SOC Symposium - Celebrating 30 years of Cultural Studies at Mason
Friday, March 28, 2025 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM EDT
Horizon Hall, 5018
Celebrating 30 years of Cultural Studies at Mason!
The Student Organizing Committee (SOC) is hosting a student-run symposium this Spring! Join us on March 28, 2025 for a day of hearing from our scholarly community and seeing familiar and new faces!
The goal is to talk about work being conducted by those in the program. As such, whatever has already been bouncing around in your mind is more than welcome. We want to provide an environment to hear from each other, not only because we don't always get to, but also because being able to share your work with friendly faces should build confidence.
Proposals due by Sunday, February 16th, 2025 at 11:59 PM
We invite Cultural Studies doctoral students to submit paper proposals for our upcoming 30th Anniversary student symposium.
In celebration of our program’s 30-year history, we ask a question that will likely be familiar to our student body: Why Cultural Studies, and why now? We call for critical engagements with contemporary issues in cultural studies that highlight the interdisciplinary approach, varying backgrounds, and social utility of the work we conduct in this department. We aim to put our many strengths in conversation with each other through student-led presentations and discussions.
We welcome proposals that address a broad range of topics within cultural studies, including but not limited to:
- Technology studies and digital cultures
- Media studies, aural and visual cultures
- Popular culture
- Performance and performativity
- Gender and sexuality studies, queer theory
- Political economy and class
- Race and representation studies
- Postcolonial and decolonial studies
- Heritage and memory studies
- Disability studies
- Environmental studies
- Space and place studies
- Incarceration and social justice
Structure of Conference
Students will deliver short presentations on their work as part of a 3–4-member panel moderated by a fellow panelist. Afterward, there will be a Q&A session during which attendees will have opportunities to ask participants questions about the presentations.
If you would like to participate, please submit a brief paper proposal/abstract (no more than 500 words) on the following Google form by Sunday, February 16th, 2025, at 11:59 PM.
