The Cultural Studies Association (CSA) invites proposals for participation in its twenty-second annual hybrid meeting. Proposals on all topics relevant to cultural studies will be considered, with priority given to those that engage this year’s theme of “Expansions.”
This year’s theme of “Expansions” continues the CSA’s minimalist approach to conference themes that we have taken over the past two years with “Conclusions” and “Reckoning(s).” This theme gestures toward the expansion of the canon of cultural studies to include a greater variety of disciplines, methodologies, and voices. It makes reference to how the CSA is as an organization expanding, through its efforts to create new working groups and strengthen existing ones, as well as encouraging submissions in a diverse array of presentation and panel formats. More generally, it reflects how the academy as a whole is expanding, or must expand, to include a greater diversity of voices, as well as the increasing need to expand equity and accessibility in light of the structural faults revealed by the pandemic. Expansions as a theme lacks a clear positive or negative connotation, which allows for a variety of interpretations as to its application to the field of cultural studies. It could point toward tensions arising from expansion against political retrenchment, or could make reference to an expansion as a bridge, or joint, that emerges to connect two places or ideas. It brings to mind the notion of the expanse as a void, an empty space that can hold vast potential or elicit a fear of the unknown. It allows us to question whether expansions, of technologies, economic or political systems, or ideologies, are ultimately beneficial or harmful.