Call for Papers | 11th Annual Conference on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination- 2024-National Law University Bangalore

 

The National Law School of India University and Oxford Human Rights Hub are jointly hosting the 11TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2024 of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination at the NLS campus in Bengaluru from 26th to 28th July 2024.  The conference in Bengaluru builds upon the past success of BCCE’s annual conference which in the past has been held in:

• Paris (Sciences-Po 2012)
• California (Berkeley Law 2013)
• Brussels (Université Libre de Bruxelles 2014)
• Shanghai (Jiao Tong University 2016)
• Dublin (Trinity College 2017)
• Melbourne (Melbourne Law School 2018)
• Stockholm (University of Stockholm 2019)
• Cape Town (University of Cape Town 2021)
• Hong Kong (University of Hong Kong 2022)
• Netherlands (Utrecht University 2023).

Is There Hope for Equality Law?

After 10 successful iterations, as the conference travels to South Asia this year, we ask: is there hope for equality law? Inaugurating the global decolonial moment, the nations of the subcontinent constituted themselves into new republics with a lot of optimism and creative energy expended in reimagining and setting up just and fair societies. Giving shape and form to the principle of equality in political, economic and social lives was foremost in their agenda. But today, in the twenty-first century, there are growing concerns in this region, as there are all over the world, about the rise of inequality.

In the recent past, we have witnessed the growing awareness of different conceptions of equality, including substantive and transformative equality, systemic and structural inequality, indirect and effects-based discrimination which have made it possible to respond not only to intentional harms but to institutional harms as well. There has also been an expansion in the canon of identity characteristics protected under equality law. Yet, despite these gains and the centrality of equality to the political and legal order of so many countries, stakeholders around the world are questioning whether the legal right to equality is capable of addressing current inequalities. There are concerns that equality law is not up to the challenges of the climate crisis; ever-increasing wealth and income inequality; with the ever-widening disparities in access to rights and justice on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex and disability; tax injustice; growing informal work, the demonization of migration, the decay of democratic institutions, the power of multi-nationals, or the rise of artificial intelligence. This conference asks the bold question: In light of the doubts on the relevance of equality, is there hope for equality law?

The aim of the conference is to explore whether and how equality law can take the next step forward and offer insights and remedies to contemporary global challenges. Scholars and activists have used equality law to diagnose how laws, policies and programmes have created or enhanced poverty, disadvantage, stereotypes, stigmas, prejudice, oppression, and social exclusion. These laws, policies and programmes have been challenged in domestic, regional, and international courts and decision-making bodies. Although equality law has at best had a mixed record of success and failure, does it still have any untapped promise and potential to ensure that the world is fairer and more just for all peoples? While recognising the severity of current challenges, this conference seeks to explore whether and how equality law can develop to tackle the problems of today and of the future. It aims to bring together leading scholars to consider not only how foundational concepts may be re-thought and reimagined but also how theory and doctrine may evolve in a dynamic and transformative manner to realize the hope of equality law.

We are seeking paper proposals that address the broad questions posed by the conference. We encourage proposals to explore the following concepts and questions:

• the tension between equality and other foundational values such as liberty or other ideologies such as neoliberalism or neocolonialism
• the debates on the aims of equality law, such as debates on redistribution and recognition
• the role of affirmative action in redressing equality harms
• the role of proactive powers and duties
• the role of intersectionality in addressing systemic exploitation and oppression
• the challenges of achieving equality in specific fields of life such as:
   race, religion, caste, class and age discrimination (as illustration)
  informal employment and lack of social protection
  land, water and material resources
  Indigenous rights
  language, cultural and ways of life
  decolonization;
  o disability and ableism
  o wealth and tax inequality
  o family, public life and gender
  o AI and technology
  o citizenship, migration and statelessness
  o climate crisis
  o violence
• the impact of social justice movements on equality law
• the relationship of equality law with rising authoritarianism and democratic decay
• equality and international law

Instructions for submission

We invite submissions for individual presentations as well as panel proposals on the theme of the conference. We also encourage authors of recent monographs and edited collections to submit proposals to have panel discussions of their recent scholarship on the hope of equality law. We encourage submissions from scholars at all stages of their career. We also welcome a wide range of approaches and perspectives including normative, doctrinal, critical and interdisciplinary. Submissions are invited from scholars working in law and allied disciplines of social sciences and humanities.

Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and clearly indicate how your paper fits the theme of the conference, the objectives of the paper and its methodology. Please include a brief biography of maximum 100 words which is suitable for publication on the conference website, including affiliation, your email-address and a link to online bio, if available. Panel submissions should include a title and an abstract for the entire panel as well as titles, abstracts, and author information for all papers. Each panel should contain between three and four papers. The panel can be submitted by any of the authors.

Timeline

• Abstracts are due 1 December 2023.
• The abstracts will be reviewed, and invitations will be sent in February 2024.
• Full papers or presentations will be due on 1 July 2024 from authors whose abstracts are selected. Full papers will be made available to the participants of the conference. Subject to prior approval from authors, their papers and presentations may be posted on the conference website.

Finances

The conference organizers strive to keep the conference fee as low as possible. The fee will likely consist of 400 USD for participants outside India and INR 6000 for persons from India. The conference organizers can regrettably not cover travel and accommodation. Fee waiver may be considered subject to availability of funds. Those wishing to apply for it are required to submit a statement indicating why they require a full or partial waiver.

Contact Us

Please send the abstract and any queries relating to the conference to oxfordhumanrightshub@law.ox.ac.uk

International #Conference on #Literature and #Ecology-SRM University- March 2024

LITERATURE AND ECOLOGY

Concept Note

In an era marked by escalating environmental concerns and a pressing need for sustainable coexistence with the natural world, the study of literature through the lens of ecology has gained significance. Ecocriticism, as an interdisciplinary field, explores the intricate relationships between literature, culture, and the environment, offering valuable insights into how human beings perceive, interact with, and represent the natural world in their creative expressions. The proposed conference aims to delve deep into the multifaceted dimensions of ecocritical approaches to literature, fostering discussions that illuminate the symbiotic connection between artistic imagination and ecological consciousness.

The ecocritical approach recognizes the power of literature to shape perceptions and attitudes towards ecology – the environment, environmental ethics, activism, and policy-making. Analyzing the ways in which nature is portrayed, celebrated, exploited, or lamented in literary works, scholars can unravel the ecological, social, and philosophical implications of these representations. The proposed conference will provide a platform for academics, researchers, and enthusiasts to explore key themes that discuss the following issues:

1. Nature as Character and Metaphor: How does literature personify nature, attributing human-like qualities to natural entities? How do ecological metaphors and symbols enrich our understanding of environmental issues?
2. Wilderness and Urban Landscapes: Investigate depictions of wilderness and urban environments in literature. What do these portrayals reveal about the human-nature relationship and the impacts of urbanization?
3. Environmental Justice: Examine narratives that address environmental inequalities, marginalized communities, and the socio-economic implications of ecological degradation.
4. Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi): Explore the emerging genre of climate fiction, analyzing how authors envision and convey potential futures shaped by climate change.
5. Eco-spirituality and Indigenous Knowledge: Delve into the spiritual connections between humans and the natural world, drawing from indigenous knowledge systems and cultural perspectives.
6. Ecofeminism: Discuss the intersections between gender, ecology, and literature, exploring how feminist perspectives contribute to ecological discourse.
7. Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Analyze how colonial legacies influence literary representations of landscapes, resource exploitation, and the indigenous relationship with nature.
8. Ecopoetics: Study the aesthetic dimensions of eco-poetry and eco-prose, considering how literary forms and techniques engage with ecological themes.
9. Theoretical Considerations: Explore and critique the contribution of theorists on the subject of Ecocriticism, Literature and Ecology, and Nature Writing.
10. Specific authors and their texts.

 

This conference seeks to foster an inclusive and diverse dialogue, inviting scholars from literature, environmental studies, philosophy, cultural studies, and related fields to participate in a stimulating environment, examining literary texts from different historical periods, genres, and cultural contexts. Participants will contribute to a nuanced understanding of humanity's evolving relationship with the natural world. Through critical analysis and discussion, the seminar aims to unearth the transformative potential of literature in shaping ecological awareness and inspiring sustainable action.

Paper proposals are invited that engage with these thematic areas and encourage innovative interpretations, comparative analyses, and interdisciplinary explorations. Fostering collaboration and sharing insights, the seminar aspires to illuminate the ways in which ecocritical approaches to literature contribute to our collective efforts in nurturing a more ecologically conscious and harmonious world.

 

How to submit your abstract:

Abstracts of about 200-250 words are invited on panels 1-10 listed above. Please follow the following format:

 

Panel under which the abstract may be considered (1 to 10):

Mode of presentation: online (for delegates from outside India) or in person?

Is ppt required? Yes or No:

Name of the participant:

Designation and Affiliation:

Email id:

Title of the abstract:

The abstract in 200-250 words

Keywords (4-5):

 

Note:

1. The seminar will be hosted by SRM University, Delhi-NCR, Sonepat, India.
2. This will be a hybrid event. Participants from outside India will make their presentations online.
3. Participants from India will attend the seminar in person.
4. Details regarding Registration fee/accommodation will be sent along with the acceptance letters. For (online) participants from abroad there will be no fee.
5. Full papers will be invited before the seminar.
6. Selected papers will go into a volume to be published by Springer.

 Mail your abstracts by Nov 15, 2023, to ency.iwie@gmail.com with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com

Important Deadlines:

Announcement: October 20, 2023

Deadline for Abstracts: November 15, 2023

Acceptance letters to be sent by: November 30, 2023

Full papers due by: January 30, 2024.

Proposed conference dates: 2-3 March 2024

MANJU JAIDKA (Prof), Director of Humanities

SRM University, Delhi-NCR, Sonepat, India

Call for Book Proposals: East Asian Popular Culture Book Series _Palgrave Macmillan Publishing House

 

Series Editors: Yasue Kuwahara, Northern Kentucky University, USA, John A. Lent, Temple University, USA

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Series Description: Launched in 2014, the East Asian Popular Culture Series focuses on the study of popular culture in East Asia (referring to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan) to meet a growing interest in the subject among students as well as scholars of various disciplines. The series examines cultural production in East Asian countries, both individually and collectively, as its popularity extends beyond the region. It continues the scholarly discourse on the recent prominence of East Asian popular culture as well as the give and take between Eastern and Western cultures.  

Visit the Series page: http://www.palgrave.com/us/series/14958.

The series welcomes submissions of book proposals and manuscripts for consideration in English by both established scholars and early-career researchers.  Please send inquiries and proposals to the series editor, Yasue Kuwahara (kuwahara@nku.edu).

Contact Email

kuwahara@nku.edu

URL: http://www.palgrave.com/us/series/14958

Whither #postcolonialism? New directions in #postcolonialstudies -- International Online Conference, 1-2 December 2023

 Postcolonial studies as a way of reclaiming history from the perspective of the colonised continues to uncover the myriad fraught legacies of colonialism. The emergence of newer interdisciplinary areas of inquiry, such as climate change, has further revealed tangled legacies of colonialism that continue to persist. The burgeoning field of postcolonial print culture studies, in turn, has been bringing to the fore a fascinating terrain of production, circulation and consumption of print in colonial contexts that is particularly enriching our knowledge of anticolonial resistance in various ways.  This conference aims to bring together academic work in some of the newer sub-fields of postcolonial inquiry with attention to continuities. Research papers are welcome from across disciplines on, but not restricted to, the following themes:

• Climate change, caste and gender
• Climate change and endangerment of languages
• Climate change and changing cultural practices, and literature
• Climate change and marginalized sexualities
• Ecology and literature
• Environmental humanities and postcolonial studies
• Local knowledge and climate change
• Postcolonial autobiography
• Postcolonial print culture
• Translation and postcolonial studies

Keynote speaker: Professor Robert JC Young, Julius Silver Professor of English and Comparative Literature, New York University, USA

Timeline:

• Abstracts within 250 words, upto 5 keywords, and a bio-note within 100 words due by 12 November 2023.
• Link to submit abstracts:   https://forms.gle/iJvL5XdDSKLFo4Wp9  
• Selection of abstracts and details of online registration will be notified by email by 19 November 2023.
• Registration deadline for presenters: 23 November 2023
• Full papers for presentation not exceeding 2000 words, following MLA style (9^th edition), are to be submitted by email to english.conference.sjm@gmail.com by 28 November 2023.
• Conference dates: 1-2 December 2023

Publication: Submitted papers will be peer-reviewed by experts in respective areas and published in an edited volume by a reputed national academic publisher.

Conference registration fees:

Paper presentation: Rs 350.00 (Co-authored papers require individual registration)

Contact Information

Dr Durba Basu

Assistant Professor and Head

Department of English

Swarnamoyee Jogendranath Mahavidyalaya

Amdabad, Purba Medinipur

West Bengal 721650

India

 

Contact Email

english.conference.sjm@gmail.com

URL

https://www.sjmahavidyalaya.in/

DiGRA India Conference 2023 (online): #Love and #Games

 Love in/and/for Games

Loving a game can lead to formation of gaming communities, and game communities can later become sites where love can be found and at times love for games can be lost. One can also sit back and play to complete a love story as a side quest of a game. One could also declare one’s love for games by establishing an academic discipline. Each case is a specific and possibly conflicting manifestation/articulation of love for/in/and games. While it is easy to reach a consensus that we all love games, the question ‘why do we love games?’ is politically charged and a heavily contested one. Sara Ahmed has argued that even ‘hate groups’ operate in the name of love, as we saw in the online harassment campaign known as Gamergate, where hatred, toxicity and violence were packaged as “love for games”. However, the women at the receiving end were subjected to violence, harassment and hatred not because they hated games but because their love for games did not coincide with attitudes of white male right-wing gamers. Often when we think of love and games, it seems that the conflict is not between game haters and game lovers, rather it is always between various constructed variations of the umbrella phrase love for games. In all this the game hater appears as a straw(o)man figure, who is almost like a phantom friend to gamers, designers, scholars, who they regularly speak of and talk to, who however, does not exist or perhaps is extremely difficult to find or maybe hides in plain sight. Perhaps, the answer to the question ‘why do we love games?’ involves a necessary speculation on how we love games and what languages, modes and mediums do we invoke to express our love for games.

Love, games and play has been a topic of interest for game studies for quite some time. In 2008 Jessica Enevold proposed a categorization model for Game-Love, in 2012 Jane Pinckard edited a special issue for the journal Well Played on the subject of romance in games, ‘Game Love: Essays on Play and Affection’ was published in 2014, in 2016 another volume ‘Digital Love: Romance and Sexuality in Games’ edited by Heidi McDonald was published. The current one day mini-conference is an effort in the same direction, in that, it wants to understand the ways in which games operate as a source of our feelings and how we are shaped by games. The challenge is to move beyond default expressions such as I love games because they are fun or I love games because they make me happy or I love games because they teach X (valid as these statements are), and question what is this fun/happiness/pedagogy that makes one a lover of games. 

We welcome abstracts, artistic musings, loveletters, testimonials and posters in line with the conference theme. Topics may include but not be restricted to the following: 

• #Love, addiction, and games
• Devotion, love and games
• Love, poetics and gameplay
• Queering play and politics of love 
• Algorithmic intimacy
• Love, games, and fandom
• Toxicity and obsession for games
• Game studies and ludophilia
• Posthuman love and games
• Game-mechanics of love
• Love for retro games
• Consumerism and game-love
• Ethics of care and love in digital games
• Play as love

Important Dates:

Submission of Abstracts: 15th November, 2023

Intimation of Accepted Abstracts: 23rd November, 2023

Submission of Full-Length papers: 7th December, 2023

Date of the Conference: 9th December, 2023

Guidelines for Abstract and Paper Submission:

We invite abstracts of less than 300 words (and five keywords that will help us determine the focus area) along with a short bio-note of 100 words to be sent via email to digraindiaconference@gmail.com by 15th November, 2023. Full-length papers of accepted abstracts, of 4500-6000 words, in citation style MLA 9th Edition, should reach the same on or before 7th December, 2023.

In accordance with our theme, we have also curated a list of provocations (see link) to act as springboards for engaging with the area of interest. These provocations are to aid you in your creative processes. They do not restrict our preferred objects of study.

Contact Email

digraindiaconference@gmail.com

URL

https://gamestudiesindiaadda.files.wordpress.com/2023/10/digra-india-2023-confe…

CFP: #Funded International #Conference : #Culture and the Mind: Voices, Sites and Practices- Denmark-May 2024

 CULTMIND will hold its first annual conference 15-17 May 2024 in central Copenhagen.

We invite scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and career stages to discuss the current state of research on the entanglement of culture and the mind, and to outline new paths for future exploration.

The conference will present a forum for discussing the cultural and social specificity of psychological distress, trauma and healing; for exploring the distinct cultural traditions in which ideas of mental health and treatment take shape.

The conference will address the following topics and questions:

• The social and cultural variety of ideas about mental disorder, trauma and treatment:

How do conceptions of mental health and therapeutic modalities reflect distinct cultural traditions and social contexts? How have definitions of the mind responded to major historical changes?

• The entanglement of the arts and the human sciences:

How have medical and scientific explorations of the mind presented a resource for cultural producers, and how have clinicians drawn on the insights and techniques of film, literature, theatre and art?

• Languages of illness and healing:

How do medical and scientific understandings of the mind travel outside the clinical setting? How do patient narratives and voices expand psychiatric discourses and diagnoses?

• The intersection of expert knowledge and political ideology:

How have medical and scientific ideas about the human mind overlapped with political agendas and imperatives?

• Cross-cultural encounters in mental healthcare settings:

How do medical professionals account for cultural factors in the course of diagnostic and therapeutic processes? How have the psy-disciplines engaged with the consequences of cultural change and migration?

• The place of the medical humanities:

What role can the medical humanities play in uncovering the cultural dimensions of mental health, illness and treatment?

We encourage early career researchers, tenured researchers, and clinical professionals to send us an abstract for a short oral presentation or poster to be presented on the conference.

Funding is available to assist presenters with travel and accommodation costs.

Please send proposals for oral presentations or posters (including a paper/poster title, an abstract of 300 words and a brief academic biography of 200 words) to: CULTMIND@hum.ku.dk by the 15^th of January 2024.

Contact Information

The Centre for Culture and the Mind, University of Copenhagen

Contact Email: cultmind@hum.ku.dk

URL

https://cultmind.ku.dk/events/culture-and-the-mind-voices-sites-and-practices/

CFP: "Witnessing / Becoming" - University of Toronto, Centre for #Comparative #Literature’s #Annual #Conference, March 22-23, 2024

 “‘I bear witness’—that means: ‘I affirm (rightly or wrongly, but in all good faith, sincerely) that that was or is present to me, in space and time (thus, sense-perceptible), and although you do not have access to it, not the same access, you, my addressees, you have to believe me, because I engage myself to tell you the truth, I am already engaged in it, I tell you that I am telling you the truth. Believe me. You have to believe me.'” – Jacques Derrida (“Poetics and Politics of Witnessing” 76)

Witnessing is more than seeing, more than recounting testimony. A witness to an event is its participant, whether central or peripheral. In its continuity, the act of witnessing carries us past the immediate crisis of an event, into a post-event life. Processes of witnessing have manifested as fluid, ongoing testimonies, conveyed through various mediums such as novels, memoirs, autobiographies, reports, and films, among others. One could argue that at the core of these testimonies lies what Nadine Gordimer describes in “Literary Witness in A World of Terror: The Inward Testimony” (2009) as “the duality of inwardness and the outside world” (Gordimer 68), the dual exploration of one’s inner self and the external world, the quest to reconcile oneself with the uncertainties inherent in evolving events and the imperative to conceive new meanings of self-identity.

We invite papers that consider how testimony has been represented not only as a form of documented eyewitness literature, but also as a process that entails transformations, and encounters that elicit new forms of becoming. By conjugating witnessing with becoming, we invite you to move past the eventuality of crisis, to understand language as irrevocably tied to the process of bearing witness, remaking itself continuously against the possible threat of erasure, “as if it were being invented at every step, and if it were burning immediately” (Jacques Derrida The Post Card 11). Differing subjectivities, selves, and life stories emerge in different environments. How might the act of bearing witness to uncodified subjective experiences and marginalized social realities challenge narratives of dominant power structures?

To return to the temporal disconnect between the witnessed event and the performance of testimony, becoming can take a similar form. To become is to recognize the same temporal disconnect, to look backwards at what once was, yet no longer remains. Becoming might be a reading of the past, enacted in tandem with the witness’ attempt to reconstruct it, which remains eternally out of reach. How do these two forms interact with one another? How else might they intertwine?

As an interdisciplinary conference, we encourage submissions from a variety of fields, such as literature, philosophy, history, ethnography, anthropology, media studies, disability studies, sociology, art history, religious studies, and gender studies. We welcome papers related (but not limited) to the following topics:

>

• Testimonial Literature
• Ethics of Bearing Witness
• Living & Writing
• Socio-political events in literature
• Performativity
• Transnationality & the Diaspora
• Queerness & Alterity
• Black Studies
• Indigeneity & Decolonial thought
• Planetary Subjectivity vs. Capitalist Globalism
• Language & Translation
• Temporality & the Self

Those who wish to participate in the conference should submit an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with a short bio. Abstracts must be sent, as attachments, to utorontocomplitconference@gmail.com before December 1, 2023. Emails should include the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes.

Contact Information

Zichuan Gan, co-organizer 

PhD student 

Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto

z.gan@mail.utoronto.ca

 

Contact Email

utorontocomplitconference@gmail.com