2024 Dress and Body Association Conference

Creativity, Care, and Communities: Making Visible Connections

November 2-3, 2024

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Dress and Body Association invites submissions for the organization’s fourth annual conference, which will be held on November 2-3, 2024. Consistent with our long-term goals for inclusivity and sustainability, all activities will be 100% online, including keynote speaker(s), research presentations, and opportunities for virtual networking.  

Visit the DBA website—www.dress-body-association.org—to learn more about this organization and consider becoming a member.

Creativity, Care, and Communities: Making Visible Connections

The body is an intensely personal site for creativity and self-expression, yet even the most unique styles of dress reflect larger communities—people, places, and legacies that we care about and draw inspiration from.  Whether we understand them as ‘imagined communities’ (Anderson 1989), ‘communities of practice’ (Wegner 1998), or something else, we as artists, designers, activists, educators, and scholars give to and take from communities.  We often make our connections visible through material culture such as (but not limited to) clothing, jewelry, headwear, footwear, and body modifications.

Proposals on any topic related to dress and the body will be considered, but those related to this year’s theme are most likely to be accepted.  Individual and collaborative presentations are welcome, as are suggestions for roundtable discussions.  Topics might include:

●      Communities of wearable art (e.g. Burning Man)

●      Dress as a medium for experiencing and (re)mediating history

●      How intellectual property laws constrain dress practices

●      Community engagement in fashion exhibitions

●      Decolonizing and reclaiming dress practices

●      Cosplay as connection and expression of media fandoms

●      Artistic legacies in jewelry-making, hairstyling, tattooing, etc.

●      Evidence of communities from archaeological study

●      Embodiment of identities and ideologies within activist communities

●      Technologies for community formation and repair

●      The shaping of artistic and athletic bodies (e.g. dancers)

●      Subcultural identities linked with dress and the body (e.g. punk, goth, etc.)

Both beginning and advanced scholars are welcome. Abstracts should be 200-300 words. Presenters do not need to submit a paper before the conference. Depending on the number of submissions and the time zones of presenters, each person should have approximately 20 minutes to speak with additional time for discussion. 

Although we welcome scholars, educators, artists, designers, and activists from any country, the language of the conference will be English. We will consider a panel in another language if there is sufficient interest from a group of potential presenters.

Abstracts must be written in English and should be drawn from your own, original work.  We ask that presenters not simply recycle presentations from classes or other conferences. Pre-recorded presentations are allowed, but presenters must join the Zoom meeting to hear other speakers and participate in the discussion in real time.  

Please submit your abstract by July 1, 2024. All submissions will be read by at least two reviewers in a single-blind review process. If there is no extension on the deadline, authors can expect letters of acceptance by mid-August.

Registration through the DBA website will be required for access to the online platform.  Donations are welcome, but not required to participate. The recommended donation is 20 USD for students and early-career scholars, 50 USD for mid-career and senior scholars. All funding goes to the maintenance of our website.

To submit an abstract: dress-body-association.org/abstracts

To register for the conference: dress-body-association.org/conference-registration

To download a pdf copy of the CFP, click here

The Dress and Body Association is registered as a non-profit organization (501(c)(3)) in the state of Indiana (United States). Donations are tax-deductible.

Dress & Body Association | dress.body.assoc@gmail.com