CALL FOR PROPOSALS

S/s Surveillance/safety
A graduate forum sponsored by the English-language literatures doctoral program at the Sapienza
University of Rome
April 15-16, 2016
The relationship between the concepts of security and surveillance may appear strictly hierarchical:
security justifies and gives meaning to the mechanisms of surveillance, intended as a mere
instrument or visible effect of security. However, such a relation has been greatly problematized.
The title of this forum is an explicit reference to the famous diagram used by Lacan in contrast to
Saussure's semiotic tradition, by way of stating that the signifier (S) always locates itself over the
signified (s), so as to stress its independence and constant impendency. Similarly, it can be argued
that a rupture occurred between security and surveillance, with the monitoring devices disengaged
from safety concerns, thus becoming autonomous and autotelic.
As the political and cultural debate associated with the legislative evolution of the United States
clearly demonstrates, this theme has always been crucial throughout American history, from the
Alien and Sedition Act (1798) to the PATRIOT ACT (2001). More than ever, we hold the relation
between security and surveillance as one of the core political issues in the contemporary US. The
forthcoming presidential elections, together with the recent wave of threats from international
terrorism, call for an overall rethinking of the relationship between security and surveillance
by means of an attentive analysis of their representation through novels, films, comics and
visual arts.
Several discussions may emerge from this thematic core: the role of security and surveillance in the
definition of a communitas to be protected as well as that of a threatening "Other" to keep at bay;
the correlated dialectic between familiar and alien, internal and external, the reassuring and the
uncanny; the anxiety connected to any possible deviance hidden within the community and the
consequent paranoid behaviors, along with mechanisms of abjection and repression; the delicate
relation between the management of security in the public sphere and in the private one, as
exemplified by the ongoing controversy about the Second Amendment; the short-circuit between
the citizens' legitimate request for security and the ways governments have guaranteed it.
We welcome contributions on these topics, as well as proposals dealing into further aspects related
to the themes of security and surveillance, throughout the entire course of US history. We thus hope
to generate a diversified debate, characterized by the interaction between diverse methodologies and
objects of research.
The participation to the conference is addressed to Ph.D. students and Postgraduates who have
achieved their Ph.D. within the last 3 years. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be
submitted to sapienza.doctoralforum@gmail.com by February 29, 2016. We recommend
including the title of the contribution and a brief authors biographical note, together with an
essential bibliographical reference list (2-3 titles). In order to promote the participation of
international contributors to the symposium, we encourage to submit contributions written in
English, although particularly interesting contributions written in Italian will be accepted. The
results of the selection will be communicated by March 3, 2016. We foresee the possibility to
publish a selection of the most valuable contributions.

The conference will take place in Ex Vetrerie Sciarra (via dei Volsci, 122) and in Villa
Mirafiori (via Carlo Fea, 2) on April 15-16, 2016. We regret to say that the University of Rome
cannot pay for your travel and lodging expenses, though both speakers and auditors DO NOT have
to pay any registration fee. Should you have any inquiries, please feel free to email us at
sapienza.doctoralforum@gmail.com.
Conference organizers: Nicola Paladin, Marco Petrelli, Gaetano Martire.