DeMarg assumes that traditional juxtapositions of majorities and minorities are hardly adequate to describe heterogeneous societies. Instead of quantitative mappings of society, we pursue an interest in dynamic processes of (self)positioning and unfixed relations of centrali-ty and marginality. Not least against the background of intersectionality, matters of positioning are anything but free of contradictions, which underlines the need for complex scholarly reflection.

We consider these dynamics in connection with a concept of diversity in scenarios of inequality, especially in the framework of Diversity Studies (see Junker) and Contradiction Studies (see Acke and Warnke; Warnke, Bonacchi, and Seiler Brylla).

DeMarg 5 places particular focus on the means of formalization and the materialization of positioning practices. By tracing forms of de/marginalization, we mean analyzing various aspects of formal manifestations and materializations, such as images and symbols, narrative figures, genres and media, as well as institutional practices of de/marginalization.

Questions include, but are not limited to, the following:
1) How can dynamics of (self)positioning be understood as phenomena of form?
2) How do specific uses of media, including new media, impact the strategies that subjects and groups use to position themselves?
3) Which ways of formalizing social positioning appear in digital environments?
4) With what purposes and effects are text types and cultural/literary genres, among other formalizing strategies of discourse, used as positioning instruments?
5) What indexical weight does the reference to traditional genres, for instance, have in current debates?
The organizers approach these questions from an interdisciplinary literary and cultural studies as well as linguistic perspective and invite researchers from all fields in the humanities and social sciences as well as artists and journalists to contribute to disciplinary and interdisciplinary discussions. The program will include presentations and informal discussion formats. Students and doctoral students are equally welcome to contribute and participate.

Silvia Adler and Galia Yanoshevsky (Bar-Illan) as well as Darieck Scott (Berkeley) will hold keynote lectures.

The language of the conference is English. Please send your paper title, abstracts (max. 300 words), and a short biographical note as one PDF file to Can Aydın <can.aydin@tu-dresden.de> no later than 5 December 2022. Successful applicants will be notified by 15 December 2022.

Please indicate whether your institution will be able to cover your expenses or whether your participation depends on external funds. While we will be trying to secure funding for the conference, we will only be able to inform you about possibilities to cover travel and accommodation expenses at a later point.

DeMarg is a discourse-analytically oriented interdisciplinary network of five universities in Finland, Germany, Poland, and Sweden. Our scholarly interest lies in questions of the discursive (self)positioning of subjects and groups, particularly in the tension between marginalization and demarginalization. DeMarg discusses these and related dynamics in an open, interdisciplinary space of scholarly events. We take an explicitly diversity-oriented approach to society, facilitating debates that promote it and critically analyzing what constrains it. We see ourselves first and foremost as a European conference network of flat hierarchies, offering an academic platform for a contemporary analysis of discursive and thus social positionings.

Junker, Carsten. “The 4D List: Knowledge Production of Difference, Diversity, Decolonization, and Destruction.” Voices from Around the World, no. 1, 2018, https://gssc.uni-koeln.de/wissenstransfer/voices-from-around-the-world/controlling-knowledge-and-the-role-of-engaged-intellectuals.
Warnke, Ingo H. and Hanna Acke. “Ist Widerspruch ein sprachwissenschaftliches Objekt?” Diskurs, Wissen, Spra-che. Linguistische Annäherungen an kulturwissenschaftliche Fragen, edited by Alexander Ziem and Martin Wengeler. De Gruyter, 2018, pp. 319–344.
Warnke, Ingo H., Silvia Bonacchi, and Charlotta Seiler Brylla. “Mimikry der Marginalität.” Akten des 14. Kongres-ses der Internationalen Vereinigung für Germanistik, Palermo 2021, in print.