CFP: International Conference on Ecology & Culture, 15-17 Dec 2018 Amrita Vishva Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus, Kollam, Kerala

Concept Note:

Has man drifted away from an Eco-centric to an anthropocentric world, thereby distorting the Dharma of existence? This International Conference, “Ecological and Cultural Cognizance: A Boulevard of Sustainable Amiability,” is an attempt to review, reconstruct and re-harmonise the equation of Nature, Man and Culture — to help chart out a strong path for an organic and sustainable future for man on this planet. When we speak of ‘ecological cognizance’ what is inevitable is the consciousness of our indigenous traditions: the spiritual, religious and cultural. This can help drive towards a future where science, technology and development go hand in hand for ecological sustainability. In academics, ‘eco-criticism’ still has an impression of an entrant, but as a literary movement, its development has been gradual and imperceptible. However, this movement has picked up a rapid pace in the United States, resulting in organisations like Association for the Study of Literature & Environment (ASLE), in 1992.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus & FSLE - India are happy to come together to explore Ecological Cognizance across various fields of study in this International Conference on Ecology & Culture (ICEC). The study of indigenous cultures and oral traditions, as well as reclaiming and preserving these cultures and traditions, provide a starting point towards a possible solution to the ecological crisis of the day. Ecological consciousness could not have been better encapsulated than in the Sanskrit mantra Tat Tvam Asi, which proclaims the age-old awareness of the unity of all things. A verse which reads, 

“Dasha-kūpa-samā-vāpī, Dasha vāpī-samo hrada,

Dasha hrada-samah putra, Dasha putra-samo drumah”

(meaning, “a pond equals ten wells; a reservoir, ten ponds. A progeny equals ten reservoirs, and a tree equals ten progenies.), underlines the ecological philosophy in ancient traditions. Nothing in creation is less important, is what every element of myth and landscape, be it the Oriental or the Occidental, the Colonial or any other, cry out. In recent times association of Nature with woman has taken us to various constructs of ‘Deep Ecology’. The Eco-critics too rise to expose the “fissures of Race, Gender and Class” in Environmentalism. The way the world of man is decapitated today, necessitates a paradigm shift in thought process across all individuals, organisations, governments, institutions and nations – all those who are in a position of power to tilt the windmills. Environmental crises of gigantic proportions have been triggered by man. And unless some radical approach is envisaged, it is a matter of time that this blue/green planet gets hurled towards a sure-footed man-made disaster.

Can there be a collective search for paradigms and pathways towards a world that is sustainable, equitable and just? How can such frameworks and visions build on an existing heritage of ideas and world-views and cultures, anchored on practices past or new? How can they be fundamentally different from today’s dominant economic and political systems, which have brought us to the brink of a catastrophic collapse in terms of socio-economic inequalities and despair?

At the crossroads today, we have to decide unerringly on the direction to take if we must have a future on Planet Earth. The leading scientists of our day concede that the key to man’s progress, science and technology, are now a near threat to life on earth itself — some even fear that man is now confronted by a dead-end situation. 

The questions arising in the minds of thinking individuals in this context, to list a few, look like:

• Have the Homo Sapiens a future on this planet?
• Is dearth of values the cause of this crisis?
• Is ‘something’ wrong in the methodology and culture of ‘modernity’?
• Have our traditional beliefs taken us astray?
• Will what we condemn as ‘orthodoxy’ has the last laugh?
• What holistic approach and/or philosophical basis can save mankind?

Dear colleagues and friends! Let us find an answer to the crisis that stares us on the face.‘Amrita’ welcomes every one of you with FSLE-India to Her Amritapuri Campus. Your views, conference papers and presence, enlightening presentations, discussions and life-saving solutions can save posterity, and ascertain for them a healthy, happy and meaningful living.Your papers should be largely related but not exclusively limited to the following themes:

Thrust Area

• Literature & Environment

• Pastoral & Wilderness

• Eco-Spirituality

• Orientalism & Nature

• Deep Ecology

• Myth & Landscape

• Oral Traditions

• Sustainable Environmental Models

• Environmental Philosophy

• Environmental Justice

• Literature of the Wild - Representing the Other - Animals in Literature

Abstracts: 

Abstracts of not more than 500 words with five key words must be mailed to: conf.fsleindia@gmail.com

➢ The full paper must be within 4000-6000 words. Use the latest MLA style of referencing.

➢ Please use 12 point Times New Roman and avoid footnotes.

➢ Selected Papers will be published in an edited volume with ISBN no. (Not in the form of Conference proceedings instead a complete edited book after the conference).

➢ Authors are requested to attach their bio-note (in third person, not exceeding 100 words) separately.

Deadlines:

Abstract Submission: August 15, 2018

Acceptance Notification: August 25, 2018

Full Paper Submission: October 30, 2018

Final Draft (Considered for the publication-Only for those whose full papers selected): January 10, 2019 

Registration details will be provided after the acceptance of Abstracts only to the selected candidates.

Last date of Registration is September 01, 2018

For Further details Contact:

Rishikesh Kumar Singh (Convener)

Email: rishisengar2011@gmail.com

Dr. Beena S. Nair(Convener) 

Email: beenasnair@am.amrita.edu

Website:

http://www.fsleindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ICEC-2018.pdf 

CFP:GIAN Workshop on Language policy, language in human rights, language imperialism, languages and linguistic genocide in education, language ecology.-Nov 19, 2018 to Dec 1, 2018. NALSAR, Hyderabad.

Overview

There are around 7,000 spoken languages in the world today. According to some UNESCO prognoses, before the year 2100 at least 50% of them will either be extinct or very seriously endangered so that only the oldest generations know something of them. Many researchers anticipate a much higher percentage, up to 90-95%. India has one of the highest percentages of endangered languages in the world. Why do languages disappear? The course analyses reasons for this. Globalisation, growthism, and the world’s military, economic and other structural inequalities: linguistic imperialism and internal colonialism are some drivers of this. The media,and lack of linguistic human rights in education are important direct causal factors. Most formal education of speakers of Indigenous/tribal, minority and minoritised (= ITM) children – if they have access to it in the first place - is organised subtractively, using a dominant language (e.g. English, Hindi, or a regional language in India) as the teaching language. All serious research recommends instead mother-tongue-based multilingual education – this is the most important linguistic human right. Current ITM education violates the right to education and can be seen as linguistic genocide educationally, psychologically, linguistically and socially, according to at least two definitions of genocide in the UN Genocide Convention. It can also be seen as a crime against humanity. Much of the detailed knowledge about how to maintain biodiversity and healthy ecosystems is encoded in the small ITM and local languages. When they disappear, the knowledge is not transferred to the replacing languages. Thus maintaining and revitalising the endangered languages is vital for the future of humankind on the planet.

Objectives 

 Presenting fundamental knowledge about linguistic imperialism, and the limitations on language  rights in international human rights instruments and in court cases, especially in relation to            education.

 Analysing the role of English nationally and internationally, and ideologies that legitimate linguistic imperialism and lack of language rights.

 Presenting solid language planning and language policy research from all over the world,  particularly in school and higher education, that leads to increased social justice.

 To enhance the capability of participants to plan social and educational policies that respect  linguistic human rights.

The Faculty

Robert Phillipson is an Emeritus Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. British by origin, he studied at Cambridge and Leeds Universities, UK, and has a doctorate from the University of Amsterdam. His main books are Linguistic imperialism (1992), English-only Europe? Challenging language policy (2003), and Linguistic imperialism continued (2009). Recent co-edited publications: Why English? Confronting the Hydra (2016) and Language Rights (four volumes, 1668 pages, with Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, 2017). He has collaborated with Indian scholars for four decades. He was awarded the UNESCO Linguapax prize in 2010. 

For details see: www.cbs.dk/en/staff/rpmsc.

Dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas has been actively involved in minorities’ struggle for language rights for five decades. She has published in 51 languages. Some books: Bilingualism or Not: the Education of Minorities (1984); Linguistic Genocide in Education - or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights? (2000); Indigenous Children’s Education as Linguistic Genocide and a Crime Against Humanity? A Global View (2010) with Robert Dunbar; Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the Local (2009), ed. with Ajit Mohanty, Minati Panda, and Robert Phillipson; Multilingual Education Works: from the Periphery to the Centre (2010, ed. with Kathleen Heugh). She was awarded the UNESCO Linguapax prize in 2003.

For more, see www.Tove-Skutnabb-Kangas.org.

Important dates

Course Commencement: Nov 19, 2018 to Dec 1, 2018.

Last date for registration: Oct 10, 2018.

Course Fee1 (for reading material): INR 2000 (students); INR 3000 ( others)

You Should Attend if you are… 

 Students/faculty/researcher/administrator in the Department of Law,Development Studies, Human Rights, Education, Applied Linguistics,Language Education, Sociology, Political Science,          Language Policy and Language Planning.

 Activists working for Human Rights and Educational Rights of the children from tribal   communities.

Course Coordinator:

Dr Uma Maheshwari Chimirala is a teacher at NALSAR University of Law. Her doctoral work analysed the language and cognitive components of the collaborative dialogue in a collaborative text construction across languages. She makes a compelling case for a languages curriculum. Her current research investigates the relationship between language, engagement in academic tasks and achievement across languages. 

Contact details: chimiralauma@nalsar.ac.in

 Note: Out Station participants will be provided accommodation on payment of Rs 5000 only 

CFP:GIAN Workshop on Studying Gender, Digital Labor and Globalization: Theory and Method, 30th July-10th August, 2018, SPPU, Pune

Overview

In this course, we’ll be exploring the ways that gender and technology have defined and redefined each other socially and culturally. The course therefore introduces students to some key issues in Feminism and Technology within the context Globalization. Students will explore key themes along suggested frameworks by examining specific contexts of gender and technology in India as these contexts are shaped by globalization and by national and regional cultures, policy and economic realities. The class members will also be connected with existing international collectives such as the Fembot collective (fembotcollective.org) and Femtechnet (femtechnet.org) and local organizations such as the Center for Internet and Society in Bangalore, India (cis-india.org) for potential longer term collaborations.

Students will be engaged in reading, writing, discussion and in active research around these issues along four main themes:

 Discourse: how the discourses around gender and women’s issues are being produced in India

through use of social media

 Labor: gendered labor and its role in digital globalization

 Body: space, place, technology and the gendered body

 Methodology- an introduction to feminist methods

Dates 30th July-10th August, 2018 (10 days)

Number of participants for the course will be limited to Thirty

Modules

  Understanding Concepts of Gender, Digital Labour.

 Subaltern Studies

 Memory Work and Field Notes

 Method Activity and Readings

 Final Evaluation

You Should Attend If… 

 You are a MA/MSc/PhD student/ faculty member of Media, Journalism,Communication,                                Sociology , Womens Studies and allied disciplines.

 You are working Professional engaged with research in Media and

          Communication,Gender and Technology and Feminist Methodologies .

 You are corporate Professional working in related research wing of any Private or Public                             Organizations

Fees The participation fees for taking the course is as follows:

 Participants from abroad : US $300

 Industry/ Research Organizations: Rs. 2,000

 Academic Institutions/ Faculty: Rs. 1000

 Students & Research Scholars: Rs. 500

 Students from SPPU : No fees

Above fees include all instructional materials, computer use for tutorials, 24 hr free internet facility, tea and light snacks.

The Faculty

Radhika Gajjala (PhD, University of Pittsburgh, 1998) is Professor of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University, USA. She has published books on Cyberculture and the Subaltern (Lexington Press, 2012) and Cyberselves: Feminist Ethnographies of South Asian Women was published (Altamire, 2004). She has co-edited collections on Cyberfeminism 2.0 (2012), Global Media,Culture and Identity (2011),South Asian Technospaces (2008) and Webbing Cyberfeminist Practice (2008).Her research has covered topics such as microfinance online, digital financialization to P2P lending and borrowing based in social media and neoliberal entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, ICT4D and leisure, women’s prosumption throughonline platforms of leisure and so on.She is currently continuing work on three books that are interrelated (the reason why the books must be worked on parallel – long story…) ”Philanthropy 2.0″, “Tangled yarn and tangled wires,” and “Digital Diasporas: Labor, Affect and Technomediation of ‘South Asia'.During 2015-2016 she is Fulbright Professor of Digital Culture at University of Bergen, Norway.For publications and such see -   https://uib.academia.edu/RadhikaGajjala

Course Co-ordinator

Prof. Madhavi Reddy

Phone: 9922758708

020 25696348

E-mail: madhavirk@unipune.ac.in

emailtomadhavi@gmail.com

.........................................................

http://www.gian.iitkgp.ac.in/GREGN 

CFP:International Conference on Convergence and Divergence: Indian Literature in a Global Context—Canadian and Indian Perspectives AUGUST 30-31, 2018.DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH,PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY,

HOSTED BY

SHASTRI INDO-CANADIAN INSTITUTE, NEW DELHI

&

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES,

PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY, PUDUCHERRY 605014 INDIA

ABOUT US:

The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) is a bi-national organization that promotes understanding between India and Canada through academic activities and exchanges. Its broad-based initiatives support the creation of bi-national links between academia, government, the business community and civil society organizations by funding research, faculty and student exchange, conferences, workshops and seminars. With a membership of over 110 leading Indian and Canadian universities and research institutions, SICI has facilitated greater collaboration between Indian and Canadian institutions in the humanities, social sciences, arts, science & technology, legal education, and management studies.

The Department of English, one of the oldest Departments of the University, was established on 1st December 1986, and since inception the Department has been the hub of teaching and research activity, attracting a cross-section of students and research scholars from all over the country. It has established itself as a stronghold of Comparative Literature, fostering Comparative Literary studies between Indian Languages and English. The Faculty of the Department with their diverse research areas and publications on topics of contemporary relevance remain at the forefront of innovative research areas.

THE CONFERENCE:

The colours of my history had seeped out of my mind’s eye; now my other two eyes were assaulted by colours, by the vividness of the red tiles, the yellow-edged green of cactus-leaves, the brilliance of bougainvillaea creeper. --Salman Rushdie 

 The shifting trends of globalization has given rise to a transnational literary culture and produced writing that is difficult to be classified as Indian. Along with this difficulty, the tussle between the Indian literatures written in English and the Indian literatures written in bhasas has also entered the fray and distinctions between Indian writing in English and Indian writing in the bhasas has become fluid with each moving beyond the national boundaries. The focus of this seminar is to examine how the aesthetic and cultural parameters of Indian literature both writing in English and writing in translation are represented in a global context. The other investigation that the conference would like to focus on is the reception and consumption of these literatures in India and academic departments devoted to Indian/South Asian writing particularly in Canada (including US and European countries). We are interested in queries such as the role of academics and scholars in promoting Indian literatures and processing it in the global context; the nature of canon formations; the pedagogy of courses devoted to these areas nationally and internationally, the cross-cultural interactions that follow and so on. The objective of the conference would be to understand the modes and methods by which literature registers and attempts to grapple with colonialism, transnational migration, global capitalism and pedagogy within global shifts pertaining to national, racial, and religious identity.

FOCUS AREAS:

Possible areas of interest pertaining to transnational and global contexts with a clear emphasis on Canadian and Indian perspectives may include, but are not limited to:

▪ Canon Formations

▪ Colonial, Imperial and Neo-colonial aspects

▪ Gender and Sexuality

▪ Indigenous/Aboriginal/Subaltern narratives

▪ Neoliberal contexts

▪ Pedagogical methods

▪ Region, Nation & Diaspora

▪ Translations in a transnational and global context

These areas of explorations are mere guidelines and contributors may please feel free to address the problem in their own critical and creative way. We encourage postgraduate students to present panels on any of the above-mentioned topics rather than individual papers to allow discussion and deliberation of the issue.

IMPORTANT DATES:

▪ Abstracts are to be sent to the Conference Director (Dr. H. Kalpana) before 15th July 2018 by email: indicanlitglobal18@gmail.com/hkalp.eng@pondiuni.edu.in.

▪ Intimation of the Abstracts: 5th August 2018.

TRAVEL AND ACCOMMODATION:

We request you to make your own travel arrangements to the conference as well as local travel in and around Pondicherry. Similarly, breakfast and dinner arrangements are at your own expense. We will make all efforts to provideaccommodation on shared basis but in case of any shortage/problems we will intimate at the earliest possible moment.

INSTRUCTIONS/GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS:

▪ The length of the Abstracts of the proposed presentation should be 300 words.

▪ The last date to receive the abstracts is 15/07/2018.

▪ The title and subtitle should be in bold, aligned to the ‘centre’ with font size of 14 point while the body of the abstract should be in the font size of 12 with a line spacing of 1.5. Notes and References should be in the font size of 12 and is to be given at the end of the abstract. Use Times New Roman font throughout.

▪ The presenting author’s name should be in bold, below the title of the abstract, followed by the names of co-authors, aligned to the ‘right’, in font size 14. Panels should indicate names of all presenters. Referencing should be done in MLA style to maintain uniformity.

▪ Below the abstract, draw a line and provide brief details about the corresponding author along with postal address/contact number/email in italics in font size 12.

▪ All co-authors need to register.

▪ The abstracts will be reviewed, and a selection will be made by the Department of English, PU.

▪ Selection of abstracts will be intimated by 05/08/2018.

▪ No request for extension of deadlines or for virtual presentations will be entertained.

▪ All presenters necessarily will have to participate and be present on both the days of the conference.

▪ Certificates of presentation/participation will only be distributed on 31st August after 3.00 pm.

REGISTRATION FEE:

▪ Faculty Members/Research Scholars (International): Rs. 5000

▪ Faculty Members (National and SAARC countries) /International Students: Rs. 2500

▪ Local Participants: Rs 800; Research Scholars and Students ((National and SAARC countries): Rs 500

Organised by SICI and Faculty, Scholars and Students of the English Dept, PU 

CFP: International Conference on Globalization,Literature and Culture- 7-8 Sep 2018,Pune.

Concept Note:

Globalization, in economic context, means a continual diminishing and a subsequent dismantling of the barriers between national frontiers so as to facilitate an easy influx of goods, capital, services and labour. It is characterized by the "acceleration and intensification of economic interaction among the people, companies, and governments of different nations". Sheila L. Croucher defines globalization as “a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces.” The unprecedented pace of globalization, especially in the last two decades, has influenced every aspect of our public and private lives. Countless technological innovations ushered in by globalization have resulted in the automation of production processes, continuous modernization and upgrading of work techniques, creation of virtual communities, and massive transformations in terms of geography and borders.This ceaseless movement of products, processes, and people has irrevocably transformed human cultures across the world. In this globalised world, diversity and pluralism are celebrated and the cosmopolitan impulses embattle at the altar of crisis-induced xenophobia. Religion too struggles against nihilistic aporias, and nation-states struggle to hold onto the loyalty of their citizens. Universalism is challenged everywhere by   resurgent particularisms. Knowledge creation and dissemination are increasingly decentralized and democratized.

Developing countries followed the new model of economic reforms, commonly known as the LPG or Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation to make their economy the fastest developing economy in the globe to match up with the biggest economies of the world. The process of globalization received impetus in the late nineteenth century but faced a major setback at the beginning of First World War and remained hibernated till the third quarter of the twentieth century. This impasse was caused by the inward looking policies espoused by some countries to protect their respective industries. In globalization, space is engaged metaphorically as shrinkage or mobility or distance, influencing the process of decentralization, de-territorialization, redrawing of boundaries and spatial realignments and re configurations.

Globalization has had a huge impact on thinking across the humanities, redefining the understanding of fields such as communication, culture, politics, and literature. The different dimensions of globalization such as the rise of global capital and markets, new media and communication technologies, dissolution of political borders, and growth of consumerist culture cannot be seen in isolation from one another. Some view Globalization as a profoundly enriching process, opening minds to new ideas and experiences, and strengthening the finest universal values of humanity. The advocates of Globalization say that free trade and free markets don't dilute or pollute other cultures,they enhance them. Trade creates wealth. Wealth frees the world's poorest people from the daily struggle for survival, and allows them to embrace, celebrate and share the art, music, crafts and literature that might otherwise have been far from the reach of them because of poverty. Globalization has exercised a homogenizing influence on local culture and promoted the integration of societies, providing millions of people with new opportunities. This integration came at the expense of the extinction of uniqueness of local culture, traditional societies and communities, paving the way to the loss of identity, exclusion and even conflict. The process of rapid „modernization‟ is based on models imported from outside hence it was incongruous with local cultural context. The Third World perception of globalization is that of a harmful process that maximizes inequality within and among states. It can be said that globalization while integrating and fragmenting the world, uniformity and localization, increased material prosperity and deepening misery as well as homogenization and hegemony. And thus became a complex process and phenomenon of antinomies and dialectic.  Viewed in terms of class hegemony, the culture of globalization seeks to divorce people  from their actual realities of day to day life.

Culture here acts not as an appeal to the aesthetic, but as a distraction, diversion from the pressing problems of poverty and misery. Consequently, it seeks to disrupt the energy of the people and their struggle to change and improve their miserable existence. Far greater part of our culture is aptly designated as „mass culture‟, „popular culture‟, and even „media culture‟, owned and operated mostly by giant corporations whose major concur is to accumulate wealth and   make the world safe for their owners, the goal being exchange value rather than use value, social control rather than social creativity. Much of mass culture is organized to distract us from thinking too much about larger realities. Public tastes become still more attuned to cultural junk food, the big hype, trashy, flashy, wildly violent, instantly stimulating, and desperately superficial offerings.

Literature isn‟t left untouched by the process of globalization. Some literary works feature the model of world cities and some have the traces of anti-globalization protests. The theories of postmodernism and postcolonialism have diverged from and converged with globalization studies. Amitav Ghosh‟s The Hungry Tide takes up cudgel against the waves of Globalization. Ghosh‟s The Calcutta Chromosome interrogates the Western policy of using science as its own possession, a civilizing mode, a mark of superiority, and its refusal to acknowledge nonwestern countries for importing scientific ideas from them. Some authors project that international companies have taken up the place of colonizers. They have spread their branches into the economies of all the nations. Booker Prize winner novel The White Tiger studies the contrast between India‟s rise as a modern global economic giant and the protagonist, Balram, who comes from rural poverty background. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, in his novel, Wizard of the Crow, deals with themes of colonialism and globalization in a politically troubled Kenya. He attacks universalism and wants African unique elements to be identified and not to be clouded by globalization or universalism. Salman Rushdie‟s Midnight’s Children and The Ground Beneath Her Feet, also deal with the anglophilia and effects of globalization. Indian Pulp-fiction has also taken cognizance of globalization. Works like Neelish Misra‟s Once upon Timezone,Swati Khushal‟s Piece of Cake, and Brinda Narayan‟s Banglore Calling deal with the death of heterogeneous culture amid globalization. Chetan Bhagat‟s One Night @ the Call Centre is a critique of positive neoliberal narratives around globalization and capitalism just as it champions them with nationalistic rhetoric. Globalization has diminished nationalism, through increased interdependence and weakening the national barriers between countries. National differences have disappeared or at least have become less important and noticeable. There is close affinity between translation and globalization. Translation, by dint of its trans-cultural dimension, plays pivotal role in the process  of globalization. World Literature, in the modern sense, refers to literary works that are translated into multiple languages and circulated to an audience outside their country of origin. It underscores the growing availability of texts from other nations.

Multiplicity of the cultures in the globalised world also calls in the sense of comparisonamong cultures. Comparative literature, as a stream of study, enjoys its unique importance in such cultural set up.Fredric Jameson, in his Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, sees artistic movements like modernism and postmodernism as cultural formations that accompany particular stages of capitalism and are to some extent constructed by it. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin argue that “the ultimate and unavoidable future of postcolonialism studies lies in its relation to globalization”. The concept of „world literature‟ describes the growing availability of texts from other nations. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their Communist Manifesto (1848) describe the existence of a world literature which is produced out of the constant revolutionizing of bourgeois production which spreads across national and cultural boundaries. The bourgeoisie has,through its exploitation of the world market, given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country.