13th Annual Open Books – Open Minds Student Conference Call for Papers and Projects

The Open Books – Open Minds 13th Annual Student Conference will focus on this year’s common book, Kristen Radtke’s Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness, and will be held on April 10, 2024. We hope that you'll join us! You can still register to attend.

The submission period for conference papers and creative projects has closed, as of March 31.

Call for Papers and Creative Projects

Rhode Island College’s Open Books – Open Minds Program is calling for paper, panel, roundtable, or other creative proposals to be presented at our 13th Annual Student Conference. 

Instructor Contributions

Instructors are encouraged to submit collaborative proposals for student panels or innovative formats.

Student Contributions

Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to submit proposals. We invite students to share their writing, research, and creative projects on any topic related to this year’s common book, Kristen Radtke’s Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness. We welcome submissions from any academic discipline as well as interdisciplinary approaches. Submissions may include, but are not restricted to:

• visual art
• musical performances
• skits or dramatic performances
• poetry readings
• creative pieces
• academic writing
• dance

How and When to Submit

To submit a proposal for a paper, panel, or roundtable discussion, email an abstract with "OBOM PROPOSAL" in the subject line. The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2024.

What to Include

Student submissions should include:

• name of the presenter(s)
• title of your paper or project
• type of presentation: paper or other creative format
• brief description that concisely identifies your topic and approach (200-250 words)
• faculty sponsor (or the name of the professor and the course in which you did the research)

Undergraduate papers will be allotted 10-12 minutes each (time for approximately 1000-1250 words or four-five pages, double-spaced); graduate student papers will be allotted 15 minutes. We will accept proposals for already-formed panels (one hour per session) or for individual papers, which we will group by topic. We’re also open to other possibilities: poster sessions, larger roundtables with more students on a single panel, and so on. Pitch us what you think would work for you!

Possible Topics

• Loneliness
• Isolation
• Urban/rural/suburban spaces
• Comics
• Laughter and community
• Cowboy myth and masculinity
• Loneliness and violence
• Mixed-media art
• Art as communication
• Creative non-fiction as a genre
• Mental illness
• Existentialism
• Family histories
• Ideology, interpellation, social construction of behaviors
• Social control hypothesis
• Gender and loneliness
• LGBTQIA+ identities and loneliness
• American mass shootings, gun culture, gun rights & regulations
• Internet culture, “digital natives,” technology across generational differences
• Rise of social media
• Effects of social media on people
• Surveillance, internet privacy issues (cookies, advertising, government surveillance) 
• Different disciplinary approaches to loneliness: 
  • Evolutionary biology     
  • Neurology 
  • Anthropology 
  • Psychology 
  • Sociology 
  • Philosophy 
  • Literature 
  • Gender and Women’s Studies 
  • History
  • Music
  • Art