CFP - Agent Orange: Landscape, Body, Image
Agent Orange: Landscape, Body, Image
May 7-9 2009
UC Riverside
Since the 1960’s, use of chemical defoliants in the Vietnam War commonly
known as Agent Orange served as a cause célèbre, focusing public
attention in Vietnam and the world on environmental destruction and
associated birth deformities. Agent Orange, especially through images
and media reports, symbolizes both the widespread tragedy of war and its
silent legacies that persist for generations not only in damaged
ecosystems but also in the genetic and social landscapes of human
bodies. As one of the more discussed and researched aspects of the
Vietnam War, the study of Agent Orange’s social and physical traces
highlights the complexity involved in analyzing the technologies of
modern warfare. The nature of the chemicals’ production and distribution
as well as the series of scientific and political efforts made to
remediate damaged places and bodies points to a phenomena that
transcends national and disciplinary boundaries.
The proposed conference investigates the enormous legal, medical,
environmental, and social ramifications of Agent Orange, as it continues
to affect populations both inside and outside Vietnam. It explores the
lingering effects of Agent Orange as it surfaces in multiple discussions
and discourses in the arts, humanities, and sciences. By bringing
together a diverse and international set of artists, activists,
scholars, and veterans, the conference aims to explore how people
interpret and represent the war’s continued manifold legacies and its
in/visible impact on the land and human body. As part of this objective,
we consider the ways in which Agent Orange has been the subject of
various and oft conflicting discourses and representational practices,
and has been understood by different communities in complex and
multi-layered ways that challenge conventional forms of knowledge. The
goal of this conference is not to reproduce existing scientific,
political, or disciplinary perspectives on Agent Orange, but rather, to
consider the kinds of situated knowledge produced about technologies of
war through visual, discursive, and performative modes of representation.
Papers are sought that can contribute to such a discussion on one of
three interdisciplinary panels, each organized around one of the
following themes: landscape, body, or image. Topics may consider
science, technology and ecology in relation to knowledge production of
chemical weapons; visual and representational strategies used to examine
and document Agent Orange; and institutional projects and practices that
address community and bodily rehabilitation. Accompanying film viewings
and an extended art exhibit will include the works of Goro Nakamura,
Tran Van Thuy, Dinh Q. Le, among others.
Abstracts of 200 words should be sent via email to
aoconference2009@gmail.com by Sunday, November 23. Accepted submissions
will be notified by December 15. Questions can be directed to the
conference organizers: David Biggs (dbiggs@ucr.edu), Christina Schwenkel
(cschwenk@ucr.edu) and Lan Duong (lduong@ucr.edu).
This conference is supported with funding from UCOP’s Pacific Rim
Research Foundation, UCR’s Center for Ideas and Society, and the
Department of Media and Cultural Studies, and Program of Southeast Asia
Text, Ritual and Performance (http://seatrip.ucr.edu) at UC Riverside.