Call for Papers: Structures of Violence, Engaging the Public Imagination

Friday, January 15, 2016

The graduate students of the Public Sociology Program at George Mason University organize an annual conference that critically engages contemporary social problems with diverse publics. Public sociology is an approach to the study of social problems and structures that transcends the boundaries of academia to engage the public in discourse, political and institutional change, and social empowerment. 

This year we seek papers that confront structures of violence in an effort to engage the public imagination. In the spirit of public sociology, we encourage submissions from outside of academia and from related disciplines that speak to the conference theme. Crossing multiple spheres of life, the public imagination uses dialogue to create new possibilities for action. A public imagination against structures of violence recognizes that violence exists in multiple forms and is not experienced universally.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:  

- Newtown 

- Ferguson 

- Paris - 11/13/2015

- Guantanamo

- Intimate Partner Violence 

- Racial Discrimination

- Elder neglect

- Etc.

Submission: A maximum 500-word abstract of proposed presentations should be submitted electronically to gmusocgrads@gmail.com, no later than January 15, 2016.