Concourse: One Day Symposium:Edward W. Said: Public Intellectual, Cultural Critic, Activist.

Amazon

Friday, July 12, 2013

One Day Symposium:Edward W. Said: Public Intellectual, Cultural Critic, Activist.


2013 marks a decade since Edward W. Said passed: on 25 September 2003, the world lost a leading public intellectual, cultural critic, activist, fighter, and scholar's scholar. Said is a major figure whose work has had a tremendous impact in various disciplines and fields of study in the Humanities. Rich, multilayered and finely textured, Said offers numerous concepts, tactics, and modalities of intervention that serve us well in understanding, challenging and over-turning dominant power, subject-constituting regimes, and forms of identity-politics. He teaches us what the purpose and aim of the intellectual is. In his own words,  “the intellectual … is neither a pacifier nor a consensus-builder, but someone whose whole being is staked on a critical sense, a sense of being unwilling to accept easy formulas of ready-made clichés, or the smooth, ever-so-accommodating confirmations of what the powerful or conventional have to say and what they do. Not just passively unwillingly, but actively willing to say so in public” (from Representations of the Intellectual). As Tariq Ali notes, ‘his voice is irreplaceable, but his legacy will endure. He has many lives ahead of him’.
In this spirit and as a tribute to Edward Wadie Said, the Department of Media, Film & Communication, University of Otago, New Zealand, will be hosting a one-day symposium. We invite contributions from any field to discuss various aspects of Edward Said’s work.
We strongly encourage postgraduates and early career researchers to be part of this event.
Please send a 250-word abstract and a short bio to said-conference@otago.ac.nz by 1 August 2013.
Professor Vijay Mishra, Murdoch University, Australia, will deliver the keynote address.  
The event is free of cost. There will be no catering support (many restaurants are located within close walking distance of the symposium venue). Coffee and tea will be made available throughout the day.
For non-presenters, we would greatly appreciate it if you could RSVP to mfco@otago.ac.nz by 20 September 2013.
CONVENORS: Dr. Vijay Devadas & Dr. Brett Nicholls
VENUE: Department of Media, Film & Communication, University of Otago, Dunedin Campus, Richardson Building, 6th Floor, Room 6N4.
Date: 
Wednesday, October, 02, 2013