The Graduate Students in English organization invites all university students to attend its annual spring conference, “An interdisciplinary exploration of/in liminality,” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day March 20-21 in Arkansas Union 509-511. The conference is free, but tickets are required. Students can pick up their free tickets at Kimpel Hall 206 from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, and from 12:30-2 p.m. Thursday, March 12.

The spring conference provides students—undergraduate and graduate—with a relaxed introduction to academic conferences, especially those who may have trouble securing funding for travel, as well as the opportunity to network and attend presentations of original academic and creative work. Participants will have the opportunity to attend interdisciplinary presentations including literature, film, philosophy, art, and popular culture, all exploring topics as diverse as Arthurian legend and masculinity in classic sci-fi novels. This spring, we are investigating the ways in which we inhabit the spaces in between “apprenticeship” and “initiation”—the liminal spaces of life. As students, we are often expected to exhibit professional identities, but often without the resources or experience to “pull it off.” This conference is an extended exploration of the myriad processes of “becoming” (deeply uncomfortable but also profoundly productive) that we experience in our day-to-day lives.

In a moment where we are concerned with the movement of people over/through borders, gender identities are simultaneously more defined and more fluid, and even people’s conceptions of their ethnicity/genealogy are being exposed as complexities with DNA coding technology. Existing in the liminal is becoming the norm. Liminality interrogates the in-between — spaces that are neither here nor there, identities that are not easily categorized, people that belong in multiple places, or no place at all.

This event is supported by the Student Activities Fee as a funded event by the Associated Student Government and is free to all currently enrolled University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, students who pay the student activities fee. For questions about the event or for accommodations due to disability please contact Jordan A. Savage, 479-965-5072, or email js046@uark.edu.