University of Oxford China Humanities Graduate Conference 2017 

(Extra)ordinary China: Practices of the Everyday

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Wednesday 11th January to Thursday 12th January 2017

 Dickson Poon China Centre Building, University of Oxford

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Confirmed keynote speakers:

Andrew Jones 

Professor and Louis B. Agassiz Chair in Chinese, University of California, Berkeley

Craig Clunas

Professor of the History of Art, University of Oxford

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“Everyday life invents itself by poaching in countless ways on the property of others"

  - Michel de Certeau

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Graduate students are invited to submit abstracts for the inaugural University of Oxford China Humanities Graduate Conference 2017, which takes the theme of ‘the everyday’ in the Chinese context as its point of departure. We welcome papers that work with modern and pre-modern subject material and from all the humanistic disciplines, including history, literary and cultural studies, history of art, film and media studies, philosophy, human geography, anthropology, musicology, politics, and religion.

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This conference asks applicants to draw on their graduate research to critically engage with practices of the everyday across Greater China. How has the everyday been articulated, invented, transcended, and resisted throughout the history and culture of the region? How have marginalised individuals and groups negotiated their everyday practices within wider structures of power? What does everyday creativity look like? And where do material objects, landscapes, and animals fit in to our perception of the everyday? As a theme, ‘the everyday’ in China has often been shortchanged in favour of so-called grander narratives of history and power. Over the course of this conference, we aim to remedy this and build up a picture of China which is framed by the local and quotidian.

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Possible topics may include (but are certainly not limited to):

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         -      The daily lives and narratives of ‘ordinary people’

         -      The home, the workplace, the school throughout the ages

         -      Habit and routine, past and present

         -      Virtual and augmented reality

         -      Rural, urban, and ruined space

         -      Local, national, and global interplay

         -      Fairy-tales, fantasy, magic, and the uncanny

         -      Literary, visual, and digital culture

         -      The Internet and other forms of media

         -      Everyday soundscapes, composition, or performance

         -      Material objects, animals, the environment

         -      Individual autonomy and mass culture

         -      Alienation, social resistance, and counter-cultures

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Please submit a 250–300-word abstract in print-ready format here by November 1st 2016 23:59 (GMT). We will inform applicants of the outcome in mid-November. Do feel free to contact us if you have any enquiries, and we look forward to reading your submissions.

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With warm regards,

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Annabella Massey

Elizabeth Smith Rosser

Kate Costello