On behalf of the graduate students of the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures at the University of Michigan, we are pleased to announce The 17th Annual Charles F. Fraker Conference, entitled The Turning Point: Crisis & Disaster, to be held in Ann Arbor on March 25th, 26th and 27th, 2010. We would like to invite graduate students from your program to participate and would greatly appreciate it if you could post the attached Call for Papers in your department, as well as forward this email to any concerned/interested parties and listserves you may know of. The deadline for submission of abstracts is December 21st, 2009. We would also like to inform you that the department online journal Tiresias will publish some of the papers after the conference (the deadline for submission of your papers will follow ASAP)

March 25, 26 & 27, 2010 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

crisis:  turning point of a disease (XVth century); vital or decisive stage in events (XVIIth century) (From The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology )

The term “crisis” itself is difficult to detach from current political and economic developments. The impetus of this conference is to discuss the rhetorical use (and/or abuse), of this word by examining how ideas of crisis and disasters have been thought and expressed through aesthetics, history and theory.

How do we define “crisis”? What are the less explored contexts of this word that we can consider? How does crisis relate to disaster (if it does)? Through examinations of textual representations and textual manifestations of crisis, we seek to resuscitate the idea of crisis as a turning point that requires judgment and discernment and whose implications extend to: Culture, Identity, Sexuality, Politics, Economics, Nature, Ethics, Religion, Representations of Death and Life, History and its Constructions, Technology…*

*This list of topics is neither exhaustive nor restrictive!

Submission Deadline:

December 21st, 2009

Submission Instructions:

Presentations may be given in English, French, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish and should be related to Francophone, Hispanic, Lusophone or Italian cultures. Please send a 250-300 word abstract to fraker2010abstracts@ctools.umich.edu. Questions? Contact the Organizing Committee at fraker2010@umich.edu.