[URBANTH-L]Call for Papers: 2009 AAA The Rhetorics of Prognostication

[Zeynep D. Gürsel]

CALL FOR PAPERS for AAA ANNUAL CONFERENCE, December 2 - 6, 2009, in  
PHILADELPHIA

Rhetorics of Prognostication

Paper proposals are invited for the panel, "The Rhetorics of  
Prognostication" for the American Anthropological Association's  
Meetings in 2009.

In keeping with this year's theme of "The End/s of Anthropology,"  
this panel seeks to investigate what contemporary rhetorics of  
prognostication are and how they function in a range of contexts.   
The regional focus is open and  submissions in any format/medium -  
papers, films, performances, etc are welcome.

What are the means available for communicating the future and what  
are the stakes of such communication?

What is the time of prognostication?  From everyday practices to five  
year plans -- how does the temporality of prognostication shape both  
the future and the rhetorics used to communicate the prognostication

What types of signs predict in the contemporary world?

How do  practices of prognostication work in shaping futures?  How is  
the future imagined and made present in acts of prognostication?

Is prognostication one of the aims of contemporary anthropology as a  
discipline?

This panel explores similarities, overlaps and dissonances in  
different modes of prognostications from omens to be interpreted to  
medical diagnoses, financial speculations to weather forecasts,risk  
analyses to religious prophesies, political predictions to fortune  
telling and dream interpretation.

Seeking submissions in any format/medium - papers, films,  
performances, etc.  Abstracts must be received by March 6,  2009.  
Please send them to:
zgursel at umich.edu

**********************************************
Zeynep Devrim Gürsel
Michigan Society of Fellows

Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
University of Michigan
101 C. West Hall
1085 S. University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 - 1107

zgursel at umich.edu