Travel Grant Funded Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference - Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA May 31-June 2, 2018

This Year's Theme: Interventions

The Cultural Studies Association (CSA) invites proposals from its members for participation in its sixteenth annual meeting. You must be a member to submit, but we always welcome new members and encourage past members to renew their membership. Proposals on all topics of relevance to cultural studies with be considered, with priority given to proposals that critically and creatively engage this year's highlighted theme.

For our 2018 conference, “Interventions,” we solicit proposals that intervene in the theory, practice, teaching, or conception of cultural studies. We are also interested in how cultural studies itself intervenes in existing social, cultural, and political formations. Cultural studies is poised to play a key role in how we understand our fraught politics, fragile environment, and fragmented economy.

We wonder, as we look back at the legacy of what Stuart Hall called the First New Left, if it is time for something like a new socialist project? Greece’s Syriza, Spain’s Podemos, and the Democratic Socialists of America all signal potential energy for new economic models. But Brexit, Trump, and the resurgence of reactionary ethnonationalism alert us to the fact that empty calls for intervention are often answered by the basest forms of cultural repression. Additionally, a vast array of social struggles do not find any place within the current economic frame. These emancipatory movements--anti-racism, anti-imperialism, anti-war, the New Left, second-wave feminism, LGBT liberation, multiculturalism, and so on--emerged at roughly the same time as the field of cultural studies, and it is through cultural studies that we might intervene to claim space for them. As highlighted by tensions within the 2016 Democratic primaries and general election in the U.S. over the intersection of class- and identity-based politics, the intervention of emancipation is as unfinished as the welfare state is diminished by the “neoliberal revolution” (Hall). Today’s counter-hegemonic movements face some of the same impasses, but with a new urgency; now more than ever, we need an intellectual intervention to help craft new tactics and strategies, to generate new syntheses of economic protection and political and cultural emancipation, and to draw on the lessons of the past and build solidarity for the future.  

This year’s Cultural Studies Association conference will follow a one-day symposium on Wednesday, May 30th, hosted by the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon entitled “Karl Marx at 200: The Future of Capitalism and Cultural Studies.” We invite CSA members to attend the symposium, which features a lineup of established Marxism/Cultural Studies scholars who have been invited to circulate pre-written papers for the event. We hope this will provide an opportunity to use the bicentennial of Karl Marx’s birth to think about the role of culture in capitalism and how culture resists and reshapes the economy, as well as the contemporary relevance of Marx’s intervention and the role of Marxism in what Hall called “Cultural Studies and its theoretical legacies.” The CSA conference extends these themes beyond Marxism specifically to consider the intervention of cultural studies in general and the intellectual and creative labor of cultural studies in particular. How does culture construct, contest, and constitute new capital formations? How does it intervene in economic conditions in multiple and heterogeneous ways? Conversely, what is the role of the economy in shaping culture? What is the role of cultural studies as critical praxis in the present economic time?

Topics that might be addressed include but are not limited to:

• The privilege of interventions; what it means to intervene
• The materiality and spatiality of intervening
• Work and labor--public intellectual work, physical labor, post-industrial labor, the work of culture
• The culture industry and creative labor
• Social media campaigns and their relationship to so-called real world interventions
• Media interventions, fake news, and resistance to/ reinforcement of current hegemonic forces
• Intersections of intellectuals and activists
• Revolution or reform? Socialism or barbarism?
• Art and social action
• Literary, cinematic, and other textual interventions
• Capitalism, culture, and technology
• Strike! Riot! Strike!
• The politics of anti-fascism
• Historically specific interventions for equality and justice
• Pedagogies of cultural studies
• Interventions in sustainability, climate change, and the environment
• Market-led globalization and cultural resistance
• Securitization and militarization; the threat of the nuclear option
• Nation-making, nationalism, and rethinking the national form
• Immigration and the movement of people across national borders within the U.S. and globally
• The movement for Black Lives and its intervention in media, culture, and the academy.

We welcome proposals from scholars from any discipline, inter-discipline, or scholarly field. The CSA aims to provide multiple and diverse spaces for the cross-pollination of art, activism, pedagogy, design, and research by bringing together participants from a variety of positions inside and outside the university. Therefore, while we welcome traditional academic papers and panels, we also encourage contributions that experiment with alternative formats and intervene in the traditional disciplinary formations and exclusionary conceptions and practices of the academic (see session format options listed below). We are particularly interested in proposals for sessions designed to document and advance existing forms of collective action or catalyze new collaborations. We encourage submissions from individuals working beyond the boundaries of the university: artists, activists, independent scholars, professionals, community organizers, and community college educators.

Important Dates:

Friday, October 13, 2017: Submission System Opens (Membership and Registration also open. You must be a member to submit!)

Friday, February 16, 2018: Last Date for Submissions

Friday, March 2, 2018: Notifications Sent Out

Friday, April 20, 2018: Early Registration Ends and Late Registration Begins (Registration fees increase by $50 for all categories.)

Friday, May 11, 2018: Last day to register to participate in the conference--your name will be dropped from the program if you do not register by this date.

LOCATION

The 2018 conference will be held at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. The closest airport is Pittsburgh International Airport (23 miles). Lodging options, which will include campus housing and a CSA hotel block in the Pittsburgh/Carnegie Mellon area, will be shared at a later date.

SUBMISSION PROCESS AND TIMELINE

All proposals should be submitted through Easy Chair using the links supplied on the member page for the Annual Conference. Submission of proposals is limited to current CSA members but new members are welcome. See the benefits of membership and become a member: Membership Application.

INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIPS include three complimentary conference registrations annually for students. Graduate students who wish to submit proposals are strongly encouraged to speak with their Department Chair or Program Director about institutional membership and where possible, make use of the complimentary registrations. Full benefits of institutional membership are described here:

http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/institutions.

The submission system will be open by October 13, 2017. Please prepare all the materials required to propose your session according to the given directions before you begin electronic submission. All program information--names, presentation titles, and institutional affiliations--will be based on initial conference submissions. Please avoid lengthy presentation and session titles, use normal capitalization, and include your name and affiliations as you would like them to appear on the conference program schedule.

In order to participate in the conference and be listed in the program, all those accepted to participate must register before May 11, 2018.

Register here.

TRAVEL GRANTS

CSA offers a limited number of travel grants, for which graduate and advanced undergraduate students can apply. Only those who are individual members, have been accepted to participate, and have registered for the conference are eligible to apply for a travel grant. Other details and criteria are listed here:

Travel grants may be found here.

For More Details: Do Visit:

http://www.culturalstudiesassociation.org/content.asp?admin=Y&contentid=169

International Conference on Media , Culture and Ethics @ BITS Pilani,February 9-10, 2018

Greetings from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani! It is indeed our pleasure to announce that we are organizing an International Conference on Media, Culture and Ethics during February 9-10, 2018 at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus.

The aim of the conference is to provide an opportunity to the researchers, scholars, academicians and practitioners from different parts of the world to understand and discuss the issues related to media, culture and ethics. The conference will try to draw guidelines of cultural behavior based on academic deliberations.

Prospective authors are hereby invited to upload abstract by clicking on “Online Submission of Abstracts” link given below. Authors are requested to note that in case of multiple papers, each paper is needed to be registered and uploaded individually, and registration id is unique for each paper. Full contact information (name, affiliation, e-mail ID and Tel etc.) of the corresponding author must be provided. Abstracts will be reviewed by the technical committee, and the acceptance of abstracts will be notified on the conference website. 

Conference Theme

Media and popular culture percolate in all aspects of our waking time. The unrelenting exposure predominantly guides our perception of reality, the formation of our values, our beliefs and attitudes and above all it defines self and society. This has become extraordinarily powerful educating agent among majority of the population. The speed with which it is influencing the society has blinded us. Hence, it becomes imperative to have the complete and true reflection of the cultures in which the stories are set. Authenticity and ethical guidelines also need to be employed seriously to the propagation of content through different forms of media. As the professional practitioners, it is of utmost importance not only to know our content and its relevance in today's context but also be good human beings, ethically cognizant of our responsibilities for others and world at large.

Culture is the belief system of a particular group, region or nation. The way content is circulated through films or other important forms of the media can have both positive and negative impact on different segments of society. Hence, there is an urgent need to study the nuances associated with the information being distributed and shared through different forms of the media and this conference would provide a platform to discuss the challenges and the possibilities to arrive at certain conclusions regarding the present status quo.

Objectives

• To explore the media and its influence on society and culture 
• To understand the role of media in development, communication and nation building 
• To identify the extent to which media engineers and distorts our perceptions 
• To find out the impact of news channels on the mind of general masses 
• To understand different formats of the print and electronic media 
• To unravel the ethical dilemmas in different cultures and media practices 
• To draw guidelines of cultural behaviour based on academic deliberations 

Key Areas/Tracks

• Communication and Culture 
• Media Ethics 
• Culture and Society 
• Journalism 
• Literature and Media 
• Radio and Television 
• New Media 
• Films 
• Advertising Communication 
• Corporate Communication 
• Intercultural Communication 
• Music, Art and Drama 
• Theatre 
• Media Literacy 
• Legal Rights and Issues 
• Political Communication 
• Intercultural ethics 
• Ethics in Communication 
• Ethics across cultures 

Abstracts related to the theme of the conference are invited in the following format: 

Word limit: 250 – 300 

Font: Times New Roman, 12 points with 1.5 spacing 

Key words: 4 - 5 

Referencing Style: MLA 

Title page: Title of the paper, Author/s name, affiliation, contact details and a brief bio-note of 3-4 lines. 

Selection Criteria: Relevance to the conference theme, originality, clarity, methodology and findings. 

Note: In case of any difficulty in uploading multiple abstracts, please feel free to contact us atmce2018@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in.

The deadline for the Abstract submission is October 15, 2017.

Contact Info: 

Convener

Prof. Sangeeta Sharma

Associate Professor,

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

BITS Pilani,Pilani Campus(Rajasthan)-333031,

INDIA

E-Mail :mce2018@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

sang@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

Ph:+91-1596-515609

Mobile:+91-9351388400

All correspondence may please be sent to mce2018@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

URL: http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/mce2018/

International Conference on Language, Culture and Identity 10 – 11 November, 2017,Department of English IASH GLA University and CIIL, Mathura

Warm greetings!

It is our extreme pleasure to announce a two-day International Conference entitled “Language, Culture and Identity” scheduled to be held on 10 & 11 November, 2017 organized by the Department of English, GLA University, Mathura in academic collaboration with CIIL, Mysore.

We request you to contribute and present your research papers on the themes enumerated below. Select research papers will be published in an edited volume.

For further details kindly log on to our website www.gla.ac.in

Papers are invited on the following and related themes:

 Speech and Identity

 Literature and Identity

 Language Politics

 Mother Tongue vs. Other Tongue

 Language, Identity and Geography

 English and Identity

 Language and Diaspora Identity

 Linguistic Imperialism

 English for Specific Purposes

 Linguistic Diversity and Multi-lingualism

 Language and Post-Colonial Identity

 Pragmatics

 Language, Feminism and Mass Media

 Language and Social Media

 Language, Literature and Politeness

 Culture and Language Acquisition

 Language and Humour

 Language Endangerment

 Language and Gender

 Language, Culture and Technology

 Language and Cognition

 Stylistics and Discourse

Important Dates:

Abstract Submission: 9th Oct, 2017

Notification of Selection: 15th Oct, 2017

Full Paper Submission: 25th Oct, 2017

Registration: 30th Oct, 2017

Conference Date: 10-11 Nov, 2017

Registration:

₹1200/- for Teachers (Indian Subcontinent)

₹700/- for Research Scholars who receive scholarship (Indian Subcontinent)

₹400/- for Research Scholars/students (Indian Subcontinent)

$40/- for Overseas Participants

Registration includes Conference kit, meals, shared accommodation on Conference days.

Mode of Payment: NEFT. 

Contact for more information:

Ramanjaney Kumar Upadhyay

Conference Chair

Department of English, IAH

GLA University, Mathura – 281406, India

Email: raman.upadhyay@gmail.com

ramanjaney.upadhyay@g

International Deleuze and Guattari Camp - Conference on Contemporary Communication Cultures, Controls and Becomings – February 14--17 2018

Concept Note:

The contemporary world has been going through challenging times in the areas of information and communication, crucially marked by novel surveillance modes and archiving strategies. In particular, the modern state with its powerful techno-economic infrastructure becomes the main protagonist here. Its capabilities of information mapping and communication controls have expanded greatly in recent times, bringing more and more segments of the people’s life under its panoptic regime. Perhaps the most pernicious one in this context is the appropriation of the biological and personal profiles of the citizenry, which is speciously justified with reasons ranging from security and terrorism to welfare measures in health and education. Such incursions, which have deep ethical and political implications, are expedited by the melding of the biopolitical strategies of the state with the technological sophistication of advanced capitalism.

More importantly, the handle on communication and information has emboldened the state to further annex more facets of citizens’ life to its jurisdiction and governmentality. From what they should eat and wear to what they should believe and worship, the states, especially in the developing part of the world, are articulating their preferences and choices with an unabashed candor. Definitely such articulations are politically suspect.

On the other side, the semiotic and technological resources of communication and media are drawn upon by the people to register their dissent and muster social resistance. Those employed are forms like cinema, literature, painting, theatre, music, sculpture, street plays, and numerous subaltern forms of representation. The social media perhaps becomes the most powerful weapon of the weak at present to fight the excesses of the state and the brutalities of the present global order.

Deleuze’s paper on the societies of control untangles the complex strands of the modern information and communication regime with unusual clarity and verve. He clearly charts the progression from the “disciplinary society” of yesteryears, so skillfully analyzed by Foucault, to the present society of information and communication controls. It is not that the mechanisms and the institutions of the disciplinary society have disappeared, but that they are further supplemented and strengthened at present by the new information regime. To our chagrin, the kind of sophistication now achieved by modern science and technology in converting everything into information and codes has gone beyond the imagination of even Deleuze and Guattari. Nonetheless, it could also be convincingly argued that Deleuze and Guattari provide one of the most resourceful repertoire of theories and concepts to tackle both the wily and benevolent legacies of information and communication in the present times.

The Chennai conference on Deleuze and Guattari in February 2018 seeks to explore the different aspects of information, communication and controls in the present mediatized world from a Deleuzo-Guattarian perspective. It will provide a platform for academics, students, philosophers, and activists across the world to present their papers and exchange their ideas on the conference theme. The conference will be preceded by the well-known International Deleuze Camp which will help the aspiring students and scholars to hear and learn about Deleuzo-Guattarian philosophy from the outstanding scholars in the field. Papers and abstracts for the conference presentation are invited from wide-ranging areas associated with information, communication and controls. Papers are also welcomed from relevant areas, though not listed below.

Themes for the Conference Presentation

• Machinic/digital controls and new subjectivities
• New panopticons and new control societies
• Cryptic journalism/communication, encryption and hacking
• State and corporate surveillance and control systems
• Bodies as site of controls and becomings
• Food cultures as site of controls and communication
• Biometric controls and Biosecurity in the present globalized world
• Agrarian cultures of communication in the new age of controls
• Industrial cultures of communication in the new age of controls
• Consumer cultures of communication in the new age of controls
• Mass media as site of controls and communication
• Social media as site of controls and communication
• New cultures of protests and dissent
• Neo feudalism, casteism and neo liberalism as site of controls and communication.
  
  
  
  
  The last date for submission of the Abstract of the Conference Paper is November 15, 2017. The Conference Abstract should not exceed 500 words (Times New Roman, Single space, Font size 11) and also should specify the name of the applicant, gender, institutional affiliation, contact number and email address. The Conference Abstract should be sent to the following email IDs: dgchennai2018@gmail.com and deleuze.india@gmail.com You will be notified of the acceptance of the Paper after the scrutiny of the Abstract within the ten days of your submission. If the Abstract is accepted, one can proceed to the payment of the Registration Fee.

The deadline for submission of the Full Paper (3000-3500 words, Harvard/Chicago referencing, Times New Roman, One and a half space, Font size 11, Justified text, PDF format) is January 31, 2018 and should be sent to the above email IDs. 

We also welcome participants who wish to attend the Conference without presenting a paper. They can also start the process of Registration by submitting their Statement of Purpose (not exceeding 500 words, Times New Roman, Single space, Font size 11, with name of the applicant, institutional affiliation, contact number and email address) to the email IDs given above on or before November 15, 2017. If selected, they will be intimated via email within the ten days of your submission and thereafter can proceed to the final Registration and the payment of fees. Please note that the seats are limited for this category.

Last Date for Registration: November 30 2017

Participants who pay the Registration Fee are required to immediately send the PDF copy of payment slip (specifying all the details including the name of applicant, gender, institutional affiliation, title of the paper, contact number and email address) to the following email ID: dgchennai2018@gmail.com Please note that Registration is complete only with the payment of Registration Fee and the receipt of the copy of the payment slip.

For More Details: http://www.deleuzeindia.com/

Researchers’ Conference on On Limits of Laughter in Cultural Discourse and Practice- November 10-11, 2017 Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur, WB

Concept Note

This conference seeks to engage with the rationale of laughter in literature and other cultural texts. Laughter in this context does not merely refer to a physiological stimulus but its broadest possible application incorporating terms such as black humour and carnivalesque. The oldest theory of laughter goes back to Aristotle, as stated in De anima: “Of all living creatures only man is endowed with laughter.’’  In the Indian classical text Nāṭyaśāstra, laughter or ‘hasya’ comes second in the aesthetic hierarchy of the eight rasas, only after ‘shringara’. The field of humour studies beginning from Aristotle through Kant, Bergson, Freud and Bakhtin among its contributors on the one hand and numerous cross-disciplinary hypotheses on the other have attempted to explain human laughter offering psychological, physiological and sociological accounts. But the discourse remains cheerfully unstable. 

Hobbes’s superiority theory brings in the psychological attitude to laughter as he locates the origin of laughter in the realization of an “eminency in ourselves” arising from the comparison with the “infirmity of others.” Kant focuses on the intellectual origin of laughter by pointing at the nexus between the perception of the incongruous and laughter. The archetypal biological definition is offered by Darwin that pins laughter to an efflux of the excess nervous energy.  The sociological studies trace the shift from genial laughter to subversive laughter and underpin the fact that laughter can engage in a power game with institutionalized meanings and pose a political threat to establishment. These hypotheses despite their avowal of separate disciplines seem to share the idea that laughter is an aberration from the familiar and the normative. Yet, it is deeply anchored in some discursive order to be intelligible. In literature, laughter on most occasions dwells upon an anti-heroic attitude to life’s incongruities but it might also engage with the gap between personal emotion and impersonal affect as we encounter (in late modern literature in particular) laughter without humour, bordering on violence. The representational politics is problematic because the reasons that make people laugh are sometimes unknown to both the laughers as well as the observers of laughter.  

Considering these issues and many more, we can seek to understand laughter both on its own terms and in terms of its form and functionality in texts and culture across history. We invite papers focusing incisively and analytically on the praxis of laughter; its instrumentality and everyday struggle with the normative.

           

      

Some of the areas which can be addressed are the following:

 Themes

Laughter and aesthetics

Laughter on stage

Laughter and the scope of subversion

Genres of the comic

Laughter in the visual medium

Cultural construction of laughter and the laughable

Laughter and Gender

Laughter as a limit-experience

Non-humorous laughter in modern literature

Censorship, laughter and the State

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We invite abstracts of not more than 300 words from college/University students and research scholars to be emailed to the conference convenors at english.rkm@gmail.com. The names, contact numbers, email ids, and affiliations of those sending abstracts should be clearly mentioned in the abstracts. Please write “SRC2017 Abstract” in the subject heading of your email.

Publication of selected papers is an issue under deliberation.

Important Dates

Last Date of submission of Abstracts: 8th October 2017

Notification of acceptance of Abstract: 14th October 2017

Registration fee

College/University Students: INR 100/-

Research Scholars and Independent Scholars: INR 300/-

Queries can be addressed to the seminar convenors at english.rkm@gmail.com

GIAN Workshop on Radical Aesthetics in Third World Cinema: The Case of Latin America.08-16 December 2017.Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University.

Overview

Latin American cinema has been a major source of inspiration for Indian filmmakers since the 1960s. Generations of Indian directors, film critics and film students have studied Latin American cinema and have interacted with its major directors and writers. India’s friendly relation with most of the countries in that continent has facilitated this dialogue, and the immense popularity of Latin American literature among Indian readers has bolstered it. This course will focus on the most productive areas of Latin American film practice over the last few decades and will cater to the students and scholars of cinema in India who consider themselves part of an inter-connected world of modern arts in the global South.

The cinema arrived early in Latin America: by the end of 1896. Yet quickly—certainly by 1920—the Latin American film market fell under the control of U.S. cinema. By the 1960s, a number of film

movements erupted across Latin America that sought not only to challenge the industrial hegemony of Hollywood but perhaps even more crucially, to propose new, innovative approaches to filmmaking. This course will trace the history and development of radical filmmaking practice across Latin America from the Sixties until recent developments in cinema and related media arts. A special focus will be the dialogue between Latin American filmmakers with various movements and genres of international cinema: neorealism, modernism, melodrama, postmodernism, etc. The lectures will be amply illustrated with films to make them accessible and enjoyable to participants from different backgrounds.

Modules

• Lectures on history and aesthetics of Latin American Cinema: December 8, 2017 –
• December 15, 2017
• Tutorials: December 8, 2017 – December 15, 2017
• Film screenings with Introductions: December 8, 2017 – December 15, 2017
•  Examination: December 16, 2017
• (Number of participants accepted for the course will be limited)

You Should Attend If…

• You are a student of cinema studies/media studies/journalism from under
• graduate, post-graduate and research levels.
• You are a teacher of cinema/media studies or teacher from a film institute
• recognized by the Government of India.
• You are a research scholar or a post-graduate student of modern history and
• politics of the Global South.
• You are a film practitioner with experience in teaching and/or research

Fees

The participation fee for taking the course is INR 1000.

Number of participants will be limited.

Last Date of Application: November 15,2017.

Teaching Faculty

Richard Pena

Richard Pena is Professor of Professional Practice in the Film Division at Columbia University, New York. He has served as Visiting Professor teaching film at Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Paris (1) among other places. He served as the Program Director at the Lincoln Center, New York, and was the Director of New York Film Festival (1988 -2012), and Director of The Film Centre at the Art Institute of Chicago (1980-88). He has served as jury at many international film festivals, and has contributed essays on world cinema to many anthologies and journals. Among the many awards won by Professor Pena is the Lifetime Achievement Award at Jerusalem Film Festival in 2013. 

Hosting Faculty

Moinak Biswas

Moinak Biswas is Professor at the Department of Film Studies, Jadavpur University. He is also the Coordinator of The Media Lab at Jadavpur. He edits the Journal of the Moving Image and was one of the founder editors of BioScope, South Asian Screen Studies. Biswas has written widely on Indian cinema and culture for anthologies and magazines. Among his publications is Apu and After, Revisiting Ray’s Cinema (2005). He wrote and co-directed the award winning feature film Sthaniya Sambaad (2010) and has recently created a Video installation titled Across the Burning Track for the 11th Shanghai Biennale, 2016-17.  

Course  Coordinator

Professor Moinak Biswas

Phone: 033- 2414 6689 (work)

E-mail: moinak.biswas@gmail.com

http://www.gian.iitkgp.ac.in/GREGN