Excursions: The Postgraduate Journal for Interdisciplinary Research

invites submissions around the theme of ‘Virus’.

Virus: – a submicroscopic infective particle typically consisting of nucleic acid coated in protein, which is able to multiply with the cells of a host
organism

• an infection or disease caused by such an agent
• piece of code surreptitiously introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data

Origins: From Middle English denoting ‘snake venom’
From Latin, literally translated as slimy, liquid poison
Derivations: Virulent, meaning extremely severe or harmful in its effects, highly infective, bitterly hostile

Viral, meaning of the nature of, caused by or relating to a virus or viruses

- (OED Definitions)

The logic of the virus has become endemic. Viral ads mirror contagion to convey their message. Computers and systems are struck down by infections.

Pigs and birds are transformed into sinister hosts. Terrorists form cells and virulent covert networks, globalisation becomes a creeping homogenisation attacking the idiosyncratic, and media rapidly evolve to overcome any censorial attempt at information immunisation.

We all live with the virus. Or perhaps, as the planet’s most abundant biological entity, the virus lives with us. It crosses boundaries of species and holds genotype in little regard, finding hosts in every form of life.  This tenacious agent has escaped the confines of laboratories and medical institutions, and insinuated itself into all strands of our cultural, political, and technological discourses.

But how do these different spheres understand the virus, the viral, the virulent? Do we stray too far from the precision of a scientific definition in our familiar use of the virus? What does it say about our conception of humanity and its endeavours that we find such a compelling and pervasive model in the virus? And what do the different figurings of the viral across disciplines have to tell one another?

In order to explore these and other questions, *Excursions* invites submissions that examine the theme of ‘Virus’, in all its potential interpretations.

Submissions may wish to consider, but are by no means limited to:

• The virus as a model and/or metaphor
• The politics and economics of the pandemic, epidemic and endemic
• Viral dissemination
• The synthetic and the virus
• The viral and systemic vulnerability
• The socio-cultural and scientific history of the virus
• Life, death and the place of the virus in evolution
• Contamination and the text/body/performance
• Parasitism vs. viral infection
• Viral hosts and hospitality
• The rhetoric of viruses
• The virus-like spread of *global** **terror* and fear
• Artistic (re)presentations of/responses to virulent virtual media
• What does immunity mean?
• Viral identities ? from living with infection to infectious trends
• The antiseptic space

Papers should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words, follow MHRA formatting guidelines and be submitted via the *Excursions* website.  Please contact enquiries@excursions-journal.org.uk regarding other forms of submission (i.e. film, photography, poetry, etc). Please include an abstract and a brief biography (no more than 150 words) along with your submission, not later than 10th January 2011.

The Excursions Editorial Board
Doctoral School, University of Sussex