Call for Papers

Counterpoints: Edward Said's Legacy

Deadline: July 15, 2008
Conference Date: October 31-Novermber 1, 2008
University of Ottawa

This bilingual English/French colloquium celebrates the works of one of the world’s most compelling intellectuals, the Palestinian-American thinker Edward Said (November 1st 1935- September 23rd 2003), author of Orientalism, Culture and Imperialism, and Out of Place among other famous books. The colloquium revolves around the theme of “Counterpoint,” extensively used by Said as the interplay of diverse ideas and various “discrepant” cultural experiences.

As Said writes in Culture and Imperialism: "As we look back at the cultural archive, we begin to reread it not univocally but contrapuntally, with a simultaneous awareness both of the metropolitan history that is narrated and of those other histories against which (and together with which) the dominating discourse acts.”

Following Said’s legacy this colloquium envisions a polyphonic, interdisciplinary engagement from fields as broad as comparative literature, sociology, anthropology, history, postcolonial studies, Diaspora studies, musicology, and political science with a special focus on Middle Eastern politics.

The organizers seek papers/ panel proposals drawing from or expanding on the following themes:

• Colonialism and Imperialism: A Middle Eastern Context
• Transnationalism and Reflections on Exile
• Overlapping Territories and Imaginative Geographies
• Language, History and the Production of Knowledge
• The Arab World: States, Territories and Refugees.
• Gender, Class and Orientalism
• Criticism and French Philosophy
• Otherness in the Arts
• Representations of the Secular
• Power, Politics and Truth

Please send a 200 word abstract of paper/panel proposals to counterpoints.conference@gmail.com

Deadline for paper/panel submission: July 15th, 2008

For more information please contact: may.telmissany@uottawa.ca or nahla_abdo@carleton.ca

Organizing committee:

Dr. May Telmissany. Assistant Professor, Arabic Studies
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Ottawa Dr. Nahla Abdo. Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University.
Stephanie Tara Schwartz
Department of Religious Studies, University of Ottawa
Darryl Leroux
Department of Sociology, Carleton University
Erica See
Department of Law, University of Ottawa

Posted: May 28, 2008.



The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe

Deadline: July 31, 2008.
Conference Date: September 10-12, 2008.
United Kingdom

The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe: Twenty Years On Conference dates: Thursday 10 to Saturday 12 September 2009 at Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.
Organisers: Dr Kevin McDermott and Dr Matthew Stibbe, both in the Department of History, Sheffield Hallam University k.f.mcdermott@shu.ac.uk; m.stibbe@shu.ac.uk
Keynote Speakers: Robin Okey (University of Warwick)
Pavel Seifter (Former Czech ambassador to London)

The aim of this conference is to take a fresh look at the 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe to mark the occasion of the twentieth anniversary in the autumn of 2009. The approach is broadly historical, but we would welcome proposals from a range of different disciplines, such as Cultural and Gender/Women’s Studies, Sociology, Modern Languages and of course History. By bringing together scholars working on the 1989 revolutions in national and transnational contexts, we hope to make a distinctive and worthwhile contribution to this area.
Key themes considered could include:
- Protest movements and crowds
- Strategies and responses of regimes
- The origin and role of civic groups
- The external context (Gorbachev’s Soviet Union, Bush, Kohl, Thatcher and Mitterand)
- Round-table discussions, elections and the end of revolutionary protests
- 1989 in popular and official memory
- Comparisons with earlier uprisings against communist rule (1953, 1956, 1968, 1980-81)
- Sources and archives

We invite contributions from scholars working on all Soviet-bloc Eastern European countries which saw the overthrow of communist rule in 1989/90, including the GDR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. We are also looking for contributions on the role and significance of external players, particularly Gorbachev’s Soviet Union and the leading western nations (USA, Britain, West Germany, France).

A key element of this conference is the planned publication of a selection of papers in an edited volume (projected publication date 2011). The organisers have published two previous collections of essays on post-1945 Eastern Europe: Revolution and Resistance in Eastern Europe: Challenges to Communist Rule (Oxford: Berg, 2006); and Stalinist Terror in Eastern Europe: Elite Purges and Mass Repression (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming in 2009).

Contributors should seek funding from their own institution in the first instance, but it is anticipated that some support might become available through potential sponsors.

Please send us proposals, including working title and brief description of your paper (max. 350 words), by 31 July 2008.

Dr Kevin McDermott and Dr Matthew Stibbe
Department of History
Sheffield Hallam University
City Campus
Howard Street
Sheffield S1 1WB.
UK
Email: m.stibbe@shu.ac.uk; k.f.mcdermott@shu.ac.uk



International Seminar on Globalisation and Eurasia

Deadline: August 1, 2008
Conference Date: November 10-12, 2008
New Delhi, India

Globalisation has introduced new opportunities for integration into world markets, access to new technologies and population mobility. Eased flow of goods, people, ideas and capital can create new prosperity. However, the purpose of the seminar is to discuss how far the benefits of reforms are evenly spread among various sections of the population. Have different elements of globalisation, namely, the economic, political, cultural, technological have adversely impacted vast areas of the newly independent countries of Eurasia? It is this concern that led analysts like Jan Pieterse to argue that "glo! balisation generates so much anxiety, insecurity and resistance".

Mary Kaldor argues that globalisation generates schisms and the excluded often take recourse to a parallel globalised war economy that flourishes with new wars. She argues that states in Africa and Asia have to cope with the disillusion of hopes generated by independence, the failure of the developing project to overcome poverty and inequality, the insecurity of rapid urbanisation and the break-up of traditional rural communities, as well as the impact of structural adjustment policies of stabilisation, liberalisation and deregulation.

The social and cultural dimensions of globalisation merit further attention from the point of view of studying conflict in the context of globalisation. The link between globalisation and conflict can ultimately be posited only in the context of the empirical case studies and their findings. One of the issues of this seminar is to deliberate on if and how globalisation has caused or exacerbated social disharmony and conflic! t by transforming the spatial organisation of social relations and transactions.

Post-Socialist economic reforms in Eurasia have several facets. Of particular relevance are those aspects of reforms that have direct bearing on state capabilities and distributive policies. Transition from a centrally pl! anned economy to a market-oriented one has so far been complex. The co nsequent policy and institutional reforms have been wide-ranging, and affect output, income and employment in different ways. The impact on the social sector and the living standard of the population in general needs to be studied.

Can social inequities adversely affect political stability? For example, is there a correlation between the 'coloured revolutions' and the popular discontent resulting from the reforms? Economic hardship and social discontent often correlate and Eurasia is no exception. Demographic and economic pressures, regional schisms, corruption and organised crime, and a range of social challenges that affect the health and well-being of the population are stresses that could set off future unrest.

Can poverty and human insecurity be linked to state's failure in its redistributive function and its inability to ensure a certain level of social well being of the population? This seminar will study liberal reform policies and their imple! mentation, as impacting upon regions, ethnic groups and society as a whole in Eurasia. The principal aim is to delineate the local contexts for the implementation of sustainable development strategies. Social and cultural dimension of post-Socialist changes will be discussed in the context of a range of economic and political transformations - economic development, democratisation, role of the state and ruling elite, human security, to name but a few. The proposition that links changing alignment of state with society in the context of globalisation to human security/insecurity and social harmony/disharmony will be scrutinised in this seminar.

The role of external agencies, state and non-state is an important ingredient in the process of globalisation. The instrumentalities like free market, trade liberalisation and foreign investments are intended to integrate Eurasian countries with the global economy. At the same time, it appears from the selective use of dem! ocracy and human rights standards, military engagements and promotion of friendly regimes that the priority is geopolitical influence, control of resources and their transportation routes in Eurasia. This seminar would discuss the strategic environment in Eurasia and issues related to security, stability and inter-state relations in Eurasia. The involvement of external powers and their relations with different Eurasian countries would form an important theme of the seminar.

For the purpose of this seminar, Eurasia would include only the former Soviet republics. The participants are expected to discuss issues in the context of globalisation process in Eurasia. Papers are expected to cover themes like economic policies, industry, agriculture and services, trade and commerce, social sector, human development issues, cultural dimensions of globalisation, gender and religious issues, state and ruling elite, political system, democratisation process, strategic and security issues, inter-state relations, and other related themes.

Schedule of the Seminar:
The seminar would be held for three days, from 10-12 November 2008. Those willing to participate are requested to send their abstracts by 1 August 2008. The selected participants would be informed of their status by 15 August 2008. The final date of submission of complete draft of the paper is 15 September 2008. English would be the only language medium for the Seminar.


Funds:
All the seminar participants would be provided accommodation, food and local transportation including travel from the Delhi airport/railway station by the Seminar Organisers. Indian participants would be paid travel allowances as per the university rules.

Correspondence:
Prof. Ajay Patnaik
Director, Russian & Central Asian Area Studies Programme
School of International studies
Jawaharlal Nehru Unviersity
E-mail: patnaik.ajay@gmail.com
akpatnaik@mail.jnu.ac.in
Tel: 91+11+26704367/26704365 (off.)
91+11+26741322 (res.); 9811588100 (mob)
From ACT

Posted: May 28, 2008



Measure of a Revolution: Cuba 1959-2009

Deadline: September 1, 2008
Conference Date: May 7-9, 2008
University of Kingston, Ontario, Canada

The ‘Measure of a Revolution: Cuba 1959-2009’ conference is jointly organized by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Havana University, Boston University and Queen’s University. It will be held at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario on 7-9 May 2009. We welcome papers from researchers on: International Relations; Culture; Gender & Women’s Studies; Politics & Government; Economy; Sexuality; Environment; Education; Race Relations; Health and Medicine; Cuban Community Abroad/Migration and Transnational Issues; Religion
Please submit proposals to cuba09@queensu.ca by 1 September, putting ‘The Measure of a Revolution Abstract’ in the subject line of your email). Provide the following:

1. Author’s full name, institution, department, phone, e-mail, post.
2. Title of paper & 200-300 word abstract.
3. Names and contact information for all authors if necessary.

Papers will be selected on a competitive basis for publication; publishable papers due April 16 2009.
Questions? Catherine Krull cuba09@queensu.ca, Louis Perez Jr. perez@email.unc.edu, Soraya Castro yip@infomed.sld.cu or Susan Eckstein seckstei@bu.edu

Dr Catherine Krull
D531 Mackintosh-Corry Bldg
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6
CANADA
Phone(613) 543-6000, X74449
Fax (613) 533-2871
Email: cuba09@queensu.ca
Visit the website at http://www.queensu.ca/sociology/?q=themeasureofarevolution09



Günter Grass and Salman Rushdie: Comparative Perspectives

Deadline: September 15, 2008
Conference Date: February 26-March 1, 2008
Boston, MA

Günter Grass and Salman Rushdie: Comparative Perspectives seeks critical comparative perspectives on Günter Grass and Salman Rushdie. Prominent figures on the international stage of public intellectuals and storytellers of history, both authors deal with major events in twentieth century history that continue to shape political and social policies and the cultural and religious national landscapes of their country of origin.

How does their work—repeatedly marked by a historical caesura—represent world history and the universal vis-à-vis individual experience and the particular? What narrative techniques do they employ to construct the anti/-hero’s subjectivity, identity and consciousness? How are such techniques linked to narratives of national identity and history? How are time and space constructed and consequently what functions do movement and travel have? What literary traditions and innovations inform their work on cultural, territorial and linguistic displacement, as well as on genocide, forced migration, partition and war?

Themes might include but are not limited to:
MIGRATION • EXILE • NATION AND NATIONALISM • NARRATIVE AND HISTORIOGRAPHY • MEMORY • NARRATIVE MODES OF CONSCIOUSNESS • METAPHOR • FICTIONALITY • TIME AND SPACE • HEIMAT AND HOMELANDS

Send 1-page abstracts to Maria Grewe, Columbia University, msg52@columbia.edu
Submission Deadline: September 15, 2008

Please include with your abstract on a separate page: Name and affiliation, email address, postal address, telephone number, A/V requirements (if any).

The complete Call for Papers for the 2009 Convention will be posted in June: www.nemla.org. Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA panel; however panelists can only present one paper. Convention participants may present a paper at a panel or seminar and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.

Maria Grewe
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Columbia University
319 Hamilton Hall, MC 2812
1130 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027

Email: msg52@columbia.edu

Posted: May 28, 2008.



Britain and the Muslim World: Historical Perspectives

Deadline: September 30, 2008
Conference Date: April 17-19, 2009
United Kingdom

Proposals for 20-minute papers on ‘Britain and the Muslim World: Historical Perspectives' are invited for presentation at a multi-disciplinary and international conference to be held at the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, UK, 17-19 April 2009.

A collaboration between IAIS and SOAS, this conference aims to explore the historical impact of cross cultural encounters between the Muslim World and Britain by bringing together writers, established scholars, younger researchers, public intellectuals and members of the media to present and discuss cutting edge research on the question of how past relations have brought us to our current situation, and to propose directions for necessary further consideration and research. At present, scholarly knowledge of the multiple encounters between Britain and the Muslim World is dispersed among specialized academic disciplines and so largely unavailable to the media and general public. A key aim of the conference is to assemble specialists from all academic fields-history, international relations, finance, law, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, migration and diaspora studies, gender studies, art history and design, music, and comparative literatures-and to bring them into dialogue while exploring ways of making their combined knowledge more generally available than it is at present in order to develop a deeper public understanding of the long cultural interaction between Islam and Britain.

Titles and abstracts of no more than 250 words please, by the end of September 2008 marked ‘BMW Proposal' to: bmw@ex.ac.uk

Organisers: Gerald MacLean, Nadje Al-Ali, Robert Gleave Sponsored by the British Academy, with research partners The British Museum

Gerald MacLean, FRAS, FRHistS
Professor of English
University of Exeter
Queen's Building
EX4 4QH

Email: bmw@ex.ac.uk
Visit the website at http://www.sall.ex.ac.uk/conferences/britain-and-the-muslim-world.html

Posted: July 8, 2008.



Air Power and the Environment: The Ecological Implications of Modern Air Warfare

Deadline: Novermber 1, 2008
Conference Date: August 26-27, 2008
United Kingdom

Environmental responsibility already lies at the forefront of our western world perspective and is constantly growing in importance. Ecological activism, which used to be a fringe movement, has now become mainstream. In 2007 Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize (and an Oscar!) for their efforts to raise environmental awareness. Greenpeace, which uses "non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems," alone has no fewer than 220,000 members in the UK and 2.8 million worldwide. Ecologists, environmentalists, activists, lobbyists and of course strategists are already turning their attention to ecological aspects of modern warfare, including land mines, cluster ordnance, erosion and soil damage, air pollution, deforestation, nuclear testing and proliferation, oil spillage and fires, DU contamination, the disposal of ordnance, and so forth. It seems likely that such concerns will also become increasingly mainstream.

As a consequence, governments and their armed forces will doubtless be paying more attention to the serious ecological ramifications of conflict. Some already are. The Global Strategic Trends paper published by the MoD’s Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) illustrates the importance now being placed on these matters by cutting-edge British strategists.

Balancing strategic and operational needs with both military and environmental ethics is certainly not impossible, and responsible armed forces, including the Royal Air Force, are already thinking deeply about how best to balance what superficially seem to be (but actually are not) competing imperatives.

This innovative conference – the first on this topic in the United Kingdom – will touch on several broader security themes and topics but will focus especially on the concepts and practices of modern air power and their environmental implications.

The organisers intend the conference – to be held at the historic and prestigious Royal Air Force College – to attract practitioners, policy-makers, academics and also university students (for whom attendance will be free upon presentation of a student id card), and for it therefore to wrestle analytically with big air power-related themes and topics at the heart of current strategy and security debates.
The conference proceedings will be published subsequently in book form by the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies.

Some potential topics:

• Climate change and security
• Strategies to prevent, mitigate, and redress war's environmental consequences
• Warfare and environmental law
• The historical targeting of oil and industrial infrastructure
• Contemporary targeting strategies for oil and industrial infrastructure
• Environmentally harmful / acceptable ordnance
• Decommissioning and disposal of ordnance
• Aviation fuel management
• Air forces and carbon emissions
• Air forces and alternative fuel sources
• Air forces and resource / waste management
• Real versus synthetic training

Prospective presenters should normally expect 30 minutes per presentation, plus 10 minutes of discussion time.

Abstracts (of no more than 350 words) should be posted or emailed to:

Miss Victoria Allen,
Personal Assistant to the Dean of the Royal Air Force College,
Cranwell, Sleaford,
Lincolnshire NG34 8HB,
United Kingdom
Email: vallen-kcl@cranwell.raf.mod.uk

Abstracts must be received by 1 November 2008.

All prospective contributors will be notified in late November.

Queries of an academic nature should be directed to:

Dr Joel Hayward,
Dean of the Royal Air Force College
(and Conference Convenor), at:

Email: jhayward-kcl@cranwell.raf.mod.uk
Tel.: +44 (0)1400 268020

We are particularly keen to ensure that graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty are able to play an active role in the conference.

In addition to making attendance entirely free to all currently enrolled university students we may be able to provide limited financial support (beyond purely transport and accommodation) to any students whose papers have been accepted for presentation.

Dr Joel Hayward
Dean of the Royal Air Force College
Cranwell
Lincolnshire NG34 8HB
United Kingdom
Telephone +44 (0)1400 266334
DFTS 95751 6334
Fax +44 (0)1400 266265

Email: jhayward-kcl@cranwell.raf.mod.uk
Visit the website at http://www.airpowerstudies.co.uk

Posted: May 28, 2008



Russia & Modern World: Problems of Political Development

Deadeline: March 10, 2009
Conference Date: April 16-18, 2009
Institute of Business & Politics, Moscow, Russia

There is suggested to discuss the following issues in the framework of conference:
- Civil Society and Law State: Problems of Establishment - Problems of Dialogue of the Federal Power and Regional Elite: Experience and Prospects - Modern Russia: World Policy Challenges - Economic Aspects of Political Development of Russia - Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS): Problems and Prospects of Interaction - Confessional Nature of International Relations and Domestic Policy - Modern Elites: Identification Problems - Image of Russia in the Design of European and Oriental Identities - Religion in the System of Political Culture of Russia: History and Modern Trends - Cultural Aspects of the Globalization - Literature of the XX – XXI Centuries in Social-Political Aspects - Models of University Education in the Modern World - Representation of the Modern Russian in Domestic and Foreign Mass Media

Conference languages: Russian, English

The abstracts (300 words) should be submitted with the registration form to the Organizing Ñommittee by e-mail: ibp-polit@list.ru. Deadline for the abstracts: 1st December 2008. The Organizing Ñommittee shall reserve the right to select papers. The confirmations about the inclusion in the Program of IV International Interuniversity Scientific Conference will be sent during January 2009. After receiving the confirmation it’ll be possible to submit the full paper by e-mail ibp-polit@list.ru. Scientific paper submissions will be accepted till 10th March 2009.

REGISTRATION FORM

1. Surname 2.Name 3. Academic degree 4. Academic rank 5. Title of report (speech) 6. Position 7. Place of permanent job 8. Telephone (office) 9. E-mail 10. Telephone (home) 11. Address (home) 12. Technical means required for address

Please address for more information by e-mail: ibp-polit@list.ru or on the phone: (495) 912-06-46 (ext. 157) Organizing Ñommittee

Institute of Business & Politics,
109004,Moscow, B.Kommunisticheskaja, 13
(495)912-06-46 (ext.157)
Email: ibp-polit@list.ru

Posted: July 8, 2008