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<TITLE>Transformations: New Call for Papers -- Thing Theory, Material Culture, and Object-Oriented Ontology</TITLE>
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<FONT SIZE="5"><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:18pt'><B>CFP: Issue 27<BR>
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Thing Theory, Material Culture, and Object-Oriented Ontology<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT></B><SPAN STYLE='font-size:11pt'><I>Transformations</I> is calling for submissions for <I>Issue 27</I>, which is dedicated to the topic of Things.<BR>
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The investigation of <I>things</I> is an important subject across many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. In <I>The Social Life of Things </I>(1988), Arjun Appadurai provided an innovative exploration of how things, as commodities, shaped their human agents, rather than the other way around—an idea that would have important repercussions for a new scholarly interest in material culture. In attempting to illuminate the problematic notion of a “Thing Theory” (2001), Bill Brown has pointed to the complex relationship between objects and things, arguing that things lie outside a simple subject-object framework, leading a multifaceted “life” that humans only glimpse rather than truly see. More recently, in <I>Vibrant</I> <I>Matter</I> (2010), Jane Bennett has investigated the political ecology of things and scholars such as Gay Hawkins (2009) and Gillian Whitlock (2010) have taken up this rich field of enquiry in their explorations of topics as diverse as cultural detritus, the posthuman, the consumption of water and plastic, and the production, dissemination and reception of testimony and artifacts concerned with asylum seekers’ life narratives.<BR>
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We welcome expressions of interest in submitting articles addressing, but not restricted to, the following research themes: <BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Symbol"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>· </SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">How can we understand “things” in relation to shifting technological and social contexts, to works of art or literature, or in relation to the cultural biographies or “lives” of things themselves? <BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Symbol"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>· </SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><FONT FACE="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">Where are the lines that divide the sentient from the non-sentient, the human from the non-human, and what are their consequences?<BR>
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<I>Transformations </I>invites proposals for academic journal articles on any aspect of the theme of “Things.” <BR>
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Articles should be between 3,500 and 5,000 words and should conform to the style guide <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/style_guide.shtml">http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/style_guide.shtml</a></U></FONT>> and submission guidelines <<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/submission_guidelines.shtml">http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/submission_guidelines.shtml</a></U></FONT>> on the <I>Transformations</I> website. <BR>
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Please submit an abstract (200 words) as well as a succinct author biography (two sentences) and contact details via email to Associate Professor Jane Stadler at the University of Queensland (<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="j.stadler@uq.edu.au">j.stadler@uq.edu.au</a></U></FONT>) by <B>13 March 2015</B>. Complete articles will be due by Monday <B>15 June 2015</B>.<BR>
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