Fifteenth
Annual Conference
CALL FOR PAPERS
THE IMAGE OF THE ROAD
in Literature, Media, and Society
March
10-12, 2005
Colorado Springs, Colorado
An interdisciplinary conference exploring the image of the road - in
culture, literature, history, film, television, art, music, politics,
engineering, business. The road will be analyzed literally (as a path, a
route, a highway, a basis for travel, etc.) and metaphorically (as
providing access, opening possibilities, enabling disruption, etc.).
Images of the road from all eras � modern, historical, traditional �
and from all perspectives are relevant. Possible topics include:
*
The road in literature, art, popular
culture: novels, plays, poems, movies, TV, songs
*
The image of travel, exploration, transience, trade, communication,
migration
*
The (metaphorical) road - and heroes, villains, romance, adventure,
comedy, myths
*
Culture: suburbs, vacations, traveling salesmen, conventions, bikers,
prostitutes
*
Popular culture: the Yellow Brick Road, The Road Warrior, Route
66, the Enterprise
*
The road in myth: the quest, the dangers, chariots, flying carpets, the
Batmobile
*
Romance, the stranger, the wanderer, brief affairs, men leaving, women
leaving
*
The road as freedom: renewal, adventure, wilderness, opportunity,
frontier, Las Vegas
*
Escape and opportunity: Underground Railroad, pilgrims, wagon trains,
the open road
*
Control and oppression: slave merchants, the Long Walk, Battan Death
March
*
Road metaphors: information superhighway, neural pathways, drug traffic,
road kill
*
Trade and the road: production, profit, the market; interaction,
exposure, influence
*
War and the road: troop movements, equipment, supplies, bridges, passes
*
Disorder and the road: bohemians, outsiders, diaspora, instability,
threat, disruption
*
Vehicles: cars, trucks, trains, motor homes, motorcycles, SUVs, ships,
spaceships
*
Crime and poverty: drug traffic, highwaymen, bandits, pirates, hobos,
the homeless
*
History and the road: the Silk Road, El Camino Real, the Long March
*
Road identities: Harleys, Hummers, pickups, trailer-homes, tailgates,
bicycles
*
Other imaginative variations - eclectic and innovative approaches are
encouraged
An annual conference on imagery in society with a
different thematic focus each year. Past topics have included The Image
of Violence, Class, the City, the Hero (visit <chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/sissi>).
A conference Proceedings will
be published from selected papers.
Please submit (email, fax, mail) a one-page abstract
or a panel proposal with abstracts by December 6, 2004. Graduate
students are welcome and organized panels are encouraged.
Fax: 719-549-2705. Email:
road@colostate-pueblo.edu. Mail:
SISSI-Road, Colorado State University - Pueblo, Pueblo, CO 8l00l-4901.
Organizers: Will Wright, Professor of Sociology, Colorado State
University-Pueblo and Steven Kaplan, President, University of New Haven.
For further information contact Will Wright: 719-549-2538, will.wright@colostate-pueblo.edu.
Sponsored
by Colorado State University-Pueblo
PLEASE
POST AND CIRCULATE
