THE STREET Graduate Student Conference |
|||
General | CALL FOR PAPERS In
the most literal sense, “the street” denotes
a passageway that connects various points in space. However, a quick
catalog of the phrase in everyday language reveals that “the
street” is
a dynamic social and symbolic space, an intersection of public and private
interests that are often difficult to isolate. For example, “the
street” does not only refer to a thoroughfare but also denotes
the place where one lives. This relationship prompts the phrase “my
street,” which
connotes a community affected through ownership, and links its author
to a greater metropolis at the same time that it embeds him or her in
place
as owner and agent. In this sense the street also represents the confrontation
of a sense of place and the codes of public policy, thereby pointing
to a larger interpenetration of the public and the private that lies
at the
core of this elusive space. In other instances the phrase transcends
space altogether, referring instead to a mode of existence that is independent
of site specificity. In this capacity “the street” is used
to convey authenticity as in “receiving one’s education from
the street” or in being “from the street,” a usage
that usually implies an opposition to artificial or abstract representations
of reality. While these examples make clear that “the street” often
functions in opposition to a privileged class, it is, in practice, precisely
that space which refuses class distinction by forcing interactions among
diverse social groups. This interaction is itself as diverse as the space
in which it takes place as one may address the street with the apathy
of the flâneur or with the fervor of political protest.
|
||
CFP | |||
Schedule | |||
Directions | |||
Contact | |||