Soapbox #3.0: In Lieu of an Ending: Impasse

An impasse does not necessarily indicate an end. Rather it is a space that brings you to a pause and challenges usual ways of moving. While the common conception of impasse is that of a state of standstill, we wish to also ruminate on the possibilities that hide therein. What do you do when you cannot move forward? You go back, turn sideways, or climb up. There’s always a way out of a deadlock. But maybe you want to dwell there for a moment and observe the myriad of possibilities that reside within an impasse. For this issue of Soapbox, a graduate journal for cultural analysis, we invited young researchers and creatives to critically engage with the theme of an impasse. Responding to the call for papers, the contributions to this issue reflect on material impasses that manifest themselves as borders or other forms of obstacles, the feeling of disorientation that arises in such liminal situations or spaces, and the temporality of crises that throw one into a standstill.