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German Studies Association, Thirty-Third Annual Conference, Washington,
DC
08.10.2009-11.10.2009, Washington, DC
Deadline: 15.02.2009
Does the legalization of gay marriage pose, as its critics charge, an
existential challenge to societal cohesion? Or does it stand at the
culmination of a long-term evolution toward “companionate marriage”?
Either way, the current controversy raises questions of historical
continuity and discontinuity in the formation of social and cultural
boundaries between “legitimate” and transgressive unions. What forces
have shaped transgressivity over time, and how has their composition
changed? How have the partners in transgressive unions negotiated their
condition in society and culture, and with what impact on marriage as a
vehicle, both for social reproduction and for the generation of
collective identities? How have these transformations been reflected in
cultural production?
The GSA invites proposals for interdisciplinary panels and papers that
analyze the many forms and transformations of transgressive union over
the long term, from the sacramentalization of marriage in the late
Middle Ages to the present. Envisioned are several panels organized
around one or more of the following categories of transgressivity:
- Social: marriages between unequals, e.g. unions between nobles and
non-nobles;
- Legal: unions between free persons and slaves or bonded persons
(Leibeigene, Eigenhörige);
- Sexual: bigamy and polygamy; homosexual unions; marriages within the
prohibited degrees of consanguinity;
- Generational: marriages between young and old;
- Confessional: marriages across a barrier of denominational or
ideological division;
- Religious: unions between Christians, Jews, Muslims, and “pagans”;
- Ecclesiastical: unions in violation of canon law (“concubinage”) or
the informal expectations that bore upon Protestant clergy;
- Racial: unions in violation of racial barriers, e.g., unions with
“Moors” or other non-Europeans; between colonizers and the colonized;
between “Aryans” and Mischlinge (etc.)
Topics and themes might include, but are not limited to: the
sacramentalization of marriage and the consolidation of clerical
celibacy; the sixteenth-century assault on sacramentality; social
misalliances and the formation of “companionate marriage”; the social
and legal impact of confessionalization; the institutionalization,
judicialization, and bureaucratization of marriage; structure of kinship
and the intergenerational transfer of wealth in the transition to
industrialized modernity; the racialization of marriage in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This series of panels is organized by David M. Luebke (University of
Oregon, dluebke@???) and Mary Lindemann (University of Miami,
mlindemann@???).
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The Program Committee cordially invites proposals on any aspect of
German, Austrian, or Swiss studies, including (but not limited to)
history, Germanistik, film, art history, political science, musicology,
religious studies, sociology, and cultural studies. Proposals for entire
sessions and for interdisciplinary presentations are strongly
encouraged. Individual paper proposals and offers to serve as session
moderators or commentators are also welcome. Programs of past GSA
conferences may be viewed at the GSA website (
www.thegsa.org).
Please see the GSA website (
http://www.thegsa.org/ ) for information
about the submission process, which opens on January 5, 2009.
Please note that ALL proposals must be submitted online; paper forms are
not used. The deadline for proposals is February 15, 2009.
For more information, visit the GSA website or contact members of the
2009 Program Committee:
Program Director: Benjamin Marschke (Humboldt State University),
marschke@???
Medieval, Early Modern, 18th-Century: Jason Coy (College of Charleston),
coyj@???
19th-Century: George Williamson (University of Alabama),
gwilliam@???
20th/21st-Century History: Katherine Pence (Baruch College),
Katherine.Pence@???
20th/21st-Century Literature, Cultural Studies: Rick McCormick
(University of Minnesota), mccor001@???
Interdisciplinary: Janet Ward (University of Nevada, Las Vegas),
janet.ward@???
Political Science: E. Gene Frankland (Ball State University),
gfrankla@???.
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David Luebke
Department of History, University of Oregon
Eugene OR 97403-1288
1-541-346-2394
1-541-346-4895
dluebke@???
Homepage <
www.uoregon.edu/~dluebke>
