Calls for papers – Conferences taking place in December 2020

Play, Masks and Make-believe: Ritual Representations
Cambridge, UK, 5 December 2020
Deadline for proposals: 10 June 2020

organised by London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research

Through the centuries, humans have often shaped their social life by fictional moments and by taking part in fictional events: carnivals, representations, role plays, society plays, structured and semi-structured collective and singular moments where strictly coded contexts organize specific worlds and cultural dimensions. Play, in its wide acception and in its nature of artificial and coded mechanism, reflects historically the symbolic work by which human societies have elaborated, explained and organized the world. Play, fiction, representation and human performance are crucial moments in which categories such as reckoning, planning, ability, strategy, but also turbolence, improvisation, discard and change, are concerned. By organizing fictional moments, plays, rituals and collective experiences, humans bet on the meaning of their social groups. In play and representation, as liminal moments, social groups define relationships, roles, functions and identities. Inside representational and fictional performances, ‘normal’ time is suspended and a new space of experience is defined. Liminal situations produce the possibility of changes, of new and different symbolic experiences.

By exploring the nature of play and of fictional moments of representation, this conference aims to shape a deeper look into different aspects of an anthropology of performance. A focus will be put on how different discourses, disciplines and art forms interact in the definition of a dynamics of social representations where human experience can be analyzed and discussed.

Proposals are welcome from different research fields such as Literary Studies, Film Studies, History of Theatre, Psychoanalys, Anthropology, Art History, Philosophy, Historiography and Sociology.

Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

  • Theatre, historical perspectives on representation, representations in time
  • Carnival
  • Rituals of remembrance as social representations
  • Ritual forms of representation
  • Art forms as social moments of rituality
  • Masks and masquerades
  • Cultural history of representation
  • Anthropology of experience
  • Time, rituality and representation
  • Rituals and collectivity
  • Sacred representations
  • Representation in society, representation as a social act
  • Anthropology of performance: meaning and social aspects of representation
  • Symbolic meanings in representations

Paper proposals up to 250 words and a brief biographical note should be sent by 10 June 2020 to: masks@lcir.co.uk. Please download paper proposal form.

Provisional conference venue: Lucy Cavendish College – University of Cambridge, Lady Margaret Road, Cambridge CB3 0BU, UK

(posted 10 February 2020)


International  Humanities Congress
İzmir Democracy University, Turkey, 7-9 December 2020
Deadline for absstract submission: 23 October 2020

Dear Participants, International Humanities Congress will be held online by İzmir Democracy University, Faculty of Science and Letters between 7-9 December 2020. The Congress aims to provide a platform for exchanging ideas among distinguished international presenters.The Congress covers such various research fields as anthropology, archeology, translation studies, geography, linguistics, literature, philosophy, fine arts, folklore, psychology, history of art, sociology, history and interdisciplinary studies.For this purpose, we are glad to invite distinguished academics to our Congress. The papers presented in this Congress will be published in the online proceedings book or as a book chapter within the year of 2020.As İzmir Democracy University, Faculty of Science and Letters, we are looking forward to meeting you at the International Humanities Congress in December 2020.Best Regards,Congress PresidentProf. Dr. Bedriye TUNÇSİPERandOrganizing Committee.

Download the Conference Poster.

Important Dates

  • Abstract submission deadline: October 23, 2020
  • Abstract submission deadline: November 2, 2020
  • Deadline for registration: November 9, 2020
  • Submission of full papers: December 1, 2020
  • Announcement of the Congress Program: December 1, 2020
  • Congress Dates: December 7-9, 2020

(posted 1 Decmber 2020)


Frontier(s) and Frontier-zone(s) in the English-speaking world
Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France, 10-11 December 2020
New extended deadline for proposals: 25 March 2020

It may be argued that any frontier is the expression of what is discontinuous, of the existence of an ‘inside’ and of an ‘outside’, in short, that a frontier is an attempt to keep the ‘other’ at bay, whatever the meaning of the term – a given geographical territory, or a specific political entity, or a different culture, or else all of these put together. These considerations are in tune with the etymological origin of the word ‘frontier’ itself, i.e. anything that helps a group of people ‘develop a united front’. Examples abound, from the so-called ‘natural’ frontier of this or that country to Brexit, to the wall that President Trump has set out to build between his own country and Mexico.  At this stage, however, a number of questions arise: * if we are therefore dealing with static, depthless lines, why can they be crossed, as each and everybody knows from experience, through connecting zones of a sort (e.g. airports, which are sometimes referred to, for that very reason in fact, as ‘free zones’)? Besides, for some, the frontier has actually become an in-between universe, i.e. nothing less than a dwelling place (cf. the ‘Calais Jungle’).  * above all, why is it that the word is used in a high number of contexts and narratives in which the very notion of territory also needs to be understood (primarily) in a figurative sense? One, indeed, talks about – to give just a few examples – ‘religious’, ‘linguistic’, ‘internal’ frontiers, ‘frontiers between rich and poor’ and ‘between political parties’.  Better still, if there exists a whole array of frontiers in connection – as just seen – with realities so diverse as citizenship, territory, religion, language, and so on, how could they possibly always overlap? And what lessons may we draw from this? Put differently, if frontiers do not match, don’t they then inevitably foster hybridity, a description that hardly goes with the notion of ‘developing a united front’, which necessarily presupposes confrontation?

It would be greatly appreciated if conference contributors could address all those issues from the various perspectives related to the fields of study dealing with the English-speaking world, from literature to the arts (e.g. the similarities and differences between literary genres, or art as a means of exclusion or integration), to linguistics (e.g. the dialects of English – professional, generational, etc., or national and regional accents), to civilisation studies (e.g. the frontier myth in the USA or the well-known peace walls that characterise many urban districts in Northern Ireland from Belfast to Derry/Londonderry).

Bibliographical references

  • BARTH Frederik (ed.), Ethnic Groups and Boundaries – The Social Organization of Cultural Difference, Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1969, 153 p.
  • BIRNBAUM Jean, Repousser les frontières ?, Paris : Gallimard, 2014, 232 p.
  • DEBRAY Régis, Eloge des frontières, Paris : Gallimard, 2010, 87 p.
  • DORLING Danny, So You Think You Know About Britain?, London: Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2011, 320 p.
  • FOUCHER Michel, L’invention des frontières, Paris : Fondation pour les études de défense nationale, 1986, 320p. ; L’obsession des frontières, Paris : Perrin, 2007, 249 p. ; Le retour des frontières, Paris : CNRS Editions, 2016, 64 p.
  • STIGLITZ Joseph E., Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy: An Agenda for Growth and Shared Prosperity, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, 256 p.
  • WACKERMANN Gabriel, Les frontières dans un monde en mouvement, Paris : Eds. Ellipses, 2003, 159 p.

Submission proposal
AS REQUESTED BY A NUMBER OF COLLEAGUES AND OWING TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES, THE DEADLINE FOR THE CONFERENCE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 25. Abstracts not exceeding 400 words should be sent no later than March 25, 2020  to Ruxandra Pavelchievici ruxandra.pavelchievici@univ-cotedazur.fr and Didier Revest didier.revest@univ-cotedazur.fr Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent by April 1st, 2020.

Publication of proceedings
A selection of papers will be published in 2021 as conference proceedings in a special issue of Cycnos.

Registration 
Registration no later than November 25 November by e-mail to Ruxandra Pavelchievici <ruxandra.pavelchievici@univ-cotedazur.fr>  and Didier Revest <didier.revest@univ-cotedazur.fr> Free upon presentation of UCA faculty/ student ID and for non-funded PhD candidates. Non-UCA faculty and funded PhD candidates: 5€

Organising committee
Ruxandra Pavelchievici (Université Côte d’Azur) and Didier Revest (Université Côte d’Azur)

Scientific committee
Vanessa Guignery (École normale supérieure de Lyon), Christian Gutleben (Université Côte d’Azur), Isabelle Licari-Guillaume (Université Côte d’Azur), Ruxandra Pavelchievici (Université Côte d’Azur), Didier Revest (Université Côte d’Azur), Nicolas Trapateau (Université Côte d’Azur), Christine Zumello (Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle)

(posted 17 January 2020, updated 19 March 2020)


MemWar: Memory and oblivion of twentieth-century wars and trauma
Genoa, Italy, 10-11 December 2020
Deadline for proposals: 31 May 2020

The twenty-fist century emerges from the troubled history of the twentieth century, with its world wars and its conflicts on a European scale, such as the Spanish Civil War. This conference, organised by the research group “MemWar. Memory and oblivion of twentieth-century wars and trauma” (Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Genoa), aims to look at how the memory of these conflicts is handed down in the twenty-first century, how it is represented, which are the blind spots and/or obscure points in this process – also from a critical perspective (Ricoeur, 2003) − and how power relations between official discourse and counter-discourse are developed.

To this end, the conference will focus on the following topics:

  • Policies of memory and social representations of trauma in the twentieth century

This section will look at social representations of memory in different national contexts. Attention will be paid to the memorial policies adopted by individual European countries (commemorative events, public speeches), to products addressed to significant shares of the European population, such as tourist guides (particularly those devoted explicitely to lieux de mémoire, according to the definition by Pierre Nora, 1984) and to the discourse of traditional − e.g. the press (Ledoux, 2016) and television − and non-traditional media – e.g. social networks. How is official discourse of memory articulated by the different policies pursued by individual European States? Which representations of twentieth century trauma are conveyed by national media? How do official discourse and public speeches interact?

  • Transmission of memory and memorial artistic production

This section will deal with literary and theatrical forms, as well as with architecture, sculpture, visual arts and entertainment directly committed to the trasmission of history (monuments, museums, memorials) or eliciting strong and possibly innovative reflection on these topics (including, but not limited to, counter-monuments, installations in public spaces, art performances).

Particular attention will be paid to non-canonical forms, such as transmedia objects, contaminations, comic books with a strong emotional impact on readers.

How do these artistic productions contribute to the diffusion of discourse on memory? Which memory transmission strategies characterise artistic production? What impact does artistic production have on European policies on memory and, conversely, how much and in which forms is artistic expression determined by the policies adopted by the different countries?

  • Educational tools

The centenary of World War I has led to a proliferation of educational projects on memory all over Europe. A significant example is the French portal “Mission Centenaire 14-18”, aiming to collect and showcase the numerous educational projects on WWI realised in French schools.

This section will include a reflection on good practices and on sample educational projects and tools both in formal and informal (associations, media, etc.) environments, and will offer an opportunity for comparison of such practices in the different countries involved.

The different topics dealt with will allow us to examine how discourses on memory are circulated in Europe, the constitutive dimensions of these discourses, as well as the different national contexts in their specificity. Proposals looking at practical case studies, based on well-defined corpora and with a clear methodological framework are particularly welcome.

Conference languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish, German.

Important dates

  • 31st May 2020: submission of proposals (500 words, including references) MemWar.unige.2020@gmail.com
  • 15th June 2020: notification of acceptance
  • 30th June 2020: confirmation of participation for presenters

Scientific Committee

Elisa Bricco, Alessia Cassani, Roberto Francavilla, Marie Gaboriaud, Anna Giaufret, Joachim Gerdes, Simona Leonardi, Michele Porciello, Laura Quercioli Mincer, Ilaria Rizzato, Micaela Rossi, Marco Succio, Stefano Vicari

Organising Committee

Anna Giaufret, Luca Ciotoli, Laura Quercioli, Stefano Vicari, Marie Gaboriaud

(posted 2 April 2020)


After Postmodernism: American Studies in the 21st Century
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, 17-19 December 2020
Extended deadline for proposal submission: 6 March 2020

The Department of English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, 17-19 December 2020 in collaboration with the Hellenic Association of American Studies (HELAAS) invites you to participate in this international conference.

There is a shared sense among a large majority of historians, philosophers, critics and artists that we are now living in a new global moment:  our contemporary era may or may not have started with the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989; may or may not have established itself in the wake of the 9/11 attacks; but it is painfully clear that, in the new millennium, a new debate on the “post-postmodern” has opened up. If the Jamesonian taxonomy no longer has the same explanatory power, what is the new dominant cultural logic of post-postmodernism? If, to quote Jameson again, postmodernism was a “radical break or coupure” with modernism, which is post-postmodernism’s cultural imaginary, its strategies and features? However early it may be to describe the nature of post-postmodernism, we can discern three loosely bounded interpenetrating strands: some scholars recognize a heightened degree of intensity and mutation of tendencies and techniques already present in postmodernism, others see a renewed engagement with history and a return to realism. Still, there are those thinkers who have observed a decisive break with the postmodern period and have struggled to mark its contours in the new socioeconomic order, a notable feature of which is the shift or questioning of the paradigm of the American global hegemony. Nevertheless, complicating the study of the cultural shifts that are underway in our current condition is the abundance of terms and tendencies that proclaim to be postmodernism’s successors.

The conference “After post-modernism: American Studies in the 21st century” takes as a point of departure the words of Ben Lerner’s narrator, that “the world [is] rearranging itself” (10.04) and invites both panels and papers that address fresh and original questions relevant to studying the post-postmodern condition. It seeks to investigate questions about changing literary patterns, innovative/shifting cultural practices, and new trends that have risen in the first two decades of the twenty-first century or, to put it simply, what comes after postmodernism.

Possible topics could cover

  • The post-nationalist turn in American Studies
  • American Literature and the posthuman turn
  • Aspects of autofiction in contemporary art, literature and popular culture
  • New literacies and American fiction
  • New Media literacy and authorial practices
  • Post-exceptionalist American fiction
  • Deterritorialization and American migrant literature
  • American literature and Ecoglobalist presences
  • Post theory and the ‘novelizations’ of literary theory
  • Writership/readership in the post-postmodern

Please send 300-word abstracts to Dr. Dora Tsimpouki (tsimpouki@enl.uoa.gr), along with a short (150-word) biographical note by our NEW extended deadline for abstracts: 6 March 2020.

(posted 26 January 2020)


Visuel Literacy and Digital Communication: the role of meda in new educational practice (VILDIC’20)
Madrid, Spain (Virtual venue), 18-19 December 2020
New extended deadline for absract proposals: 15 November 2020

Date: 18-Dec-2020 – 19-Dec-2020
Location: MADRID, Spain (Virtual venue)
Contact Person: Elena Dominguez Romero
Meeting Email: vildic20@ucm.es
Web Site: https://eventos.ucm.es/53810/detail/international-conference-on-visual-literacy-and-digital-communication_-the-role-of-media-in-new-edu.html
Linguistic Field(s): Foreign language teaching and learning methodology

Call Deadline: 15-Nov-2020

Meeting Description:

The International Conference on Visual Literacy and Communication (VILDIC’20) welcomes expert researchers and scholars from across the world to meet for a premier online conference experience. Scholars and educators will engage in professional development and explore a wide range of topics relevant to audio-visual culture and language teaching.

VILDIC’20 aims at providing a forum for researchers, teachers and educational representatives to share their knowledge and promote creativity and innovation in the area of visual literacy and digital communication. VILDIC’20 topics include (but are not limited to):

  • visual literacy
  • digital literacy
  • media literacy
  • audiovisual culture
  • film, television and video
  • new video formats: creation and production
  • screens: Netflix generation
  • videos and accessibility
  • transmedia
  • multimedia production
  • copywright’ and ‘fair use’ for language teaching with media
  • educational media
  • teaching materials
  • new evaluation models

Guidelines for Submission:

Please submit an anonymous copy of your abstract (max. 300 words, excluding references), in Word or PDF format, via email to: vildic20@ucm.es Please include paper title, name, affiliation, email address and any other contact details in the body of the e-mail message. Participants may submit a maximum of two abstracts, that is, no more than one single-authored paper and one joint-authored paper, or two joint-authored papers. All abstracts will be double blind peer-reviewed. Paper presentations will be allocated 20 minutes, plus 10 minutes for questions and discussion.

Participants can send their contributions in English, Spanish and French.

Conference Publication: The studies presented at the conference will be selected for publication by an international publishing house as book chapters in an edited book. We will send you the related publishing guideline after the conference.Submission Deadlines:
Proposals should be sent by email to: vildic20@ucm.es
Deadline for Abstract proposals: 15 November 2020
Notification of acceptance: 1 December 2020

(posted 12 October 2020, updated 9 November 2020)