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Saturday, November 4, 2023

Call for Papers: Narratives of Land: Place, Space, and Human Identity- January 2024















The land is always stalking people. The land makes people live right. The land looks after us. The land looks after people.

– Mrs Annie Peaches, a 77-year-old member of the Western Apache community of Cibecue (Basso 2000: 41)


A narrative is an orally or verbally disseminated account that captures events, attaches meanings to them, and configures the world around us. So, when we propose “Narratives of Land”, the first query that confronts us is – is it at all possible for a land to speak or communicate? Does land possess any agential faculty to affect us? Is a land always mute or it speaks through its materiality?
There is a sense of co-existential and affective interconnectivity between land and humans regarding our empirical perceptions of it. These multi-sensorial faculties shape or orient human identities, our perceptions, and our sociocultural lifeworlds and also redefine the land itself. David Manuel Navarrete and Michael Redclift, in “The Role of Place in the Margins of Space” have talked of the “human dimension of spatiality” (3). In their theorization, place or land is not static or an inert actor instead it is a living entity with a degree of dynamism, fluidity, and changeability. The materialities of any place confer a sense of belongingness, and rootedness to its people.
South Asia is a colonial cartographic construct that has its own regional diversities, histories, and memories. South Asia is a space where the interaction or ‘intra-action’ between land and human has long been the crux for critical inquiry. Land as a geographical entity has long been discussed by geographers, historians, geologists, ecologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and so on. It has also been the subject of poets, novelists, and also literary critics for many generations. So, to talk about land is to dive into the ocean of multiplicity where there is no terminal point rather any juncture here is a point of departure. The human mind as an isolated entity distinct from its environment since, in the words of Robert Pepperell “a human cannot be separated from its supportive environment … it seems the human is a ‘fuzzy edged’ entity that is profoundly dependent into its surroundings, much as the brain is dependent on the body” (Pepperell 20).



Every human being has their own way of communicating with the land. A diasporic subject often sees the land as not only a physical entity but a ‘topophilic bond’ that transcends the physicality of land. Yi Fu Tuan has used the term “topophilia” (1990) to suggest a sense of attachment or a feeling-link between people and place. Land can be seen as an open ground of action, being and becoming. A land can be a political construct as well. During the partition of India land becomes a defining category of human existence. The sense of belonging to a land informs one’s social, political, and cultural identity. Even, in this age of Anthropocene and Capitalocene, the mutilation and commodification of South Asia has been interrogated by different environmental theorists. Even a post-apocalyptic or a post-war land also speaks a different narrative which is yet to be heard. All these implications can be made to subscribe to the idea of indigeneity.

The conference intends to engage with these multiple concerns emerging out of the land of South Asia. The conference is going to be an interdisciplinary space for scholars of all disciplines to showcase indigeneity contained within the narratives of the land. So, to convey thoughts in language, the conference is ready to set an epistemic dialogue with the land and bring forth an alternative domain of critical explorations.

Abstracts are invited but not limited to the following sub topics/themes:


· Environmental Studies
· Diaspora
· Border Studies
· Human Geography
· Posthuman Studies
· Narratives of War
· Space/Place
· Migration
· Indigenous Epistemes




Abstract Submission: On or before 16th November, 2023
Acceptance of abstract: By 30th November, 2023
Full paper submission: On or before 3rd January, 2024



Seminar dates: 10 th and 11 th January 2024

Seminar will in-person but owing to enough overseas candidates, we'll try to arrange an online session if/when necessary


Send your abstracts to narrativesofland@gmail.com
For further details contract narrativesofland@gmail.com


Send in abstracts of around 300 words along with a bio note of 150 words to the above mail id.
Registration details will be communicated in due course.

Call for Papers Adaptation: Literature, Film, and Culture (Deadline Extended) -February 21-24, 2024

 Proposal submission deadline: Extended to November 14, 2023

Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 45th annual SWPACA conference. One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels. 

The Adaptation: Literature, Film, and Culture area invites you to submit proposals for presentations that critically engage with the subject of adaptation. While the term “adaptation” most commonly refers to a film based upon or inspired by a novel (or the process of developing such a film), proposals for adaptations involving other media as source texts or final products are also welcome (for example, adaptations that involve art, theater, music, dance, television shows, video games, photographs, or comic books). Topics for paper proposals include, but are not limited to:

· adaptations of classic works.                                
· the process of adaptation.
· contemporary adaptations.                                 
· ethics of adaptation.
· theories of adaptation.                                            
· adaptation and audience engagement.
· source texts with multiple adaptations.               
· adaptation and aesthetics
· adaptations and the film industry.                       
· cross-cultural adaptations. 
· representations of culture in adaptations.          
· adaptations across generations.

All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at http://register.southwestpca.org/southwestpca

For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Proposal Submission FAQs and Tips page at http://southwestpca.org/conference/faqs-and-tips/

Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. Including a brief bio in the body of the proposal form is encouraged, but not required.  

For information on how to submit a proposal for a roundtable or a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs and Tips page.

Contact Information

Amy S. Fatzinger, Ph.D.

Contact Email
fatzinge@email.arizona.edu

Friday, November 3, 2023

Call for Papers: #Folklore and Popular Culture Area -March 2024








The Folklore Area of the Popular Culture Association is currently inviting proposals for the 2024 Popular Culture Association Conference. They are interested in organizing sessions, special panels, and individual papers centered around Folklore Studies. These sessions usually have a duration of 1½ hours and typically feature four papers. Each presentation should be limited to 15 minutes.

The call for proposals is open to various topics related to folklore studies, and they encourage a broad range of ideas. Some possible themes include Folklore in Popular Culture, Folklore and its presence in digital media, the impact of folklore on different cultural forms such as literature, film, and music, as well as exploring the connections between folklore and areas like religion, material culture, gender, children, memory studies, and global, regional, or local influences.

They also welcome proposals discussing the relationship between folklore and other academic fields like fairy tale studies, literary studies, and anthropology.

Themes:
  • Folklore in Popular Culture/Folklore as Popular Culture
  • Folklore and digital media
  • Influence of folklore on other forms of culture (literature, film, music, etc.)
  • Folklore and Religion
  • Folklore and Material Culture
  • The difference between oral and literary sources of tradition
  • Folklore and Gender
  • Folklore and children
  • Uses of folklore
  • Folklore and Globalism/Regionalism/Localism
  • Illustrators/Illustrations of and in folklore
  • Folklore and memory/memory studies
  • Symbolism in folklore
  • The relationship between folklore and fairy tale studies/literary studies/anthropology



It's important to note that the Folklore Area does not accept proposals from undergraduate students.

To submit an individual paper, you should provide a title and a 100-word abstract. Please make sure to adhere to the submission guidelines provided by the PCA, which can be found at this link: https://pcaaca.org/page/submissionguidelines.

The conference itself is scheduled for March 27-30, 2024, and it will take place in Chicago, Illinois at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile.

For any inquiries or questions, you can reach out to Kathryn Edney, who serves as the Associate Provost at Regis College, via email at kathryn.edney@regiscollege.edu.

Contact Email
kathryn.edney@regiscollege.edu

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Call for Papers: Academic Conference on Terminator @40: Origins and Legacies

 An academic conference hosted by The Centre for Film, Television and Screen Studies, Bangor University, Wales 

18 & 19 June 2024 

The Terminator franchise has left an indelible mark on popular culture. In 1984, James Cameron’s dark vision of the future created a cultural shock that continues to resonate to this day not only in cinema but also in literature, art, design, gaming, and critical theory and is even credited with having spawned several aesthetic trends, such as tech-noir. What started as a film has now become a multi-media universe consisting of sequels, a television series, web series, comics, video games, board games, novels and theme park rides. The franchise is also frequently cited in debates related to multinational corporations, robotics, biopolitics, post- and transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and nuclear apocalypse. 

Hosted by the Centre for Film, Television and Screen Studies at Bangor University in North Wales, this symposium proposes to bring together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds – such as cultural and screen studies; the history of art, design, fashion and architecture; musicology; philosophy; political sciences; computer science and robotics; literature; urban and ecological studies; and race, gender, queer and sexuality studies - to explore The Terminator forty years after its release, explore its origins and legacies and consider its position within wider visual culture.  

We welcome contributions from any perspective such as (but not limited to) the following: 

Terminator and its origins, influences, production, publicity, reception and afterlife 

Terminator and aesthetics  

Terminator and biopolitics, posthumanism and urban planning. 

Terminator and capitalism, neoliberalism, post-industrialism and multinational corporations 

Terminator and design 

Terminator and ecological studies 

Terminator and fandom and ‘cult’ 

Terminator and gender 

Terminator and James Cameron 

Terminator’s multi-media franchise (sequels, television, web series, comic books, video games, board games, novels and theme park rides) 

Terminator and psychoanalysis 

Terminator and race, ethnicity and/or the “Other” 

Terminator and robotics, artificial intelligence, cybernetic organisms, the transhuman and post-human 

Terminator and sci-fi 

Terminator and sexuality 

Terminator and stardom 

Terminator and tech noir, retrofuturism, future noir, and cyberpunk.  

 

We are applying for funding to facilitate postgraduate and unwaged participation. 

 

Please submit an abstract here by 1 March 2024.  

 

For further information, please contact the organisers Professor Nathan Abrams (Bangor University) and Dr Elizabeth Miller (Bangor University) at TerminatorConference@gmail.com 

 

Best,

Contact Email
TerminatorConference@gmail.com

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

INTERNATIONAL #CONFERENCE ON #MEMORY #STUDIES -DEPARTMENTS OF ENGLISH AND HISTORY LORETO COLLEGE, #KOLKATA- February, 2024)

 






CONCEPT NOTE:

Memory studies is a multidisciplinary field which combines intellectual strands from literature, history, philosophy, psychology and sociology, among others. Henri Bergson’s Matter and Memory (1896), Paul RicÅ“ur’s Memory, History and Forgetting (2004), French historian Pierre Nora’s Realms of Memory (1996) and Jacques Le Goff’s History and Memory (1992) have inspired much research in the area of memory studies. Memory can be both an individual phenomenon as well as societal and collective. Forms of remembering operate as individual and collective representations of the past and they constitute a range of cultural resources for personal, social and historical identities, privileging particular readings of the past and subordinating others. Collective memory can serve as a therapeutic practice for a community and its members, as it comprises an active constructive process during which the members of a community participate in interpreting and processing shared past experiences (particularly traumas) into eventual memory representations, often in such forms as narratives, dramatizations, art, and ritual. Literature thus forms an important medium of cultural memory. The mass media plays a key role in the constitution of memory – and the politics of remembering is intrinsically connected to power.  The act of remembering, whether involving individual, socio-historical or cultural representations of the past, is a process which involves selections, absences and multiple, potentially conflicting accounts. Memories are part of a larger process of dynamic cultural negotiation involving history and literature, which defines memories as narratives, and as fluid and mediated cultural and personal traces of the past. In the modern world, then, memory is an important means of establishing authority or destabilising grand narratives of history and power, of evoking nostalgia and helping to forge personal and national identity.

The conference will seek to address issues such as the following:

How do we represent the past to ourselves and to others? Which of our many pasts do we represent, and when, where, and why do we change those representations? How do those representations shape our actions, identities, and understandings? How do individual-level processes interact with collective ones, and vice versa? What does it mean to think about “memory” in these broad ways? In what ways are we ethically and politically obligated to remember, and what are the consequences of forgetting or failing to meet these obligations?

Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Stef Craps (University of Ghent, Belgium)

Dr. Abhishek Parui (IIT Madras)

Special Plenary Sessions:

Dr. Itay Lotem (University of Westminster, London)

Ms. Roberta Bacic (Founder of Conflict Textiles, Northern Ireland)

We invite paper submissions of 15-20 minutes duration from scholars whose work addresses topics including, but not limited to the following fields:

  • Memory and oral history
  • Contested histories and memory
  • Memory, memorials, the visual arts, archives, installations
  • Landscape and memory
  • Memory and trauma (slavery, Partition, World Wars, Holocaust, Irish conflict, genocide, apartheid, 9/11, pandemic etc)
  • Literature and nostalgia
  • Memory and the diaspora
  • Memory and the Media
  • Collective Memory
  • Cultural Memory

 

To submit a proposal, please send abstracts to conferencememorystudies@gmail.com 

Please include the following in one PDF:


• Paper title
• Paper abstract (250-word maximum)
• CV with your full name, institutional affiliation (if applicable), title, and email address

 

Paper presenters will be informed by 15 November, 2023.

 

Conference Convenor: Sukanya Dasgupta

Co-Convenor: Suparna Ghosh

Head of the Organizing Committee: Srijita Chakravarty

 

Following the conference, a selection of papers will be chosen by the organizers for inclusion in a proposed edited volume. 

Decolonial Dialogues: An International Colloquium in Literature, Linguistics and Education

 Dates: June 27-29, 2024

Despite the decolonization processes of the twentieth century, minds, institutions and knowledge practices around the globe continue to be shackled by colonial logic. “Decoloniality” identifies and engages with ongoing patterns of coloniality. It unlocks new institutional, pedagogical, curricular and interdisciplinary avenues. Beyond the implementation of inclusion and reparation measures, it inspires radical new ways of being and thinking. “Decolonial Dialogues” provides a space of encounter between multiple perspectives. We are interested in how “decoloniality” pertains to both research and lived experience, as it exists in different regions of the world, and as it is constantly reinvented in the entwined fields of literature, linguistics and education.

Within this framework, the decolonization of knowledges and the decentering of thought processes are not only deconstructive endeavors, but also founts of renewed approaches to languages and cultures. How might we renew knowledge by dismantling the ideological constructs rooted in a prevailing coloniality? What new critical toolkits and conceptual frameworks allow us to trace contemporary evolutions in thought? Ultimately, how might these interrogations enable the (re)evaluation of identities from cultural and intellectual perspectives?

In addition to academic panels, this colloquium will include an "unconference” day and several outings and activities in order to foster connections beyond the confines of traditional academic structures.

Contributions may be in English or French, and may include theoretical, practical and experiential perspectives, as well as critical analysis. Presentations will be organized around the following three clusters below and the (non-exhaustive) list of proposed topics:

Decolonial approaches to literatures
- Rethinking postcolonial and decolonial identities
- Postcolonial poetics
- Deconstructing imaginaries and knowledge
- Representations of Indianness, Creolity and Chineseness
- Feminism in postcolonial and decolonial theories
- Migration and diaspora literature
- Indigenous literatures

Linguistic decolonization
Language planning policies
- Ideologies and language and cultural planning
- Language revitalization
- Decolonization of language programs courses
- Role of ancestral languages
- Translation in the era of decolonization

Decolonization of knowledge & curriculum
Decolonizing mental spaces in a postcolonial contexts
- Principles and practices of equity, diversity and inclusion in academia
- Unlearning and relearning processes
- Cultural studies and historical approaches Cultural sites of independence and decolonization Role of individuals and institutions in cultural practices

KEY DATES

November 30, 2023: 

Abstract submission deadline. 200-300 words in English or French via this link (https://forms.gle/Jhx8cq9bssWHRPEGA). For any questions, please contact nikhita.obeegadoo@ubc.ca

December 10, 2023: Notification of acceptance

February 15, 2024: Tentative program

June 27-29, 2024: In-person conference (no virtual attendance permitted)

Organizing Committee

Dr. Nikhita Obeegadoo, University of British Columbia
Dr. Patricia Lee Men Chin, Dalhousie University
Dr. Kumari Issur, University of Mauritius

Collaborators

Dr. Yvette Marie-Edmée Abouga, Unviersity of Yaoundé I
Dr. Sushma Dusowoth, University of Hearst
Dr. Evelyn Kee Mew Wan Khin, Mauritius Institute of Education
Dr. Karen Ragoonaden, University of British Columbia
Dr. Ritu Tyagi, Pondicherry University

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