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Monday, January 17, 2022

EXTENDED DEADLINE: Contested Solidarities: Agency and Victimhood in Anglophone Literatures and Cultures

 Keynotes/Plenaries/Writers

Sinan Antoon (Iraq/USA) | Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria) | Blessing Obada (Germany/Nigeria) | Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (Kenya) | Michael Rothberg (UCLA) | Arundhati Roy (India)

Extended deadline for individual papers and panels: 15 February 2022

If Anglophone literatures and cultures worldwide once sprang from a contested terrain of solidarities emerging in the shadow of colonialism, many of them have been struggling with the legacies of these solidarities, with ideals of liberation that turned into new forms of oppression, and with the clamorous or muted appeal of old and new victimhoods for more than half a century now. Ethnic, racial or national victimhood and solidarity have been invoked in a cynical politics of exclusion all over the globe – from an aggressive assertion of Hindu hegemony in India to the militant Buddhism in the guise of nationalism in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, the abuse of anticolonialism as an ideology of oppression in Zimbabwe. In a quite different setting, victimhood has also become a mainspring of the anxiety-infested xenophobia spawned by right-wing populism in contemporary Europe. At the same time, the oppression of minorities and the plight of political, economic and environmental refugees has generated new forms of sociality as well as solidarity.

While the 21st century has seen the exhaustion of ‘enchanted’ or ‘unconditional’ solidarities rallying around idealized images of oppressed ‘postcolonial’ or ‘third world’ collectivities, sections of academia continue to see ‘resistance’ as form of catharsis, or even a panacea for a myriad of victimhoods and grievances. Yet, Anglophone literary texts and cultural productions themselves have long since engaged in self-reflexive encounters that have undermined trite formulations of perpetrators and victims and have explored the tribulations of what Michael Rothberg has recently called ‘implicated subjects’ (2019): all modern subjects are involuntarily implicated both in the history of oppression and victimhood, often simultaneously – not only in the formerly colonizing, but also in the formerly colonized regions of the world. More often than not, these implications, which call for a ‘disenchanted’ or ‘conditional’ solidarity that holds the abuses of victimhood in the name of agency accountable, cut across habitual East/West or North/South divides: as large parts of the world are rightly admiring civil resistance against the current military rulers of Myanmar and deploring the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi, the memory of how her own government was complicit with the persecution of the Rohingya minority in Burma seems to be waning. At the same time, European admonitions to respect democracy and protect the Rohingya refugees are timely but hardly beyond reproof given the background of calculated misery in its refugee camps in the Mediterranean and unceasing daily deaths at its external frontiers.

The 2022 Annual Conference of the Association for Postcolonial Anglophone Studies (GAPS) will engage in a wide-ranging reassessment of implicated subjects, of the uses and abuses of victimhood, of different forms of agency, and of the manifold implications of English as a medium of literary and cultural expression in anglophone literatures, cultures and media. Participants are invited to scrutinize fictional encounters with ‘internal’ forms of oppression, with the ‘enemy within’ (Nandy) and ‘the danger of a single story’ (Adichie), or the excessive display of wealth and power by local bourgeoisies (Mbembe). They are also encouraged to engage in a self-reflexive discussion on the role of ‘unconditional’ and ‘conditional’ solidarities in Anglophone literary cultures and on the role of victimhood in recent debates on globalization, world literature and the Anthropocene. Furthermore, participants may wish to tackle the new solidarities expressed through concepts such as cosmopolitanism (Appiah), Afropolitanism (Selasi), conviviality (Gilroy) or environmental justice and to explore the role of anglophone literatures and cultures as ‘resources of hope’ (Raymond Williams). Participants are further welcome to focus on transitions from a politics of victimhood to a poetics of agency in anglophone literatures and cultures and to scrutinize the role of English in plurilingual contact zones across the world.

We invite contributions exploring the conference theme in areas such as:
⦁ Internal rifts: the struggle against oppressive populisms and authoritarian power in anglophone literatures and cultures
⦁ Unfinished business? The role of national and other liberations in contemporary literature and cultures
⦁ Three decades of Postcolonial Studies: Past and present understandings of agency and victimhood
⦁ Neoliberal and other capitalisms: critiques of globalization and populist resentment
⦁ The poetics and politics of indigenous sovereignty
⦁ Uneasy linkages: indigeneity and migration
⦁ Intimate enemies: “Traitors” in contemporary anglophone literatures and cultures
⦁ Civil war and after: reconciliatory imaginaries in literature, film and other media
⦁ Beyond victimology: war narratives in a decentred world
⦁ Convivial imaginaries: Resources of hope in Black and Asian British cultural production
⦁ Old and new South-South relations in anglophone studies
⦁ Victims or perpetrators? Implicated subjects in the Anthropocene
⦁ The New Anglophones: English-language writing in the Arab world
⦁ Comparisons: Franco-, hispano- and anglophone literatures in the contact zone
⦁ Teaching complexity: implicated subjects as a challenge to pedagogical practice

Work in progress in anglophone postcolonial studies – including M.A./M.Ed., PhD and Postdoc projects as well as ongoing research projects in general – can be presented in the “Under Construction” section, for which poster presentations are also welcome.

Conference Format:

Given the current dynamics of the Covid 19 pandemic, it is unlikely that we will be able to organize the conference as a full presence event. However, we remain hopeful that a hybrid format with some delegates and speakers being present at Goethe University and others joining via a video system will be possible. We are also prepared to set up the conference as a fully digital event if necessary. The final decision on the conference format will be taken at the beginning of the academic summer term at Goethe University and communicated by 15 April, 2022 at the latest.

Conference Fees:

Conference fees for those participating in presence at Goethe University (in case this will be possible) are:

GAPS members*                    Non-members/non-presenters

90 € employed **                    100 € employed **

45€ students                           50€ students

* all presenters, excluding invited speakers, are required to be GAPS members. GAPS membership form can be obtained here.

**full-time faculty and employed postdocs

For those participating digitally, there will be no conference fees.

Conference Registration:

Conference registration will open on 1 March, 2022. All conference delegates, including those participating digitally, will need to register. Access to all conference events will be possible after registration only.

If a hybrid conference format is possible, payments for those attending the conference at Goethe University will have to be made after 15 April, 2022. In this case, an early-bird rate will be available until 1 May, 2022.

Conference Dinner / Hospitality:

If a hybrid conference format is possible, delegates attending the conference at Goethe University will be informed about the conference dinner and hospitality arrangements by 15 April, 2022.

Conference convenors:Dr. Pavan Kumar Malreddy and Prof. Dr. Frank Schulze-Engler, Institute for English and American Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt.

Contact: info@gaps2022.com

Contact Info: 

Pavan Malreddy & Frank Schulze-Engler

Institut für England- und Amerikastudien
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1
D-60629 Frankfurt a.M.

Office: IG-Farben-Haus, 4.156

 

 

 

Thursday, January 13, 2022

CFP-Online Conference on Women’s Narratives of Ageing and Care Conference (18 March 2022)-

 


Women’s Narratives of Ageing and Care Conference (18 March 2022)-
Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing (CCWW)
INSTITUTE OF MODERN LANGUAGES RESEARCH

School of Advanced Study • University of London






Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing Online Conference 


Care is fundamental to human survival, yet it is often overlooked, undermined, and undervalued. Care of the old, in particular, is low in status and too readily occluded. This event seeks to explore why and how, to examine some of the powerful responses to relationships of care in recent creative works by women, and to investigate ways in which care might be redefined and reconceptualized. Taking as its focus the representation or narrativization of care, in theory, literature and visual culture, it seeks to engage with contemporary female-authored texts from diverse cultural contexts, encouraging the development of comparative, cross-cultural perspectives. Narrative is key here; as Sarah Falcus claims: ‘Telling and reading stories of age … open[s] up debate and embrace [s] complexity, and may challenge our ways of thinking.’



Programme

9.00-9.15 Introduction and Welcome 

Conference Organisers: Emily Jeremiah (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Shirley Jordan (Newcastle University) 
  

9.15-10.45 Panel 1: Narratives and Counternarratives of Age
Chair: Emily Jeremiah (Royal Holloway University of London)

Avril Tynan (University of Turku), ‘Counternarrating Loss in Women’s Dementia Fiction in French: Collaboration, Continuity, Care’ 
Jordan McCullough (Queen’s University Belfast), ‘«Tu trouves pas quand même absolument fabuleux d’en connaître un peu moins?»’: Dementia and the “Second Childhood” as Shared Learning in Sophie Fontanel’s Grandir (2010)’ 
Martina Pala (Durham University), ‘«Non vorrei toccarla»: daughters repulsing ageing mothers.
Laudomia Bonanni, Donatella Di Pietrantonio, and Maria Grazia Calandrone in comparison’

10.45-11.00 Break

11.00-12.30 Panel 2: Care and Caring 
Chair: Shirley Jordan (Newcastle University)

Kate Averis (Universidad de Antioquia), ‘Still the Carer Sex: Women Ageing and Caring in Contemporary Women’s Writing’ 
Alice Hall (University of York), ‘Women’s Work: Reading, Writing and Archiving as Forms of Care in The Carers UK Archive’ 
Siobhán McIlvanney (King’s College London), ‘The Cultures of Caring (for) Women in Contemporary French and Francophone Writing’

12.30-13.10 Lunch 

13.10-15.00 Panel 3: Narrativizing Care 
Chair: Emily Jeremiah (Royal Holloway University of London) 

Julia Dobson (University of Sheffield), ‘Co-presence as Care: The Hyperreal Figures in Bérangere Vantusso’s Work’ 
Margarita Saono (University of Illinois Chicago), ‘The Old Woman Comes out of the Attic’ 
Kathleen Venema (University of Winnipeg), ‘“I guess there’s Nice Meddling and Meddler’s Meddling”: Women’s Graphic Narratives of Ageing and Care’ 
Susan Ireland (Grinnell College) and Patrice J. Proulx (University of Nebraska Omaha), ‘Textualizing the Maison de Retraite in Contemporary Narratives by Francophone Women Authors’

15.00-15.15 Break 

15.15-16.00 Book Launch: Sarah Falcus and Katsura Sako, eds., Contemporary Narratives of Ageing, Illness, Care (Routledge, 2022).

16.00-16.20 Collective Conclusions 
Chair: Shirley Jordan (Newcastle University)

Conference Organisers: Emily Jeremiah (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Shirley Jordan (Newcastle University)  


All are welcome to attend this free online event, starting at 09:00 GMT, UK time. You will need to register in advance to receive the online joining link. Please click on the Book Now button below to register. Advance registration essential.

Download guidance on participating in an online event (pdf)












Thursday, December 12, 2019

International Conference on Gandhi in the Private and the Public Sphere: Image, Text, and Performance March 4-5, 2020, University of Delhi


The Department of English
University of Delhi
organizes an
International Conference
on
Gandhi in the Private and the Public Sphere:
Image, Text, and Performance
March 4-5, 2020











Call For Papers
On the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the international conference will focus on the steadily growing debates around the multi-layered discourses that circulate with regard to the figure of one of the most influential and complex public personas of our times. The circulation of the Gandhi signature in variegated registers includes, but, is not confined to the fields of print culture, to the newspaper archive and other media, to visual and cinematic studies, to performances, to scholarly and popular textual works, to his influence on the plastic arts and other art forms, moving onto the recent reformulation in new genre music and graphic culture. To effectively mine the rich and palpably living network that has
is the locus of the diverse and ever growing interest globally we set the inclusive parameter of the well-documented life and after-life of Gandhi in both the private as well as the public sphere. The conference invites academics and scholars to interrogate some of the following areas of critical enquiry:









Themes
Gandhi’s personal life and its reception and representation in the public sphere.
‘Gandhi as an idea’ in a transnational dimension.
The adoption/appropriation/ re invention of Gandhi’s ideas and thoughts in contemporary socio-political and commercial discourses.
Gandhi and the problematic of race and caste.
Gandhi’s ideas of ‘ahimsa’ and ‘satyagraha’ and their operation in conflicts zones.
Gandhi and his contemporaries.
Gandhi in fictional, cinematic, artistic and graphic culture.
Gandhi in Asian and European thought worlds: then and now.
Gandhi and the narration of Trauma.
Gandhi and Cosmopolitanism.

In summation, how his image, his words, his ideas have shaped us multi generationally and cross culturally.

Deadline for Abstracts
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted as Word documents/PDF to gandhiconf.du@gmail.com by 10 January, 2020.
Convenors:
Prof. Raj Kumar (Head of the Department)
Dr. Anjana Sharma. Dr. Haris Qadeer











Wednesday, November 6, 2019

International Conference "Tolstoy to Gandhi: a Philosophical Journey", Gandhi Bhawan, University of Delhi 21-22 November 2019.




To mark 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi & 110th Death Anniversary of Leo Tolstoy, The Gandhi Bhawan, University of Delhi has the pleasure to announce an International conference titled


“Tolstoy to Gandhi: A Philosophical Journey”


21-22 November 2019





The conference aims at focusing on a variety of possible approaches to Tolstoy’s ideas & Gandhian thought. We would like to welcome academics who represent various methodologies and perspectives on philosophy, religion, spirituality, peace, humanity, society, literature & culture.


CONCEPT-NOTE


On the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi & 110th Death  Anniversary of Leo Tolstoy, it is natural to relook and rediscover these two great

thinkers and philosophers of their times. They were rare luminaries who preached and followed their beliefs. The remarkable original thinking they brought to their times acquires great significance because they put their ideas into practice.

Vladimir Tolstoy, the great great grandson of Leo Tolstoy, Adviser to the President

of the Russian Federation & Ekaterina Tolstoy, Director of the Leo Tolstoy Estate

Museum “Yasnaya Polyana” have said: “It is gratifying to recognize the fact that the thoughts of these two great personalities who preached the philosophy of ‘non- resistance to the evil by force’ as the Law of Life, continue to hold significance and evoke repercussion in the modern world”.

As is well known, that Tolstoy’s treatise “The Kingdom of God is Within You” became one of the important books in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. In his own words: “Before the independent thinking, profound morality, and the truthfulness of this book, all the books seemed to pale into insignificance”.

There is lot in common between Leo Tolstoy and Gandhi but they stand distinct in their own ways. The idea that brought Tolstoy & Gandhi closer was the philosophy of






non-violence, and the law of love. Both of them have been the two greatest exponents and practitioners of non-violence and non-violent resistance, who personally never met each other but in the last years of Tolstoy they communicated through letters. Their correspondence is a witness to not only their mutual admiration but also the commonality of ideas related to non-violence and passive resistance. In his last letter written just two months before his death, Tolstoy wrote: “the fact that love, that is the striving towards universal brotherhood and the resulting actions, is the supreme and unique law of human life”. Prof. Yogesh Tyagi, Vice Chancellor, University of Delhi has said: “Their famous correspondence opened up new horizons for generations to come and their thoughts still mentor many people in search of peace, harmony and universal brotherhood”.

Tolstoy’s and Gandhi’s thoughts, especially the religious and philosophical aspect of their spiritual experience have captivated many. In the opinion of Mr. Nikolay Kudashev, Ambassador of Russia to India: “Tolstoy and Gandhi had come to the strong conviction that love is an essential core of the human soul and the only one genuine basis for possible unity of the humankind. In their case, it was not just a fancy meaningless phrase but it led to concrete actions influencing the world”. This conference will be a platform for scholars & experts to celebrate the philosophical journey of Tolstoy’s thoughts to India, influencing Gandhi, and to emphasize the relevance of their ideas and philosophy in modern context and for future generations, who can learn so much from the lives of these two great personalities.



The list of suggested topics for the conference presentations may include, although will not be limited to, the following issues:



v Tolstoy & Gandhi: Impact on Aesthetics, Ethics and Spiritual Regeneration

v Forgiveness, Compassion and Reform: Tolstoy & Gandhi for Social Change

v Tolstoy’s Ideas & Gandhian Thought, their relevance today

v Tolstoy-Gandhi Correspondence

v Gandhi & Leo Tolstoy’s Philosophical Works

v War & Peace in Modern World

v Education & pedagogy: Influences of Gandhi & Tolstoy

v Tolstoy in India & Gandhi in Russia

v Tolstoy & Gandhi in Cinema

v Leo Tolstoy’s Personality, Life, Works and Philosophical Heritage, its Influences

v Leo Tolstoy in Russian & World Literature, culture

v Language & Style of Leo Tolstoy’s works

v Leo Tolstoy in Indian Literature, Culture and Society


Each presenter will be given 30 minutes (20 minutes plus 10 minutes for discussion). The conference languages are Hindi, Russian, English.






Important dates:
Abstract submission: 08 November 2019

Confirmation of acceptance: 10 November 2019
Conference: 21-22 November 2019

Date of arrival & Departure for delegates: 20 & 23 November respectively



Abstract submission: Abstracts describing the topic of a presentation in up to 300 words should be sent to tgcdu2019@gmail.com no later than 8 November 2019.

Conference venue and fee: The conference will be organized in University of Delhi. Registration fees can be paid on arrival at the conference venue.

For foreign participants - 75 Euro: For participants from India -1000 Rupees
Please note that accompanying person(s), if any, also have to register.



The fee for foreign participants covers:

- 3 nights in the University International Guest House in a twin/single room

- conference materials

- the costs of publishing a post-conference monograph






Contact e-mail for abstract submission: tgcdu2019@gmail.com




Conference Director: Prof. Ramesh Bhardwaj Gandhi Bhawan, University of Delhi



Conference convener:

Dr. Girish Munjal Tel. 9810033877

Email: girishmunjal2012@gmail.com




Address for all postal correspondence:

Gandhi Bhawan, 32, Chhatra Marg, University of Delhi, Delhi – 110007. Phone 91-11-27666243, E-mail: gandhibhawan32@gmail.com

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

International Conference- Languaging and Translating: Within and Beyond 21 - 23 February 2020,Indian Institute of Technology Patna.













Concept Note


Humberto Maturana in “Biology of Language: The Epistemology of Reality” raised crucial questions pertaining to the process that must take place within an organism to establish a linguistic domain with another and the linguistic interaction that permits an organism (us) to describe and to predict events that it may experience. These questions transcend the notion of language outside the precincts of linguistic verbiages towards a multi-contextual, multidisciplinary and cognitive platform of ‘languaging’ in which language becomes a “process of making meaning and shaping knowledge and experience” (Swan 96). According to the 2011 census, there are only 22 scheduled languages spoken by nearly 96.71 percent of the Indian population but there are more than 19500 existing languages or dialects that are spoken by the remaining population. Given, the kind of role language plays in its social discourse, it may be inferred that they are not only a tool for communication but help a great deal in social integration, historical documentation, development and so on and so forth. It may not be exaggeration to also infer that language makes literature and in turn literature also becomes the savior of the language in which it is written, expanding its horizon and not just being a tool of thought-transference. In such a context, it becomes imperative to investigate the methodologies in which one realizes that languaging has always been seminal towards validating and authenticating various forms of epistemological and ontological existence, within and beyond words.

2019, has already been declared the ‘International Year of Indigenous Languages’ that stridently echoes the 2008 sentiment “languages matter” and plays a pivotal role in ‘sustainable development, peace-building and reconciliation’(2019). It insisted that retaining the diversity of language was of extreme importance for it adds to the vantage point of multilingualism, a key feature of Indian mental, emotional and intellectual make-up. Till date, research on languages has been underpinned with multifarious approaches by scholars from diverse academic backgrounds. Scholars from linguistics, literature, translation and computational linguistics have adopted different independent methodologies and incompatible styles but in current scenario there is an imperative need to look into the possibilities of a collaborative framework that sustains the language, especially the indigenous ones. 2019 has already set the tone towards this mélange and an extension of the same vision and mission with an enthusiastic fervor from academia will benefit society at large and languages in particular. Keeping these arguments at the backdrop, this conference takes up the Fanonian challenge of turning a new leaf by bringing together various groups whose objectives are similar in generating new concepts which will reinvent the existing process of languaging and translating and explore its de-hierarchized dimension.


In this conference the participants are invited to contribute in the following areas:

Languaging and translation
Language and literature
Language acquisition and learning
Interpreting language: beyond linguistic associations
Language as/and power
Indigenous languages and folk literature
Language and capitalism
Academic and non-academic languages
Social, cultural, and political contexts of language teacher education
Coloniality and social justice in revitalization of language
Language as a decolonial pedagogy
Intercultural education
Language and existence
Digitalization and language preservation
‘Endangered’ and/or ‘less implemented’ / ‘less spoken’ / ‘only spoken and not written’
Machine translation
NLP applications
Phonology, Morphology and word segmentation
Semantics: lexical, sentence level, textual inference and other areas of semantics
Sentiment analysis, Stylistic analysis, and Argument mining
Syntax: Tagging, Chunking and Parsing
Innovation in language teaching and learnings
Language teaching methodology
Corpus Linguistics
Forensic Linguistics
Historical Linguistics
Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics
Orthography, Pragmatics, Rhetoric and Stylistics
Language in every day use, social media and virtual communications
Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
Politeness and Discourse Analysis

In addition to the above mentioned broad areas, we also solicit papers suitable to the theme of the conference. Selected presenters will be invited to contribute to an edited volume to be brought out by a reputed publisher. The edited book in four volumes will broadly comprise chapters from Literature, Linguistics, Translation and Computational Linguistics. Along with the conveners, Dr. Asif Ekbal will be co-editing the volume. Further details will be provided after the conference.















Submissions


We invite abstract submission from scholars of all backgrounds for regular presentation. Individual abstracts of about 200-250 words on the above mentioned themes must be submitted on/by 30 November 2019 to hssconferenceiitpatna@gmail.com. The selected presenters will be notified by 20 December 2019. The selected participants are required to register by 10 January 2020 and submit their full paper by 31 January 2020. All the documents need to be prepared according to the MLA 7th Edition format. To encourage student’s participation, there will be a student “works-in-progress”/poster session. Questions and requests for more information should be directed to Dr. Priyanka Tripathi (priyankatripathi@iitp.ac.in)




Contact Us For more detailsDr. Priyanka Tripathi
Room No 513, Block 6
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Patna
Bihta- 801 103 (Bihar), INDIA
Phone: +91 612 3028182 (Office)
Email: hssconferenceiitpatna@gmail.com

Saturday, November 2, 2019

4th International Conference Migration, Diasporas and Sustainable Development Perspectives, Policies, Opportunities and Challenges 14-15 November 2020 New Delhi, India











Call for Papers
Human mobility is an age-old phenomenon, though its dynamics and character is changing over the time. Under the garb of globalization, international migration with various forms and features has been growing exponentially in the recent decades in response to global capitalistic developments. Subsequently, many migrant groups have turned into Diaspora communities across the globe. Today, Diasporasconstitutes not only a substantial but also a vital segment of population that the human civilization is experiencing today. It is considered to be one of the emerging actors that significantly influencing the socio-economic, political and cultural spheres in the national and international arena.
The multidirectional engagement between Diasporas and Diaspora and host country and home country, and engagement in transnational and virtual platforms provides a very interesting space for academician and policy experts to engage. There are multiple dynamics involved in shaping the contour of the Diaspora and engaging them with region, nations and in the transnational spheres.


In recent times female migration has been gradually growing across the globe, often faster than the male migration. The migration report of the UN (2015) mentioned that some parts of Europe and Africa the growth rate of female migration has already taken over their male counterparts i.e 51.9% in Europe, 51.6 % in Latin America and Caribbean, 51.9% in North America. Though traditionally migration from India has been male dominated, in the recent decade female migration has been rising.


With growing number of Diaspora population worldwide, there is a scope for comparative analysis. There are large Diasporas in Asian and African countries. Chinese and Indian Diaspora are two of the largest Diaspora in the world, combined together they constitute roughly 85 million (60 million Chinese Diaspora 25 millions Indian Diaspora). Spread out across the globe, these two Asian Diasporas redefined the demographic, social, cultural, political and economic profiles of many countries and significantly impacting on the home countries as well. Two Diasporas provides wonderful insights on how the Diaspora and homeland engage today. People from both the countries, having old civilizational heritage, have been migrating internationally for centuries. However, it is the colonial regime under the European power which made drastic demographic change by importing substantial number of labour from these two countries after the abolition of slavery. Subsequently, the free flow of migration continued that constituted skilled, semi-skilled and professionals. The two Asian Diasporas are very much linked to their home countries despite ideological, ethnic and identity contradictions, diversities and challenges on some occasions. There are number of evidences in several countries where Diaspora engage in skill building in China, Israel and in less developed countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh etc. This can be done through volunteerism and through sustainable private public participation in areas that are locally feasible and marketable as well. High Skill Diaspora can engage in public policy, research and development, business and enterprise. However there is need for more institutional platform to translate these to practice. Smaller Diasporas from Asia, Africa and Europe also provides very useful insight into the diverse range of engagement in the socio-economic and political spheres.


India having one of the largest Diaspora in the Globe has comparative advantage to undertake academic as well as policy research to engage its Diaspora. It is already evident that, besides the socio-cultural and political significance, Diaspora has immense policy significance in the current scenarioof knowledge economy that is highly networked and virtual globalised world.
Besides the Diaspora and homeland engagement that has positive developmental outcome, there are also conflict relations. The Jews, the Tamils, Sikhs and many other Diasporas in different parts of the world have conflict relations that provides a different way to look at not only the Diaspora homeland engagement but also how they mobilize the transnational space to fulfill their objectives.

As migration will continue to occur an Diaspora communities continue to form, evolve and engage, it is time to think on the broader global context of sustainability. UN Sustainable Development Goal 2030 emphasizes on mainstreaming migration by focusing on various interrelated issues such as international cooperation, vulnerable migrants, humanitarian crisis, return migration, female migration.
About the Conference
The proposed conference will bring togethernational and international experts from academics, practitioner and policy bodies. It will help is consolidating the research findings related to various emerging perspectives and policies on Diaspora that will provide better insights in to the Diaspora-home country-host country-transnational relationship. The Conference will have both conceptual as well as applied areas so as to give a wholistic approach to understand the issue. The following are the Themes and Sub themes for the Book. However, all the related issues also welcome.

Keynote Speaker:
Prof. Steven Vertovec, Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany.
Topic : Diversification of Global Migration and the Concept of Super-diversity
... And a galaxy of globally acclaimed scholars in the panel



Themes and Subthemes
Perspectives
· Changing nature of migration and Diaspora
· Human Development, Entrepreneurship and Knowledge
· Heritage, culture and the dynamics of change


Diaspora Policies in major countries
· Politics of Migration and Policies on Diaspora with implications for Foreign and National Security
· Impact of Politics on Emigration and Immigration
· Racism, Citizenship issue in Gulf, Visa policy of selective, USA/Developed countries,
· Diaspora and Soft power diplomacy (cultural diplomacy)
Impacts of Diaspora on Foreign Policies
· International relation and migration
· Diaspora lobby
· Transnationalism
Policies related to the Economic impacts of Diaspora
· Remittances
· Diaspora investment and Entrepreneurship
· Knowledge, Technology Transfer and International Trade
· Diaspora Philanthropy
NGOs in Diaspora, Civil Society and Human Rights
· Diaspora organisations and their role
· Marriages, Custody, Adoption, Property, Hague Conventions
· Human Trafficking
Diaspora and Global Culture
· Diaspora in the global cultural revolution- multiculturalism and Diaspora
· Indian Diaspora: Film, Literature, Language, Food


New Dynamics of Diaspora Engagement
· Virtual Diasporas and Knowledge Platforms
· Indian Diaspora, Virtual platform and development
Regional Diasporas
· Regional Diasporas in India and Other countries

Return and Integration
· Return migration and rehabilitation
· Return migration and integration
Forced Migration
· Refugee crisis
· Refugee and Gender

Outcome
The conference will generate ideas and policy perspectives in the form of research papers which can contribute to the development sectors in home and host countries. The insights from other Diaspora engagements will certainly help to see the evolution and future engagement of migration communities and Diaspora.
Stakeholders
The conference will provide a knowledge platform for scholars working in policy and academic domain to share ideas, comparative perspectives on Diaspora and international migration. A large array of stakeholders at national and international level will benefits from the conference and publications thereafter. The following stakeholders will directly benefit from the conference:
· Government Ministries: Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Culture
· Agencies/Departments: Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Reserve Bank of India,
· Development Organisations working in the Migration and Diaspora


· Corporate Sectors: Working in the area of music, films, investment, knowledge transfer, human resource training, education sector


Important Dates
Last date for receiving abstracts
30 January2020
Confirmation of Selection of Abstracts
15 February 2020
Last date for receiving full paper
30 March 2020
Date of Conference
14-15 November2020




Convenors
Dr. M. Mahalingamand Dr. Smita Tiwari
GRFDT, New Delhi



Submission Guidelines

Participants


Participant's Contribution
(to be covered for conference kits and food during the conference)
Postgraduate Students & Research Scholars
2000/- or USD 35
Other Scholars
3000/-or USD 50




Accommodation and Local Hospitality:
Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism is a not-for-profit academic research forum and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence. However, the organisers will help you to find accommodation nearby the venue and also arrange sightseeing tour on demand with the payment.


Guidelines for Abstracts
All participants are required to submit a written abstract in .doc/x or upload the abstract on the GRFDT website www.grfdt.com(link will be given shortly)
Format: 1 inch margin, 1.5 line spacing, Times New Roman, 12 font
File name: YOURNAME_INSTITUTION
The document must contain; a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 5 keywords.

All abstracts will be peer reviewed and selected candidates will be invited for presentation. Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). If you do not receive a reply from us in a week please send a query


Abstracts or requests for further information should be sent to: internationalconference@grfdt.com
Kindly mention the major theme area on the top of the abstract
For more details, please visit our website: www.grfdt.com

Publication:
All the papers will be peer reviewed and published in book by reputed publishers as well as in “Migration and Diaspora: An Interdisciplinary Journal” and GRFDT Research Monograph Series.
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Time and Place:
Date: Saturday, Nov 14, 2020
Venue: New Delhi
Address: New Delhi



Tuesday, October 29, 2019

CFP: Issues in Diversity and Difference for Inclusive Education-Panjab University. December 02– 07, 2019.

Issues in Diversity and Difference for
Inclusive Education

December 02– 07, 2019.
Punjab University.












Overview
The uniqueness of India lies in its diversity. It is revealed through language, religion, caste, gender, community, social group, economic status, literacy level, ability levels, levels of health, professions and geographical terrain. This diversity brings many differences among people and their level of aspirations which pose challenge for democracy. This course will deal with issues in the theory and practice of education in diverse societies. Theory explains relationships – between knowledge and power, education and society, the educational performance of students/ their life chances and their cultural differences. Practice shows how the process of schooling signifies and represents the relationship. Theory and practice reveal the politics of difference because schooling involves the relationship between cultural visions and differential power. Traditionally, the world view of the dominant group has been taken to be legitimate knowledge and as representing the situation of all citizens. The very consciousness, history, and experiences resulting from differences – in terms of gender, religion, ethnicity, language, class and caste – are not only ignored as knowledge, but demeaned as inferior or inappropriate in comparison to the legitimized
traditional knowledge transmitted through education. Conventional knowledge portrays a particular world or paradigm and epistemology. 

The theoretical challenge to traditional knowledge and meaning in the social sciences by post-modern, postcolonial theories, and the progressive trend in education to include the history, lived experiences, and consciousness of those who are different from the traditionally dominant group represents a paradigm shift. Human rights and social justice issues, sustainable development and peace education are increasingly important. The course will discuss the significance and implications of this paradigm shift as it relates to education. 

It will attempt to narrow the gap between the dramatic theoretical developments in the social sciences, and concept of inclusive education. In sketching the ground for such a project, this course will explore how conceptions of ‘difference’ and ‘knowledge’ converge, and suggest a restructured vision of inclusive education as an important site for cultural transformation.
















Modules 
Module A: Diversity and Differences in Indian Society
Module B:Inclusive Education and Social Justice
December 02– 07, 2019
Number of participants for the course will be limited to fifty.
You Should Attend If… 
o Academic Leaders and Faculty in University, colleges
o School teachers and Educational Managers
o Research Scholars in the field of Social Sciences, Education, Law, Human Rights
o Faculty and students in Research Institutions engaged in research in related fields

Fees The participation fees for taking the course is as follows:
Participants from abroad : US $300
Industry/Research Organization: Rs 5000
Academic Institutions: Rs 2500
The above fee includes all instructional materials and assignments, laboratory equipment usage charges, 24 hr free internet facility. The participants will be provided with accommodation on payment basis.










Visiting Faculty
 Prof. Ratna Ghosh is Distinguished James McGill Professor and William C. Macdonald Professor of Education at McGill University, Canada, where she was Dean of Education. Her many publications and her prestigious research grants and teaching,
reflect her varied research interests in comparative and international development education: especially on inclusive education and social justice issues. She has received several awards from national and international organizations and was featured in TimeMagazine, Canadian Edition (2003), in an article on “Canada’s Best in Education”. She has held important leadership positions which include President of the Comparative and International Education Society of the US, and President of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. She sits on the editorial board of several international journals and was on the Board of the  Canadian Human Rights Foundation. A Fellow of Canada’s National AcademyThe Royal Society of Canada, she is also a Fellow of TWAS, The World Academy of Sciences - for the advancement of science in developing countries, and a Full Member of the European Academy of Arts, Letters and Sciences. She was decorated as a Member of the Order of Canada (CM),an Officier, L’ Ordre national du Québec (OQ) and Officer of the Order of Montreal. 













Prof Nandita Singh is a post graduate in Chemistry and Education. After completing Doctorate in Value Education on University fellowship she devoted 30 years to teaching, research and extension activities. During this time she headed the department and contributed to the reforms taking place in teacher education by participating in National committees and commissions. As coordinator of Centre for Swami Vivekananda Studies she organized special self development courses for faculty, research scholars and students across disciplines. She also headed the Institute of Educational Technology and vocational education and served as Dean Students welfare in Panjab University. Currently she is holding the position of Dean International Students. Her interest in human rights and children rights is reflected through her writings and the researches she guided. 

Dr. Latika Sharma is Professor and Chairperson in Department of Education Panjab University Chandigarh. Her PhD is in Adult, Continuing education and Extension through universities. She has guided research in psycho social correlates of education, innovative methods of teaching and teacher education. Twelve scholars supervised by her have been awarded PhD degree. She has been invited to national bodies like NCTE, NIEPA, MGNCRE for contributing in development of curriculum..











Course Co-ordinators
Prof. Nandita Singh
Phone: 00919815913327
E-mail: drnandita04@gmail.com,
    drnandita@rediffmail.com, nandita@pu.ac.in
Prof. Latika Sharma
Phone: 9988171707
E-mail: lspuchd@gmail.com
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http://www.gian.iitkgp.ac.in/GREGN