The fourth international conference of EAM
The European Network for Avant-garde and Modernism Studies
University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 29.-31.8.2014
CALL FOR PAPERS AND CLOSED PANELS
(Scroll down for the full calls for papers and chairs)
UTOPIA
Modernism and Avant-gardism are artistic languages of rupture. Both were directed against traditional
ways of conceiving art, often assuming an antagonistic position in relationship to existing cultural and social
institutions and relationships. This conference explores the utopian alternatives which Modernist and
avant-garde artists offered to existing society. This was not always simply a question of taking an outside
position: for example, the Russian avant-garde was co-opted by the early Soviet state in an uneasy – and
temporary – alliance to give birth to the New Man. The 2014 EAM conference in Helsinki commemorates
the centenary of the break-out of the First World War by taking as its starting point the many utopian
dreams within European literature and arts as well as their collapse in the face of the horrors of war. The
effects of the War lasted throughout the century, and the conference will also explore the utopian
dimensions of the neo-avant-garde, be it that of the West which dreamed alternatives to conformism and
consumer society, or of the East which sheltered alternatives to socialist dystopia. We thus invite proposals
for contributions that deal with the alternatives that modernism and the avant-garde offered to existing
reality: utopias; chimeras; dreams; abstractions; desires; myths; dystopias; cityscapes or impossible
landscapes; politics or anti-politics; the body freed or harnessed; erotic or amatorial liberation; the retreat
into private worlds or the mapping of bold alternatives; the avant-garde as alternative to or embodiment of
the state; the utopian moment in the nihilistic or rebarbative art-work. We welcome contributions across
all areas of avant-garde and modernist research or practice: art, literature, music, architecture, film, artistic
and social movements, lifestyle, television, fashion, drama, performance, activism, design and technology.
EAM website: www.eam-europe.be
Conference website: www.eam2014.com
For all the enquiries about the conference, please contact us eam2014@meetingsmill.fi
CALL FOR PAPERS AND CLOSED PANELS, November 1st – January 30th
All the submissions will be done with the online abstract submission form in our website:
www.eam2014.com, bottom ”Abstracts”. There you will also find a link to the list of open panels and peer
seminars. The maximum length of all the submissions is 200 words.
You can either submit
1) A CLOSED PANEL. A CLOSED PANEL consists of between THREE and TWELVE speakers. The CHAIR(s) may
present a paper if desired. A closed panel may include no more than two doctoral students. These panels
are ‘closed’ in the sense that they will include only the speakers whose names are submitted by the chair –
they are of course presented before a conference audience. On the online abstract form the chair(s) will
supply the title and a brief description of the panel, the titles of the papers that will be presented in the
panel, name and affiliation of the chair(s) and all the speakers.
2) An INDIVIDUAL PROPOSAL to join an OPEN PANEL listed on the website, www.eam2014.com, click on the
bottom ”Abstracts”.
3) An INDIVIDUAL PROPOSAL to a PEER SEMINAR. Please check the list of peer seminars on the website,
www.eam2014.com, please click on the bottom ”Abstracts”. For the peer seminar, participants circulate
short position papers (2000 words) one month before the seminar. The papers are discussed at the
seminar. There is NO audience at the peer seminar which is closed to the rest of the conference. Doctoral
students may apply to participate in a seminar and this can be a good way to get accepted to the
conference for people whose work is at an early stage.
4) An INDIVIDUAL PROPOSAL without specifying a panel and the organisers will assign your paper to a panel
if accepted.
The participants will be informed about the acceptance of the papers by February 28th.
The official languages of the conference are English, French and German. Both papers and entire panels are
accepted in all the three languages. A paper submitted to an open panel MUST be in the language of that
panel.
Conference convenors and the EAM network chairs
Prof. David Ayers, University of Kent, UK / Dr. Marja Härmänmaa University of Helsinki, Finland
The scientific committee of the EAM 2014 conference
Professor Henry Bacon, University of Helsinki / Professor Natalia Baschmakoff, University of Eastern Finland
/ Professor Tomi Huttunen, University of Helsinki / Dr. Irmeli Hautamäki, University of Helsinki / Dr. Teemu
Ikonen, University of Helsinki / Dr. Timo Kaitaro, University of Helsinki / Dr. Janna Kantola, University of
Helsinki / Professor Pirjo Lyytikäinen, University of Helsinki / Dr. Alfonso Padilla, University of Helsinki / Dr.
Riikka Rossi, University of Helsinki / Professor Pekka Pesonen, University of Helsinki / Professor Kirsi
Saarikangas, University of Helsinki / Professor Riikka Stewen, Academy of Fine Arts / Professor Harri Veivo,
University of New Sorbonne / University of Helsinki
Tervetuloa Helsinkiin! – Varmt välkommen till Helsingfors! – Добро пожаловать в Хельсинки!
Welcome to Helsinki! – Bienvenu à Helsinki – Hertzlich willkommen nach Helsinki – Benvenuti a Helsinki! –
Bienvenidos a Helsinki! – Tere tulemast Helsingisse! – Zapraszamy do Helsinek! –
Καλώς ήρθατε στο Ελσίνκι!