The Revolution Will Not Be Peer-Reviewed:
American Disconnects and the Production of Knowledge
Graduate Conference at the Graduate School of North American Studies
John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin
May 5 and 6, 2017
Postmodern Western societies have long been marked by deep cultural and economic
divisions that inhibit successful communication between social groups. As a sense of
disconnect grows in the current political climate, the academic world finds itself increasingly
implicated, often refraining from direct intervention by maintaining its own specific language
and social position and thereby consolidating its relative isolation within society.
Although this is by no means a new development, recent events – including the 2016 US
presidential election, the Brexit vote, and heated debates over immigration on both sides of
the Atlantic – have been extraordinarily illustrative of the disconnect between academic and
wider social discourses. Surmounting this particular disconnect is made even more difficult by
the new normalization of populist rhetoric in politics and media and the intense antiintellectual resentment of the right. As different social groups and movements battle for the
meaning and self-image of “America,” the discipline of American Studies is potentially an
important agent within these debates.
And yet both American Studies and the larger academic world to which it belongs – divided
into subdisciplines, theoretical schools, and research traditions – grapples with its own set of
disconnects. It is thus more essential than ever for academics to adequately theorize the
complex set of current social, cultural, and economic disconnects and the (real or imagined)
emergence of the oft-invoked “post-factual age,” in which the classical intersectional triad of
race, class, and gender seems entangled in ever more tumultuous ways.
How can the quest for inter-, trans-, and postdisciplinarity contribute to effective
communication across camps and advance our understanding of cultural and social realities
“on the ground”? Which theoretical projects are best suited to make sense of “American
disconnects” and build bridges across fault lines? What are the key historical developments
that play a part in the genealogy of the current political moment? Can present forms of
knowledge production and critical theory be continued in a way that makes them once again
relevant beyond academia, or do we need new forms of intervention that speak to a public
whose relationship to the question of “truth” is increasingly at odds with academia’s? Can we
envision engaged scholarship that not only analyzes the present disconnects and their
historical background, but also launches the project of reconnection?
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
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Academia, knowledge production, and political activism
Inter-, trans-, and postdisciplinarity as ideal and practice
Institutionalization, incorporation, and containment of dissidence within academia
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Affective politics as a challenge for academic discourse
Academia and post-factual politics
Mass media and “facts”
Populism and anti-intellectualism as political strategy
Rhetoric of anti-establishment rebellion
Grassroots theory and/versus critical theory
We welcome contributions to the 2017 Graduate Conference from graduate students, postdocs, and other scholars as well as activists and others operating outside academia.
Abstracts should be limited to 250 words and submitted as part of the application form
(available at https://gsnasconference2017.wordpress.com). Please submit your abstract by
email to conference2017 [at] gsnas.fu-berlin.de. Submissions must be received by January
29th, 2017. A confirmation email will be sent when we receive your abstract. Those selected to
present will be notified by mid-February. The conference will be held in English.