Democracy, Secrecy and Dissidence in Contemporary Literature in English
University of Córdoba, Spain 2-3 February, 2023
Welcome
The Organising Committee of the International DESEDI (Democracy, Secrecy and Dissidence in Contemporary Literature in English) Conference welcomes you to our website. The DESEDI Conference, which will take place 2-3 February 2023 in Córdoba, is hosted by the Department of English and German Studies (University of Córdoba) and organized by the DESEDI Research Project.
On this website, you will find information about the venue and the historic city of Córdoba, as well as practical information concerning travelling, accommodation, registration, the academic programme, social activities and updates.
We look forward to seeing you all in February at the DESEDI Conference in Córdoba.
THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Call for papers
Call for Papers
Please submit your 400-500 word abstracts by June 30th, 2022
See right for full CFP.
Please submit your abstracts to desedi@uco.es.
Abstracts should include a short biographical note.
Plenary speakers
Program
|
Thursday, February 2nd | |
|---|---|
|
9:00-9:30 |
Registration / Welcome |
|
9:30-11 Session 1 (3 papers) |
- Jelena Sesnic (U. Zagreb): Literary Imagination at the Digital Frontier: Dave Eggers’s Recent Technological Dystopian Novels (The Circle, The Every) - Esther Muñoz González (U. Zaragoza): Secret Writing and Truth: Margaret Atwood’s Dystopian Novels - Ángela Rivera Izquierdo (U. Granada): Surveillance technology, identity construction and anthropogenic catastrophe in Martin MacInnes's Gathering Evidence Chair: María Luisa Pascual |
|
11-11:30 |
Coffee break |
|
11:30-12:45 |
Plenary Session: Prof. Clare Birchall (King’s College London): Critique and/as Conspiracy Theory. Chair: María Jesús López |
|
12:45-13 |
Break |
|
13-14 Session 2 (2 papers) |
- Mercedes Diaz Dueñas (U. Granada): The Survivor in Madeleine Thien’s Fiction - Aristi Trendel (LeMans University): The Reluctant Dissident: Freedom and Secrecy in Ha Jin’s A Song Everlasting Chair: Gerardo Rodríguez |
|
14-16 |
Lunch break |
|
16-17:30 Session 3 (3 papers) |
- Christopher Griffin (U. Warwick): Lost Afrofutures: Anthony Joseph’s The African Origins of UFOs as Aperture Fiction - Jim Barloon (U. St. Thomas): ‘Silence, Exile, and Cunning’ in Ellison’s Invisible Man. - Luna Chung (U. of Arizona): Silence, Secrecy and (in)Sanity: Uncovering Methods for Reading Chinese American Epistemology in The Woman Warrior Chair: Jesús Blanco |
|
17:30-18:00 |
Coffee break |
|
18:00-19:30 |
Roundtable: Retrotopia, Democracy and Secrecy in Literature Maria J. López, Gerardo Rodríguez Salas, Pilar Villar-Argaiz. |
|
21:00 |
Conference dinner. Restaurante Amaltea |
|
Friday, February 3rd | |
|---|---|
|
9:00-10:30 Session 4 (3 papers) |
- Kai Wiegandt (Barenboim-Said Akademie Berlin): Teju Cole’s Poetics of Secrecy and Revelation - Miriam Fernández Santiago (U. Granada): The Secret as a Formal Dimension of the Literary Text. Digital Transparency vs Literary Negativity in Tao Lin’s Taipei (2014) - Manu Joshi (IIT-Delhi): Restoring the Subject: Political secrecy and literary betrayal in J.M. Coetzee’s The Master of Petersburg Chair: María J. López |
|
10:30-11 |
Coffee break |
|
11-12:15 |
Plenary Session: Prof. Sascha Pöhlmann (U. of Innsbruck): Walt Whitman’s Poetry of Intimacy Chair: Paula Martín |
|
12:15-12:30 |
Break |
|
12:30-14 Session 5 (3 papers) |
- Sonia Baelo Allué (U. Zaragoza): Secrecy, Transparency and Transhumanism in a Changing Context: From “Black Box” to “Lulu the Spy, 2032” in Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House (2022) - Felicity Smith (U. Granada): The Political is the Psychological: The Construction and Fragmentation of Secrets in Anna Burns’ Little Constructions - Maria Luisa Pascual Garrido (U. Córdoba): ‘The mist hangs heavily across my past’: Secrecy, Myth and Truth in The Buried Giant Chair: Pilar Villar |
|
14-16 |
Lunch break |
| 16:00-16:30 | Tour around the Faculty building |
|
16-17:30 Session 6 (2 papers) |
- Auxiliadora Pérez Vides (U. Huelva): The Noir Fiction Rhetorics of Ireland’s Subterfuges in Benjamin Black’s Elegy for April and April in Spain - Jorge Diego Sánchez (U. Salamanca): “Go and Do the Thing You Shouldn’t”:Transformative Hope in Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye (2020) Chair: Ángela Rivera |
|
17:30-18:00 |
Coffee break |
|
18:00-19:00 Session 7 (2 papers) |
- Edward Smith (independent scholar): Revealing Open Secrets: Wittgenstein, Dissidence, and Clown Logic - Manuel Herrero-Puertas (National Taiwan U.): Unreliable Deliberators: Neurodiverse Democracy in Mr. Robot Chair: Juan Luis Pérez |
|
19:00-20:30 |
Roundtable and closing remarks Secrecy, Conspiracy and Totality in the Systems Novel Jesús Blanco Hidalga, Paula Martín-Salván, Juan L. Pérez-de-Luque. |
Book of Abstracts
Registration
Registration
Registration fee: 95€
Deadline: January 20th 2023.
All participants need to register before the Conference. No onsite registration will be available.
Registration includes conference materials, conference lunch on February 2nd and 3rd, and morning and afternoon refreshments.
Conference dinner will take place on February 2nd. Information on location and payment will be available very soon.
Payment method
Payment of the registration fee must be made by bank transfer to the conference bank account:
Bank name: Banco Santander Central Hispano
Account holder: Universidad de Córdoba
IBAN: ES77 0049 2420 31 2714626725
SWIFT code: BSCHESMMXXX
Please, make sure that your transfer is easily identifiable by including the following information in the description field: DESEDI + Your name (e.g., DESEDI John Smith).
Any bank fees charged by remitting banks are to be covered by the sender. Unfortunately, payment by credit card is NOT available.
NOTE that your registration will NOT be complete until you have sent your bank transfer receipt via e-mail, in a pdf file, to the Conference organizers at desedi@uco.es .
Invoices: Should you require a proof of payment, please include all the details you need us to include in the invoice in the e-mail you send along with your payment receipt.
Cancellation policy: The registration fee will be refunded for cancellations made by January 20th, 2023 (all bank charges to be borne by requester). No registration fee refunds will be made for cancellations after that date. Cancellations with refund request should be made via e-mail to desedi@uco.es
Travel info
How to get to Cordoba
Cordoba, strategically located in Southern Spain, is very well connected to Madrid, Malaga and Seville airports. Once there, you can take a train, a coach or drive to your final destination.
By plane
The nearest airports are in Seville and Malaga, although Madrid is an option as well due to the excellent train connections.
From Seville airport, take a bus or a taxi to Santa Justa Railway Station. The high-speed AVE or AVANT trains are the fastest and easiest way to travel from Seville to Cordoba, just a 45-minute trip.
From Malaga airport, take the local “Cercanias” C1 train to Maria Zambrano Railway Station. From Malaga to Córdoba the trip takes approximately 1 hour by high-speed AVE or AVANT train.
From Madrid airport, take the local “Cercanias” C1 train to Puerta de Atocha Railway Station. There you can take any of the many trains running daily to Cordoba.
By train
Travelling by train is recommended. Cordoba is part of the nationalhigh speed train network allowing travel times of less than two hours from Madrid, about an hour from Malaga and 45 minutes from Seville by AVE, AVANT or ALVIA trains. You can plan your journey and buy tickets athttp://www.renfe.com/
Once you arrive in Cordoba, it is a pleasant 15-minute walk from the train station (Córdoba Central) to the Faculty:
You may also take bus number 5, get off at Glorieta Media Luna and walk through the Puerta de Almodovar into the Jewish Quarter and the Faculty of Humanities (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras).
By coach
ALSA buses run from Seville Plaza de Armas bus station and Malaga bus station to Cordoba bus station.
SOCIBUS buses connect Madrid South Station (Estación Sur) and Cordoba; the journey takes about 5 hours.
From the bus station, located next to the train station, follow the directions to the Faculty above.
By car
The city is also within easy reach by car from the following cities:
- From Madrid (400 Kms.), take the A-4 motorway. The trip is about 4 hours long.
- From Sevilla (140 Kms.), drive along the A-4 motorway bound to Córdoba and Madrid. It is a 1-hour-and-15-minute trip.
- From Málaga (159 Kms.), take along the A-45 motorway to Córdoba. It is a 2 hour-and-15-minute drive.
If you need more info on how to arrive to Córdoba, follow this link.
For more information on Córdoba’s cultural heritage, please follow this link.
Accommodation
Recommended hotels (all within walking distance of the conference venue).
