Since the Covid-19 pandemic started in spring 2020, millions of people around the globe have perished, suffered from loss of health and loved ones, and struggled for survival on a day-to-day basis. As humanity exposes vulnerability before unpredictable natural and built environments, hate crime and anti-Asian racism have been on a dramatic rise.
Moreover, with the escalation of the tech war between the US and China into Cold War 2.0 and the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine, we are facing more and more global crises from energy to food shortage, from regional tension to a new world war.
In front of these multifarious threats and divisions, what is our common humanity? What role has life writing played in representing our humanity at different moments of crises across time and space? Why and how are telling and sharing of personal life narratives relevant to our human survival and planetary future?
This symposium not only looks for papers that explore life narratives in different aesthetic forms and representational modes, but it also encourages presentations that historicize and investigate life writing in relation to geopolitics, ethics of science, trauma theories, racial and gender performance discourses, and ecocritical studies. We also welcome readings in creative writing.
