Movement Beyond Limit(s): CCLPS Postgraduate Conference 2024

The SOAS Centre for Cultural, Literary, and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS) is hosting a postgraduate conference on the chosen subject of Movement Beyond Limit(s). 

Programme

We will be circulating the final programme, which includes the presentations within each interdisciplinary thematic panel, as soon as possible. In the interim, we have provided a general outline below of the thematic panels and what to expect on the day for the "Movement Beyond Limit(s)" Conference, held at SOAS, University of London. All times listed are in British Summer Time.

Themes

We are curious about the multiplicity of meanings related to ‘movement’ and the possibilities and sites of scholarship it can open up: 

• "We live in an age of movement. [...] which huge amounts of materials are now in wide circulation around the globe. There are more humans, circulating and consuming more [...] Portions of the planet are literally moving more quickly and more unevenly – around axes of gender, race, and class." - Thomas Nail, Forum 1: Migrant Climate in the Kinocene', 2019: 375
   
• "We have a brain for one reason and one reason only -- that’s to produce adaptable and complex movements. Movement is the only way we have affecting the world around us […] I believe that to understand movement is to understand the whole brain. And therefore, it’s important to remember when you are studying memory, cognition, sensory processing, they’re there for a reason, and that reason is action." - Daniel Wolpert, The Real Reason for Brains, 2011
   
• "Through mobilization, bodies traverse a given terrain that by traversing, they constitute [...] Mobilization foregrounds th[e] process of how bodies are made, how they are assembled, and how demands for space produce a space of identifiable demands through a practical activity [...] If movement can be plotted on a grid of space and time, mobilization is what generates the grid." - Randy Martin, Critical Moves, 1998: 4

From the movement of ideas across time and space to shifting human bodies, we welcome explorations of ‘movement’ across disciplines. In line with the inherent motion involved in ‘movement’, we aim to involve both academic presentations as well as creative forms of engagement. Should your proposal be selected, you will be invited to present your work on campus at SOAS University of London.

Additionally, we invite SOAS academics to chair panel discussions with presenters on select themes related to the broader topic of “Movement Beyond Limit(s).” Details of the panels will be published in due course, based on the submissions we receive. 

If you have any queries related to the topics or the conference, please contact us via cclps.conference@gmail.com. See also the conference Instagram page.

Possible topics to explore: 

• Trans(formation) and embodied resistance 
• The accessibility (or lack of) of movement
• Transcendence 
• The movement through borders
• Translation 
• The inherent resistance in protest movements

About the steering committee 

• Sneh Morzaria is a student of Comparative Literature with Film Studies at SOAS, University of London and a Doctoral Researcher at Amity University, Mumbai. Speaking over 6 languages and holding many masters, she is a firm believer of education as a means to progress in life. She is a Student Representative for Comparative Literature, President of Bollywood Club SOAS and a member of the English Literary Club at Sydenham College, Mumbai where she was a Professor at before shifting to London for further studies. She is interested in Histories of erotica and fantasies and their significant impact on humans over the centuries.
• Ratnadip (he/him/they/them) is a MA Postcolonial Studies student at SOAS. Their interests are in areas of migration and diaspora studies, anthropology - with a focus on decolonial approaches to queerness, the politics of memory, and interdisciplinary academic interventions.
• Neha is doing her MA in Cultural Studies at SOAS.  Her experience of growing up as Konkani and Maharashtrian in native and non-native regionsacross India has contributed to a keen interest in the notion of hybridity, and the archive. Her research interests include gender, sexuality, and cultural history.
• Vonical (She/Her) is a Postcolonial Studies student at SOAS. Born and raised in a multicultural environment, she is a native speaker of both Cantonese and Mandarin, proficient in several other languages, and passionate about learning new languages. Her interests are literature and film, particularly in Sinophone and Lusophone African works.
• Jhani Randhawa (they/them/he) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is interested in anticolonial transfeminisms, grief-work, fugue states, and formations of friendship across species and consciousness. They are co-founding editor of the experimental arts project rivulet, and are pursuing a graduate degree in Postcolonial Studies at SOAS, University of London.
• Bisma is enrolled in MA Comparative Literature at SOAS.  They are interested in memory studies and the many ways that memory can be used and misused, what people remember and what they forget. Their interest is primarily in popular culture and the representation of memory within media.
• Lakthing is enrolled in MA Cultural Studies at SOAS. Growing up as Tangkhul from Manipur and moving across India in search of better education have led to her interest in identity and its representation that navigated through her lived experiences. She is interested in oral histories, cultural evolution expressed through lived experiences and material culture.

Header image credit: Jeremy Bishop via Unsplash