Call for Papers for Sessions by the Section on Body and Embodiment for the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association

Real Utopias: Emancipatory Projects, Institutional Designs, Possible Futures

2012 Annual Meeting Theme: 107th ASA Annual Meeting, August 17-20, Denver, Colorado

Open to submissions from December 8, 2011 to January 11, 2012, 3pm EST

Section on Body and Embodiment
1. Sociology of Fatness and Fat Bodies. This session seeks papers on the sociology of fat and fatness using a body studies lens. Body studies explore the body as a product of complex cultural, social, and political forces. As such, we welcome papers on a range of topics, including fat/obesity in popular culture, the social construction of fat, fatness and intimacy, social perceptions of fat, phenomenology and embodiment of fat and fatness, fat social politics, fat social movements, and more. Session Organizers: Carla A. Pfeffer, Purdue University North Central and Mary Nell Trautner, State University of New York-Buffalo

2. Embodied Utopias? Human “Enhancement,” Emerging Technologies, and the Future. The possibility of technologically altering, controlling, correcting, or otherwise “enhancing” the body has been at the heart of both utopian and dystopian visions of the present and the future. From eugenics movements, to performance enhancing drugs, to transhumanist visions of a future where mortality itself is transcended, the body has been a key site where the social landscape has been reimagined and, sometimes, reconfigured. In these kinds of projects, the body has been a figurative and literal location where inequalities have been produced, reinforced, and challenged; where debates over the proper course of our collective future, and how to achieve it, have taken place; and where both hopes and anxieties have congealed. This panel explores the social significance of and meanings attached to the body/embodiment via analyses of collective dreams and nightmares of the “improved” body, both realized and imagined. Session Organizer: Karl Bryant, State University of New York-New Paltz

3. Embodying Masculinities. Many sociologists of gender understand masculinities as primarily socially constructed gender performances. More recent scholarship examines the corporeal aspects of constructed and performed masculinities. Meanings of masculinities can be inscribed on and articulated through diverse types of bodies, regardless of sex. The possibilities for embodying masculinities carry consequences for the very bodies we use in our presentations of self. In addition, bodies are marked with residues of past performances while recreating capacities for future use. This session will include papers that center masculinities as embodied processes rich with social meaning. We invite topics on a range of embodied masculinities, such as the hierarchies and inequalities inherent within embodied masculinities, the political ramifications of embodying masculinity in different social contexts, and the relationship between embodied masculinities and social markers like sexuality, race, and ability. Session Organizers: Tristan Bridges, University of Virginia and Elroi J. Windsor, Salem College

4. *Section on the Sociology of the Body and Embodiment Roundtables (one-hour). Session Organizers: Erynn Casanova, University of Cincinnati, Dana Berkowitz, Louisian State University, and Alison Better, City University of New York-Kingsborough Community College
*Session will be 1-hour in length; followed by the Section’s 40-minute business meeting.

Original Announcement: http://www.asanet.org/meetings/Call_for_Papers.cfm

Categories: Academia, Obesity, Sexuality, Social Science

Audience: Academic, Social Scientist