Call for Papers

I’m just thinking that nobody takes a walk without there being a technique of walking; nobody goes for a walk without there being something that supports that walk; something outside of ourselves.  – Judith Butler

The last decade seen an upsurge in the study of walking across many disciplines; many walking-related events and research groups have been established in the arts and within academia.  This two-day international conference, held at the University of Sunderland on June 28-29 2013, and organised by the research group W.A.L.K. (www.WALK.uk.net) in association with WALK ON, an exhibition at the Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, aims to provide a critical and discursive meeting-point for artists, writers, thinkers, and academics who are engaged in the study of walking, and to document the many diverse approaches to the study of walking.

ON WALKING seeks to examine and interrogate the practice and process of walking in all its cultural, ethnographic, poetic, and geographical ramifications.  It seeks to bring together innovative and speculative ideas on walking, to consider walking in relation to landscape, social, cultural, artistic, vocalic, and geographical constructions of space.  Papers that consider any aspect addressed in the titular acronym of the research group (walking, art, landskip (/landscape), and knowledge) will be considered, as will theoretical views of walking and not-walking, writing on specific walking experiences, and writing on the links between walking and memorialisation, walking and artistic expression / creation, and walking and literature.

Conventional papers and panel proposals are accepted as well as creative-critical papers, and innovative panel proposals (pecha-kucha sessions, etc).

There will be a limited number of postgraduate bursaries available.

Please send all enquiries as well as 250-word proposals for 20-minute papers or 600-word proposals for 60-minute panel presentations, along with brief bio-notes for each participant, to WALK@sunderland[dot]ac[dot]uk by 15 Mar. 2013.

UPDATE: by widespread request, we are extending the cfp deadline to the 27th March.  Do get in touch with us at the e-mail address above with your paper proposals or any enquiries.