CFP - “Defetishizing Theory:” A Workshop on Methodology, Field Research and Theory
Fourth Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Theory Workshop
April 20, 2017, The Graduate Center
Hosted by SPTSA (Social and Political Theory Graduate Student Association)
About the Workshop/Miniconference
The Fourth Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Workshop/Mini Conference on ‘Theory,’ sponsored by the Social and Political Theory Student Association (SPTSA), will bring together GC students from different disciplines and perspectives to explore what it means to ‘do theory.’ Its objectives are threefold. First, we seek to provide an opportunity for students to practice presenting, and receiving feedback on works in progress in a supportively critical environment. Second, we hope to generate unexpected connections between people, concepts, orientations, and modes of theorizing. Third, we seek to build community across disciplines for GC students doing theoretical work. The workshop thus serves as a space in which we can practice taking apart the boundaries that constrain and discipline different theoretical endeavors.
Submissions of a 300-word abstract for in-progress papers, presentations, or performances are due by February 24, 2017; notifications should be sent out in late February. Please submit your abstracts using the submission form.
Each panel will have a graduate student discussant. We request that all participants read the projects of their co-panelists in order to facilitate discussion.
In academia today, interdisciplinarity is necessary and valuable to understand social and political phenomena. Many scholars in the social sciences and humanities engage in inspiring research that transcends the confines of their own fields by integrating the research tools traditionally used by other disciplines. The downside of this trend is that there is no “interdisciplinary how to guide,” rendering trial-and-error the only option for younger researchers. The task becomes even more challenging for students whose research is not only interdisciplinary but also intends to combine theoretical/textual analysis with different forms of field work in their research. The traditionally offered “methods” courses do not necessarily serve their interests for theory/textual analysis and field research are usually considered mutually exclusive. In our quest for productive hybridity we ask the following questions in SPTSA’s Fourth Annual Workshop/Mini Conference, Methods?: How do we do research when we don’t speak the language of numbers, variables, and causalities? What is a methodology? What is the deed that breeds, supports, tweaks or refutes theory? How do we combine field research and theory?
It is our belief that the best way to answer these questions is learning from each other’s experiences. With this aim in mind, SPTSA invites you to submit papers to Methods? in order to workshop your ideas and receive feedback from your peers as to “how to do theory and field/archival research together.”
We especially welcome submissions from:
Theorists who also engage in field work
Theorists who do histories, intellectual and otherwise
GC students who do empirical work with theoretical inflections
Papers focused specifically on methodology are welcome. Also welcome are papers on any topic that involve non-textual methods, or the methods sections of in-progress theses and dissertations or thesis and dissertation proposals. In drafting your proposal, you might consider the following questions: How does one combine methodological concerns with theoretical? What was your methodological protocol in your research? What obstacles did you encounter in this kind of research? How do you design a theoretical project that involves research? When the usual logics, methods, and how to’s don’t apply, what do you do?
