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Monday, July 9, 2018

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 

Saturday, July 7, 2018

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 

Thursday, July 5, 2018

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 



Wednesday, July 4, 2018

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. NgÅ©gÄ© 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 Feetalso 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.

















Many researchers explore works of literature so as to find reflections of diverse globalization themes within the texts and contexts and also to verify the realities of globalization through literary forms. Other literature / literary studies are developed into a platform for evoking, supporting and interpreting different social, political, literary, and cultural concepts within the realm of globalization. In this light, we invite well researched papers, both theoretical and empirical from various disciplines to this knowledge-building platform. The Conference aims not just to gather a critical mass of ideas but also emerge as a site for future research initiatives.















Sub-Themes

Localization vs. Internationalization
Neoliberalism and Contemporary Literary Culture
Nationalism vs. Internationalism
Aboriginalism and Indigenous Culture
Tribal Literature and Culture
Translation and Literature in Translation
Comparative Literature and Culture
Third World Literature and Culture
Globalization and Regionalism
Space and Universality in Literature
Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization(LPG Model)
LPG and Neoimperialism
Liberal Arts and Culture
Communication Studies
Creative Writing
African and Asian Diaspora Studies
Westernization or Modernization
Deterritorialization and Literature
Modernism and Postmodernism
Gender and Literature
McDonaldization and Literature
Race and Literature
Ethnicity and Literature
Class and Literature
Political Philosophy and Literature
English as an International Language
Literature National Sociologies
Literature and Cultural Hybridity
World Literature
Postcolonial Theory and Literature.
Media and Literary Institutions
Cosmopolitanism and Literature
Literature and Wall Mart Culture
Cyber Literature and Culture
Gender and Sexuality
Science and Technology and Literature
Consumption and Material Culture
Consumerism, Technology and Literature
Global Skills, Digital Humanities and Literature
Globalization and Cultural Transformation
Political and Cultural Globalization
Globalization, Film and Literature
Globalization, Media and Literature
Media and Artistic Representation
Globalization and Culture in International System
Globalization and Literature
Caste and Religion and Culture
Migration, Displacement and Literature
Identity Crisis and Literature
Development and Displacement
Popular Literature and Culture
Social Media and Culture
Visual Culture and Literature
Capitalism and Literature
Literature and Digital Divide
Globalization and Linguistics
Translation Studies
Theories of Languages
English Language Teaching
Caste, Religion and Culture
Cultural Imperialism and Globalization
Linguistic Imperialism and Globalization
ANY OTHER TOPIC(S) RELEVANT TO THE THEME OF THE CONFERENCE












Submission of Abstracts: 
The participants may send ABSTRACT of their standard research papers up to 5th June, 2018 (Regular Fees) or AFTER 5th June, 2018 (Late Fees) to sudhirnikam@gmail.com conforming to the “Submission Guidelines” uploaded on www.herso.org

KINDLY NOTE THAT SUBMISSIONS ARE WELCOME TILL THE DATE OF THE
CONFERENCE. HOWEVER, THE LATE FEES SHOULD BE PAID FOR THE
SUBMISSIONS AFTER 5
TH
JUNE.“Registration Form” may be downloaded from the same website. The details regarding selection will be communicated within two days from the date of submission of abstract.The registration process has to be completed within three working days from the date of selection of the abstract.The complete research paper for presentation may be submitted on the conference day at the registration counter. 










Address for Correspondence
Dr Sudhir NikamA-2, 503, Punyodaya Park
Near Don Bosco School, Adharwadi
Kalyan (West), Thane, India- 421 301
Mobile : +919322530571 / +919405024593
WhatsApp : +91 9322530571
Email : sudhirnikam@gmail.com
  
For More details Please Do Visit Web:   www.herso.org



Saturday, June 30, 2018

CFP: Conference "Belief Narratives in Folklore Studies: Narrating the Supernatural" (Guwahati, India, Feb 6th-8th, 2019)














Call for Papers

Organisers: The Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language, Art and Culture, Guwahati, Assam, India, and the ISFNR Belief Narrative Network. 

The Setting: Guwahati is famous for several ancient Hindu temples, such as Kamakhya and other temples dedicated to the Goddess, while the Navagraha temple in Guwahati is an ancient centre of astrology. Participants who would like to spend some extra days on the site might also like to visit the Assam State Museum, make a boat trip on the Brahmaputra or visit the nearby historical town Hajo which has a number of other ancient temples. The nature reserve in Pabitora, home of a number of wild rhinos, is also close to Guwahati. For those interested in travelling around the area, the famous Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary is around 4-5 hours away. The same applies to Shillong, the capital city of the neigbouring state of Meghalaya, a site which, along with its neighbourhood,has often been called Scotland of the East because of its natural beauty and colonial architecture. 













Theme: Belief Narratives in Folklore Studies: Narrating the Supernatural 

One of the earliest genres in folkloristics has been the belief narrative in which traditional folk beliefs in the supernatural are given shape (and often credence) in popular narratives that (in the past) tended to be passed on in oral form. (Over time other forms of transmission have naturally evolved, ranging from the broadsheet to the internet and social media). This material, found in numerous archives and collections of folk legends, and still evolving and coming into being around us in daily life, has been used as source material for a range of investigations. In recent years, folklore scholars have underlined the way in which such narratives commonly reflect the psyche of individuals, groups and society as a whole at a deeper level. These narratives, as Elliott Oring has shown (Oring 2012), draw on a rhetoric of truth, and are designed to provoke discussion. For those who are convinced, they commonly evoke or strengthen beliefs and have the potential to affect behaviour and even change society. 


Belief narratives can take the form of migratory narratives moving between countries and even continents. Others are naturally more localized. In the case of the legend, most contain a universal pattern of event followed by individual and/or social interpretation and an aftermath (see Lauri Honko’s famous article on the nature of the memorate (Honko 1989), and Tangherlini’s definition of the legend in Tangherlini 1990). Narratives of this kind are naturally found in early epics and medieval narratives of saints, demons, trolls and nature spirits, and still occur in our own time attached to the new “gods” that have come into being with the help of the modern forms of media. They are nonetheless not limited to the sphere of the folk legend, but can also result in new forms of behaviour such as rumour-spreading, prejudice, witch-hunts and/ or activities (even sacrifices) designed to protect people from the influences in question, even in our own time. This conference aims at giving researchers worldwide the opportunity to share, discuss and engage with a range of aspects relating to the nature and role of belief narratives past and present. 














Scholarly presentations on any of the following topics are particularly encouraged:
Beliefs and the supernatural
Beliefs, faith and fear
Beliefs and the lore of saints 
Beliefs and sacrifice
Beliefs and witch-hunting
Beliefs and vernacular practices
Contemporary belief narratives (urban legends, the play on belief narratives by politicians and so on).

Language of the Symposium: English

Length of Presentation: Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of discussion.)












Submission of Abstracts: Those interested in attending the conference should send abstracts by e-mail to: bnnguwahati@gmail.com

Deadline for submission of the abstracts: 15th July 2018



Please include the following information:

- full name, e-mail address, and institutional affiliation 
- ISFNR membership status 
- the title of your proposed paper 
- a 300 word abstract in Word
- a brief 150-word biography





Proposals will be reviewed by the committee of the ISFNR Belief Narrative Network in cooperation with the organisers of the conference. The committee will then send notification of acceptance or rejection for the conference by August 30, 2018. An online preliminary programme schedule will then be published in October 2018.

















Registration Once the abstract is accepted the participants will have to fill in a registration form. Limited number of participants will be provided with modest free accommodation for the conference days on first come first serve basis. Meals will be free for the conference days. 

Travel and accommodation: Guwahati is the largest city in Northeast India and the gateway to the whole region. It is thus well connected by air to the major cities in India. International participants might consider traveling to Guwahati via Delhi, Kolkata or Mumbai. Further information on specific transportation guidance and booking of accommodation will be notified in the next circular to be published by 15th of March, 2018. 


Tuesday, June 26, 2018

CFP: Funded National Level ‘YOUNG RESEARCH’ Workshop 2018 On New Directions in New Humanities Research: Theories, Modalities and Praxis 21-22 July, 2018, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.
























Call For Papers:
The Department of English Literature, EFLU, Hyderabad is organizing a two-day workshop  on New Directions in New Humanities Research on 21st & 22nd July, 2018. The workshop,

intended for researchers working in new and emergent areas of humanities research, aims to 

a) provide them with an opportunity to present their topic areas to a scholarly audience
b) receive feedback from experts who have worked on/ are conversant with these and allied areas, and
 c) create special interest groups that will contribute to the creation of new knowledge, and application of the theoretical insights in the analysis of new and emerging socio-cultural phenomena.
















We invite abstracts from research scholars registered with an Indian university for their MPhil and PhD programmes in the area of English Studies. Preference will be given to MPhil scholars who are close to submitting their dissertations, and PhD scholars in their second and third years of research. Research papers in newer approaches to theory, praxis, themes, methods and orientations will be given priority. Scholars are invited to submit abstracts on rubrics including, but not limited to, the following:

o Fantasy, Myth and Folklore in a Post-Truth World
o Posthumanisms
o Narrative Philosophies
o Populism and Neo-Cultural Nationalism
o New Directions in Gender Studies
o New Materialisms and Embodied Subjectivities
o Oral, Visual and Performative Cultures from a Post-Theory Perspective
o Digital Discourses: Then and Now
o Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism
o Interdisciplinarity in Today’s Academy
o Minority Studies Today
o Reading Science and Ecology
o Re-visiting Culture and Identity Politics
o Studies on Vulnerability, Affect and Emotions
o Comics, Caricatures, Videogames and other Graphic Narratives
o Enacting Everydayness: Newspapers, Letters, and Blogs

















Abstract details: Kindly email a 250 words abstract, with a title, your name, institutional affiliation, email ID and phone number. The deadline for submission of abstracts is June 30, 2018 and you will be intimated about the selection by 3 July, 2018. Full papers should be reach us by July 13, 2018


Dates will not be extended any further, so make sure to submit on time.

Email your abstracts to: slseflu@gmail.com

Please follow the format given below:
Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Research Programme details:
Email address:
Phone number:
Title of the paper:
Abstract with keywords:















Participation details: Travel allowance and local hospitality will be provided to out-station participants (paper presenters only). This includes sleeper-class return railway fare and board and lodging at the EFL U Hostel/Guest House.

Workshop Schedule: Each day of the workshop will consist of four sessions with a lunch, and two tea breaks. Each session will have three paper presentations of 15 minutes each followed by the feedback of the subject expert, and a brief discussion.




We look forward to your participation. 


For further details, contact Workshop Co-ordinators

Prof. Samson Thomas and Dr Aparna Lonjewar

Department of English Literature