relevant questions, especially that research and those researchers working in dialogue with an empirical basis. 

Specifically, we invite presentations oriented around, but not limited to, the following questions:

• What is social change and what type of research can help effect such change?
• How can researchers work across ontological, epistemological, and methodological divides in order to answer
  complex research questions?
• What are the boundaries between research, activism, and public intellectualism?
• What are the boundaries between art and research?
• What is the role of reflexivity?
• In what ways should the scholar place him/herself in the research project?
  The conference aims to promote an inter- and trans-disciplinary dialogue, and as such is a space for work that develops from within or across multiple academic disciplines. We welcome all submissions from a multitude of disciplines on a multitude of related topics, but encourage submissions interrogating physical cultural practices.
  The submission deadline is February 1st, 2014
  Please e-mail abstracts (350 word limit) to umdpcs@gmail.comWithin your email, include as an attachment (in .doc or .pdf format) the following: Paper Title, Abstract, Keywords, Author(s) contact information, and institutional affiliation(s).
  For more information about PCS please visit http://www.umdpcs.org; for questions please contact PCS Graduate Conference Committee at umdpcs@gmail.com