GABlog

Generative Anthropology Thinking Event

Thursday 26 July — Sunday 29 July 2007

Meetings to be held on the Campus of the University of British Columbia

Discount Accomodations available at UBC Gage Tower Suites adjacent to the Conference

Call for Papers

For well over a decade now, generative anthropology has been actively circulating in the intellectual marketplace, attracting admirers and inspiring practitioners, raising questions and puzzling the uninitiated. A way of thinking first modelled by Eric Gans in books such as The End of Culture (1985), Originary Thinking (1993) and Signs of Paradox (1997), generative anthropology has since been taken up by a collection of scholars international in range and diverse in disciplinary roots. The online journal Anthropoetics testifies to the fertility of GA, as does the forthcoming The Originary Hypothesis: A Minimal Proposal for Humanistic Inquiry (Davies Publishing Group, 2007), edited by Adam Katz. However, contact between people who do GA has so far taken place mostly in the virtual (electronic) world. This first-time conference aims to supplement that virtuality with a meeting of GA workers face to face, in one place. That place is the thriving post-modern city of Vancouver, nestled in English Bay against the beautiful coast mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Our featured guest, contributing to discussions and exchanges, will be Eric Gans, founder of GA. The conference is named GATE (rhymes with “slate”) for Generative Anthropology Thinking Event.

Participants are invited to submit promise of attendance with papers that apply, explore, investigate, or develop the possibilities for analytical interaction between Generative Anthropology and particular topics. Our preferred formula is “GA and —–,” where the participant has supplied a meaningful item to fill the blank. Broad examples would be “GA and Christianity,” “GA and Consumerism,” “GA and Terrorism,” “GA and the postmodern esthetic.” Analyses of particular thinkers, texts, or artifacts, as long as the analysis is informed by generative anthropology, are also most welcome. The spirit of the conference is to be exploratory rather than targetted. Our goal is to develop GA itself. All papers should be a reading time of 20-30 minutes. In planning the programme, preference will go to proposals accompanied by a promise of attendance. Proposals, 500 words maximum, should be sent by attachment in MS-Word format to the address below. Deadline: 31 March 2007.

GATE is hosted by Sparagmos! the Vancouver GA group. Chief organizer is Andrew Bartlett, instructor of English at Kwantlen University College. All correspondence, questions and proposals, should be sent to Dr. Bartlett.

This conference is endorsed by the Office of the Dean of Humanities at Kwantlen University College, the Office of Research and Scholarship at Kwantlen University College, and the Office of the Provost and Vice President, Academic, at Kwantlen University College.

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