The Graduate Students in English 2022 Interdisciplinary Conference will be held Friday and Saturday, April 1-2, 2022. This year's theme is "Aberrations, Deviations, and Mutations."

"Reality is infinitely diverse, compared with even the subtlest conclusions of abstract thought and does not allow of clear-cut and sweeping distinctions. Reality resists classification." — Fyodor Dostoevsky 

"(N)ot everything fits easily into our systems of classification. The world might be, it turns out, too complicated for us to know." — Helen Macdonald 

In this current moment that resists classification, the 2022 GSE conference is interested in talking about things that refuse to be classified, things that mutate excessively or deviate from the norm, topics that have been categorized as transgressive. We welcome presentation proposals that address the conference theme in a variety of disciplines, including (as a start, but not limited to):  

Scientific explorations of typical and atypical nature  

Historical monstrosities or mutations  

Changing understandings of major concepts in various disciplines 

Adaptive trends in communication or teaching/education 

Monstrous environments (and monstrous effects upon environments)  

Humanity as a contrast to monstrosity  

Representations of gender as deviant or dangerous  

Explorations of historical and/or representational depictions of race as monstrous (i.e. Get Out [2017])  

Representations of monstrosity or mutations in literature, art, theater and other media 

Fictional, artistic, theatrical and/or creative nonfiction performances that explore monstrosity and/or adaptation, 

The conference also welcomes presentation topics from all disciplines that deviate from the 2022 theme. Assuming safe conditions, the 2022 conference will be hybrid: both remote and in-person.  

Please submit presentation proposals using this Microsoft Form no later than Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021.  

Questions may be addressed to Michel LaCrue (she/her), mclacrue@uark.edu