BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:iCalendar-Ruby METHOD:PUBLISH VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VEVENT DTEND:20120629T235900 UID:preoccupied@taz.de SUMMARY:Preoccupied SEQUENCE:0 URL:http://bewegung.taz.de/termine/preoccupied CLASS:PUBLIC LOCATION:auguststraße. 69\, Berlin DTSTAMP:20120624T144800 DTSTART:20120628T000100 DESCRIPTION:>\;>\; PROGRAMM \n \; \nThere are but two of us planni ng PREOCCUPIED. We are both PhD students in an Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctora te called Literary Interzones. We&rsquo\;re from opposite ends of Canada an d our names are Jocelyn and Samara. We&rsquo\;re looking forward to meeting you all. \nThe idea for the conference was hatched around a kitchen table in Bergamo\, Italy. It was late November. We were watching with envy ever ything that was happening on Occupy Wall Street and wanted so badly to be there. We were (and are) in an academic program\, but we were both deeply suspicious about the academy and its separation from the world. At the sam e time\, it seemed that rigorous thought must be able to contribute positi vely to the future of political engagement. We wanted to create a conferen ce that would bring together thoughtful\, engaged people\, people who cons idered themselves activists\, artists and yes\, academics. \nSince then\, the streets of Quebec have erupted in protest. Those are the streets that educated us. Those are the institutions that trained us. At home\, civil d isobedience is on the rise. At the same time\, funding for projects we hol d near and dear has quietly slipped away. The democracy that celebrates pr otest and the funding that celebrates divergent voices clash more and more with institutions who ought to protect the right to speak\, assemble\, an d publish. In planning PREOCCUPIED we have faced similar obstacles. For us \, the practical concerns of paying for a conference have faced head on ou r ideological commitments to accessibility and openness. \nBy mid-February \, we had received over 60 applications for PREOCCUPIED. By mid-April\, we had heard from the last of our would-be funders. Much to our disappointme nt\, and not for lack of trying\, we received no institutional funding for the conference. Despite that\, we forged ahead because the timeliness\, l ocation\, and above all the quality of our keynotes and presenters had com e together so beautifully we hated to give up. This has meant that the con ference costs are being covered by attendance and participation alone. \nW ithout institutional support\, the conference has become a crowd-funded ev ent: it is the result of the good will of many. \;We have tried to str addle divergent worlds: that of institutions and that of the street. The r esult has been a double-edged sword: academia tied us on the one hand to c osts and mores foreign to the occupy movement but offered us\, on the othe r\, the kind of rigorous thought for which we have been so hungry. Similar ly\, the mores of Occupy set a moral course that felt at odds with the uns poken norms of academia. PREOCCUPIED is the awkward child of discordant vi sions. The balance we hope to strike has yet to find its centre\; it proba bly never will. \nFor June 28-29\, conference presentations will be free an d open to all. \nMoney raised through donations for the keynote speakers wi ll pay for rental space and the cost of bringing speakers of such quality to you. Donate in advance \;here\, or at the door. \nIn anticipation\, \nJocelyn and Samara. END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR