I wanted to call your attention to an upcoming conference at the University
of Kansas for undergraduate and graduate student researchers on “The Human,
Human Rights, and the Humanities.” The conference will be held April 3-4,
2014, and paper abstracts are due Dec. 6.

This conference offers a venue to critically examine the interrelationship
of “the human,” human rights, and the purview of the
humanities–interpreting human expression. We welcome papers from
undergraduate and graduate students in the humanities and social sciences
that explore topics including, but not limited to, the following:

* What are the benefits and limits to a notion of universal human rights?
* Are there notions of being human that are not encapsulated by a human
rights framework?
* How do artists and writers engage or critique notions of human rights?
* What can we learn about the human experience, and, potentially human
rights, from a speculative vantage point, such as that of science fiction?
* How do disciplines that challenge normative parameters of human
experience such as Queer Studies, Disability Studies, or Animal Studies
enrich and/ or complicate notions of human rights?

Please submit 250 word paper abstracts to Dr. Marike Janzen, mjanzen@ku.edu,
by December 6, 2013