Asia Writes

20 March 2013

Deadline: 15 August 2013

The year 2013 marks the 400th anniversary of Leiden’s chair in Arabic Language and Culture. To celebrate this memorable event, the Leiden Institute for Area Studies and the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics will convene a congress that will bring together Arabicists, Semiticists, historians, and epigraphists to discuss original research on the pre- and early history of Arabic.

The papers presented at this congress will be published in a volume commemorating this important anniversary. It is hoped that the 400th year of Arabic at Leiden will mark an important contribution to our understanding of Arabic in its earliest stages.

PROGRAM: Professor John Huehnergard (University of Texas, Austin) will deliver the keynote address entitled “Arabic in its Semitic Context.” The rest of the congress details will be available (also via this website) late September 2013.

SUBMISSIONS & TIMELINE:

• Submissions on all topics dealing with the relationship between Arabic and other the Semitic and Afro-Asiatic languages are welcome. We especially encourage interdisciplinary approaches that combine the fields of linguistics/philology and history to shed light on problems such as the distribution of Arabic epigraphy, the development of the Arabic script, the language of the Qur’an, and the linguistic geography of pre-Islamic Arabic. These topics should only be considered as general guidelines and are not exhaustive. Any paper dealing with Arabic in its historical and linguistic context will be considered.
• We welcome abstracts for papers (not exceeding 2 pages) before 15th August 2013. Please do not forget to mention your institutional affiliation.
• Successful applicants will be informed early September 2013.
• Participants must register in order to take part in the conference. The registration fee is Euro 50. Meals and drinks will be provided for on both congress days.
• Details on how to register will be on available on this website soon.

Please submit your abstracts (or questions) to the congress convener, Dr. Ahmad Al-Jallad.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: a.m.al-jallad@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Website: http://400yearsarabic.weebly.com

11 March 2013

Deadline: 31 May 2013 (abstracts)

The expansion of the discipline of translation studies in recent years has been accompanied by an increase in calls for an awareness of ideas and practices of translation occurring in different cultural settings. Having developed mainly on the basis of European languages and cultures, as well as Western philosophical and literary theories, translation studies has evolved as and, to a large extent, still remains a strongly Eurocentric discipline in its orientation. Although there are welcome signs of a steadily growing interest in translation/interpreting practices and concepts from diverse cultural and social contexts, the current state of representation and discussion of translation merits further investigation and exploration.

Under the theme of “Rethinking Perspectives in Translation Research and Practice”, this conference aims at critically examining the particular ways in which translation/interpreting theory and practice have been approached within translation studies. Themes to be explored by contributors may include, but are not restricted to, the following:

• views on the internationalization of translation studies and the re-centering of the discipline;
• concepts and research topics having particular relevance for specific cultural and social contexts;
• historical factors and epistemologies that underlie translation theories and practices in different cultures;
• the current status of translation studies in Asian countries and a re-examination of research methods and models used by translation scholars;
• new perspectives in translation/interpreting education and evaluation and the growing influence of English as lingua franca on translation/interpreting teaching;
• the link between translation and the movement of information and texts across institutional borders;
• the relationship among translation, language, and multi-media in the field of popular culture and the impact of technological development on the mode and process of mediation.

Participants are invited to focus on any of these themes, as well as other topics related to translation/interpreting, using diverse disciplinary approaches, including various domains of linguistics, literary theory, history, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and media studies, among others. The conference is organized by the Korean Association of Translation Studies (KATS) and will be held at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. The KATS conference organizing committee invites abstracts for 20-minute presentations. Please send a proposal of 300-400 words in Word format and a mini-biography to the organizing committee. Notification of acceptance is on June 30, 2013.

KOREAN ASSOCIATION OF TRANSLATION STUDIES (KATS) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

• “Rethinking Perspectives in Translation Research and Practice”
• October 18-19, 2013
• Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

• Edwin Gentzler, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, U.S.A.
• Roberto A. Valdeón, University of Oviedo, Spain
• Jeremy Munday, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: translation@hufs.ac.kr

Website: http://www.kats.or.kr

27 February 2013

Deadline: 15 April 2013

This panel will explore issues of childhood and hybridity in the fiction and film of Indian diaspora, looking at how childhood is represented and/or constructed at the moment of cross-cultural encounter. How are childhood and identity represented in texts or films whose child characters straddle geographical and cultural worlds?

The special theme for the 2013 PAMLA conference is “Stages of Life: Age, Identity, and Culture.”

Please submit a 250-word abstract and 50-word bio via PAMLA’s online submission form at: http://www.pamla.org/2013/

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: 11sg28@queensu.ca

For submissions: via PAMLA's online submission form

Website: http://www.pamla.org/2013/

20 February 2013

Deadline: 4 March 2013

Translation and Interpreting Studies and English Language and Literature Departments at Cankaya University in Ankara warmly invite colleagues/students to send 300-word abstracts/proposals for a 20-minute paper on Translation Studies and English Literature. This conference welcomes papers centering upon English Language, Translation and Interpreting Studies, Literary Translation, English Literature and Culture, American Literature and Culture, Comparative Literature, and Literary and Cultural Theories.This two-day Translation Studies and Literatures in English conference seeks to bring colleagues, post-graduate students and academicians together in the friendly atmosphere of Cankaya University.

CONFERENCE DETAILS:

• Translation Studies and Literatures in English: an interdisciplinary/international Postgraduate Conference
• 13-14 May 2013
• Cankaya University Ankara

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: A 300-word abstract for a 20-minute paper should be submitted as an email attachment. In your email, please include your name, affiliation, email address, phone number, title of paper, and a brief biographical statement.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: eltsconferences@gmail.com

Website: http://www.cankaya.edu.tr

19 February 2013

Deadline: 15 March 2013

Proposals that focus on diaspora in Anglophone Middle Eastern Literatures and discuss broader issues such as gender, ethnicity, language and narrative. 300-word abstract and CV by 15 March 2013.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: Eda Dedebas Dundar at eda.dedebas@gmail.com

Website: http://www.mla.org/convention

16 February 2013

Deadline: 29 April 2013

Literacy, culture and technology have played an important role in the world education development. In many Asian countries the challenges of literacy and technology are formidable. Technology has transformed many parts of our lives and gives the opportunity to engage, support and challenge us in and out the classroom.

To address the issues, Indonesian Reading and Writing Association(Perhimpunan Baca Tulis Masyarakat Indonesia/PBTM) in coordination with International Reading Association (IRA) organize 2013 Asian Literacy Conference with the theme “LITERACY, CULTURE and TECHNOLOGY : From LOCAL to GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES” to be held on 5 – 7 September 2013 in Bali. This conference explores approaches, issues and questions related to literacy, culture and technology in language teaching.

The purposes are to share ideas, findings and to exchange views / opinions in literacy and language education and to improve the quality of language teachers and to ensure a lifelong teaching career.

CALL FOR PAPER:

Scholars, Teachers, professionals and others interested in literacy and language education are encouraged to send abstract and/or paper on the following topic areas:

• Approaches and Methods in Literacy and Language Teaching and Learning.
• Material Development in Literacy and Language Teaching.
• Assessment in Literacy and Language teaching and Learning.
• Technology’s Assisted Language and Literacy Teaching and Learning
• Teacher’s Professional Development
• Integrative Local Curriculum and Instruction
• Language and Literacy Learning Across Age Level (Children, Teens, Adults or Early Learners)
• Literature and Culture in Language and Literacy Teaching and Learning (Short Stories, Drama or Poems in Teaching Language and Literacy)

IMPORTANT DATES:

• Abstract submission deadline : April 30, 2013 
• Acceptance Notification : June 15, 2013 
• Full paper deadline : August 1, 2013

ABSTRACT and PAPER SUBMISSION:

• Abstracts sent must meet the following criteria:
• They should be within the topic areas
• They should be written in Bahasa Indonesia/Indonesian or English in 150 – 200 words with a title not exceeding twelve words and 75 – 100 words biodata. Abstract outside the word limit will not be accepted.
• They should indicate the type of presentation (paper 30’ ; workshop 60’ ; poster)
•  They should be submitted online to hjmaruanaya@yahoo.com, misternyoman@yahoo.com, or irenetalakua@yahoo.com (Email subject : 2013 ASIAN LITERACY CONFERENCE PAPER – your name. File name : PAPER 2013_your name)
• If you wish your paper to be published in the conference proceedings, please submit a soft copy of the full paper selected for the conference no later than August 1, 2013. Should this fail, the committee reserves the right to withdraw the paper from the proceeding.

Download: registration form

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: hjmaruanaya@yahoo.com, misternyoman@yahoo.com, or irenetalakua@yahoo.com

15 February 2013

Deadline: 13 March 2013

Bearing Across: Translating Literary Narratives of Migration is an international conference organised by the Centre for Literary Translation at the Erasmus University College of Brussels in cooperation with the Centre for Literature, Intermediality, and Culture at the Free University of Brussels (VUB).

Bringing together scholars from different disciplines such as cultural studies, translation studies, area studies, comparative literature, and anthropology, this conference aims at providing a new understanding of migration as a theoretical concept, analytical category, and lived experience in the study of the translation of migration literature, be it by the authors themselves, or by professional translators.

Through issues such as dwelling and displacement, monolingualism and multilingualism, transnationalism and national identity, this conference seeks to investigate how the translation of narratives of migration – e.g. in German-Turkish, Dutch-Moroccan, French-Algerian, British-Indian literature – engages with and shapes the ongoing redefinition of cultural identities.

In Imaginary Homelands, Salman Rushdie describes the relationship between migration and translation as follows: “The word ‘translation’ comes, etymologically, from Latin for ‘bearing across’. Having been borne across the world, we are translated men.” (Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991. London: Penguin, 1992. 17) The condition of the modern subject as a ‘translated man’ indeed seems to be that of geographical and linguistic border-crossing, between the local and the global. Translation can thus be regarded as a sequence of language practices and an existential situation of migrants dealing with dislocation. Accordingly, this conference focuses, on the one hand, on translation of literary narratives of migration as intralingual transaction – as cultural translation – that reformulates and reassesses cultural specificities in a new and often alienating way and, on the other hand, as interlingual transaction that applies processes of mediation to issues of agency and communication (cf. Doris Bachmann-Medick). Therefore, this conference focuses basically on two strands: 1. literature by migrant authors, either written in their own language, but ‘translating’ their unfamiliar surroundings, or written in the language predominant in their ‘unfamiliar surroundings’; and 2. literature, written by migrant authors, translated into the language of their actual place of residence or into any other language.

Submissions for 20-minute papers may include, but are not restricted to:

• Theoretical approaches to the concept of ‘migration’ in translation
• Political commitment and translating migration literature
• Transmission of identity and belonging in translation
• Translation of linguistic hybridity (creolisation, multilingualism, ungrammaticality)
• Self-translation and the question of migrant authors writing in adopted languages
• Significance of the literary translator in the reception of migration literature and the emergence of (alternative) literary canons
• Relationship between translator’s poetics and author’s poetics
• Translation as aesthetic and ideological adaptation

Registration: 250 word abstracts and a 150 word bio should be submitted by 13 March, 2013 to Arvi Sepp and Philippe Humblé. For further information, please contact Gys-Walt Van Egdom. Graduate students are also welcome to submit their proposals and participate in the conference.

Please note there will be a conference fee of 60 Euro.

The language of the conference is English, but we encourage the use and visibility of other languages in multilingual handouts, slides, etc.

A publication of the proceedings with selected contributions in a refereed volume is planned.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries:Gys-Walt.Van.Egdom@vub.ac.be

For submissions: arvisepp@vub.ac.be philippe.humble@vub.ac.be

Website: http://www.erasmushogeschool.be

13 February 2013

Deadline: 15 March 2013

This call for papers is for a joint session of SALA and South Asian Languages and Literatures (SALL) at MLA 2014.

The theme is “South Asian Diasporas beyond the US”: Intersections, parallels, and tensions between South Asians and other Groups outside the US, including Australia, Africa, and South East Asia.

Send 150-word abstracts to quazi@tarleton.edu by March 15.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: quazi@tarleton.edu

Website: http://www.mla.org

11 February 2013

Deadline: 15 March 2013

While Transpacific Studies often focus on Asian diasporic writing, this panel seeks essays on life writing emerging from travel across the Pacific in all directions, East-West, West-East, North-South. Following Yunte Huang’s lead in Transpacific Imaginations and Transpacific Displacements, we might expand the definition of transpacific to encompass modern Western expatriate memoirs such as Mark Salzman’s Iron and Silk; Simon Manchester’s The River at the Centre of the World; Nathan Gray’s First Pass Under Heaven; Mark Kitto’s Chasing China; Rachel DeWoskin's Foreign Babes in Beijing; Angela Carter in Japan; Bruce S. Feiler’s Learning to Bow; and life writing by missionaries, diplomats, teachers and businesspeople in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Korea. Also welcome are papers that take a fresh or macro view of Transpacific life writing by Asian emigrants to the US, Canada and Central and South America. Please send abstract and a brief bio by March 15 to Mary Goodwin.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: profgood@hotmail.com

Website: http://www.mla.org/convention

31 January 2013

Deadline: 20 March 2013

The Department of Italian Studies at the University of Bologna (Italy) is now accepting submissions for the following sections of the issue 6/2012 of Scritture migranti, an international journal dedicated to writing on migration:

• Letture/Readings: Research articles and essays of substantial length, focused on literature and themes related to migration, and from a wide array of perspectives (max. 70.000 characters, spaces included).
• Visioni/Visions: Research articles and essays on themes of migration in theatre, film, dance, music, and other art forms. (max. 70.000 characters, spaces included)
• Percorsi/Routes: Overviews or annotated lists of new material in the field, including both primary and secondary texts, and/or information regarding new seminars, conferences, and book presentations in Italy and abroad. (max. 10.000 characters, spaces included)

Interested scholars should send a complete article by MARCH 20, 2013 to the editorial committee.

A brief bio and an abstract are also required. The article should be in one of the major languages of international exchange. Our editorial guidelines can be found here. Articles for the journal are selected according to an anonymous peer review process.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: redazione.scritturemigranti@unibo.it

Website: http://www.scritturemigranti.it/

10 October 2012

Deadline: 31 March 2013 (full papers)

The College of Social Communication Innovation in collaboration with the Thai Language and Eastern Languages Department, Faculty of Humanities, and Institute of Culture and Arts, Srinakharinwirot University is holding an international conference on arts and culture and Asian indigenous knowledge titled 'The Asian Conference on Arts and Cultures 2012' between June 13-14, 2013 at Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand. The conference's objective is to bring together the academics and experts from different parts of the world to share knowledge, research and academic works in various aspects, and consequently create an academic network of those who contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of Asian arts and culture.

TOPICS:

The conference welcomes submissions of both theoretical and empirical papers of the following themes:

• Arts
• Business and Entrepreneurship
• Cultures
• Education
• Film, Theatre, Dance and Music
• Diaspora, Migration, and Ethnicity
• Digital Society
• Gender
• Literature, and Language
• Localization, Regionalization, and Globalization
• Media and Communication
• Religion
• Social Change
• Tourism

TIMETABLE:

• Deadline for full paper submission: March 31, 2013
• Announcement of Accepted paper: May 15, 2013

SUBMISSION:

All academics and students who wish to present a paper at the Asian Conference on Arts and Cultures must submit a full paper (between 10-15 pages) before the deadline of May 31, 2013 through the conference submission page http://www.acacconference.com/submission.html or email: acacconference@gmail.com. Please put the theme of your paper on the top right corner of the first page. The full paper must be submitted in following format:

• Times New Roman 12-point font
• For title, 14 pt. font size, bold and align center
• 1.5 line spacing throughout the document
• For Author(s) and affiliation(s), 12 pt., align center
• Harvard system of referencing style

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: acacconference@gmail.com

For submissions: via the conference submission page

Website: http://www.acacconference.com

09 October 2012

Deadline: 15 November 2012

The KFLC (formerly the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference) is proud to open sessions devoted to the presentation of scholarly research in the area of Arabic and Islamic Studies. Abstracts are invited in all areas and aspects of this field, including, but not limited to:

• Arabic Language
• Arabic Literature and Film
• Islamic Studies
• Muslim World Cultural Studies

Sessions are 20 minutes followed by a 10-minute question & answer session. In addition to individual abstracts for paper presentations, proposals for panels of 4-5 papers will be considered.

The KFLC has a tradition of attracting scholars from a broad range of languages and specializations. This year’s conference will have sessions in Arabic Studies, East Asian Studies, French and Francophone Studies, German-Austrian-Swiss Studies, Hispanic Linguistics, Hispanic Studies (Spanish Peninsular and Spanish American), Neo-Latin Studies, Luso-Afro-Brazilian Studies, Language Technology, Second Language Acquisition, and Translation Studies.

Individually submitted abstracts should be no more than 250 words and should include author's name, affiliation and contact information.

Panel proposals of 4-5 presentations should be submitted as follows: The panel organizer should e-mail a panel proposal to the track director of his or her division. The panel proposal cannot exceed one page in length and should include the theme of the panel, the organizer's name and contact information, and the names, contact information and affiliations of the panel participants. Each participant MUST submit an individual abstract using our online system in addition to the panel proposal. Please indicate that your presentation is part of a pre-organized panel and list the title and organizer of the panel in the abstract.

Papers may be read in English or Arabic. Acceptance of a paper or complete panel implies a commitment on the part of all participants to register and attend the conference. All presenters must pay the appropriate registration fee by February 15, 2013 to be included in the program.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For submissions: via the abstract submission form

Website: http://web.as.uky.edu/kflc

06 October 2012

Deadline: 10 December 2012

In the Middle East, as in other parts of the world, the Korean cultural industries have proved extremely efficient in introducing new images of Korea to new audiences. Known as the ‘Korean Wave’, TV dramas, Korean pop music, and Korean cinema has been successful not only commercially, but has also left viewers with an image of Korea as a home of a vibrant culture and artistic innovation. This impression has stimulated interest in Korea and its culture, resulting in a rise in tourism and in the establishment of new Korean studies programs in institutions of higher education. Korea has never been so popular and familiar in the Middle East as it is today.

The purpose of this conference is to examine the way Korean popular culture is being appropriated and received in the Middle East, and to examine the social and academic developments it inspires. The conference presentations will attempt to develop an integrative framework to analyze the dynamic relations between cultural industry, cultural consumption, and academic studies through a focus on the experience of the Korean Wave in the Middle East.

In a broader sense, looking at the Middle East allows us to examine how Korean culture is being received outside the geographically and culturally-proximate markets of Asia and outside the major economic markets of North America and Europe. The success of the Korean cultural industries in a geographically distant and culturally remote Middle East may exemplify the resilience and ability of cultural industries to go beyond national and regional boundaries, and reach out to audiences of various nationalities and ethnicities.

The conference will focus on four major issues: (a) Harbingers, industries, agents, and fans involved in bringing the "Korean Wave" to the Middle East (b) Acceptance and integration of the Korean Wave within the local and other imported (American) popular cultures (c) Relations between Korean cultural presence and Korean academic studies (d) Perspectives, images, and stereotypes of Korea in the Middle East.

Proposals (both individual and panel proposals), including name, institutional affiliation, the title of the paper, and an abstract of 400 words (with relevant keywords listed), should be sent by December 10th, 2012. Successful applicants would be asked to send the complete paper of 5,000 words by April 10th, 2013. The organizers will make an effort to secure funding for accommodations to presenters from abroad.

Sponsor: The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and The Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

For inquiries please contact: Dr. Nissim Otmazgin or Mrs. Irina Lyan.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: nissim.otmazgin@mail.huji.ac.il or irina.lyan@mail.huji.ac.il)

For submissions:  KoreanWaveMiddleEast@gmail.com

Website: http://truman.huji.ac.il/

03 October 2012

Deadline: 31 October 2012

Historically, diverse and multicultural India has partnered many in addressing the paradoxes of identity and ethnicity of its first peoples and the indigenous. Colonial histories, pluralistic economies, multicultural social landscape and displaced indigenous interests, intersect its dominant discourses in dynamic expressions through its literature, language, cinema, folklore and other cultural matrices.

This two-day trans-disciplinary international conference explores the dynamics of the problematic relationship within discourses hitherto marginalized and combating extinction. These ‘other’ voices, their lived experiences and ideological burdens need to be excavated and resurrected through meaningful explorations. We invite scholars/ littérateurs/practitioners/folklorists and cultural scientists from all disciplines and professions to deliberate and share their personal and research experiences in a collective, deliberative and dialogical academic environment. This conference offers the opportunity to consider at the level of both theory and practice, new means for managing diversities, establishing a sense of belonging and new methods for engaging the ‘other’.

The subjects under consideration will be drawn from but are not limited to the written and the oral, cinema, theatre, sound, music, festival performances, geography, art, economics, history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, systems study, cultural studies perspectives, third-world aesthetics, subaltern studies, new media, political activism, religion, utopian studies, and the like. These are indicators only and contributions in related areas are also welcome.

PAPERS ARE INVITED, BUT NOT RESTRICTED TO THE FOLLOWING SUB-THEMES:

• Managing Diversities: tradition and innovation
• Common/Uncommon registers: India and other nations
• Stories of healing and reconciliation
• Re-imagined/ing communities
• Endangered Cultures: Erasure & Extinction
• Tangible and intangible discourses & cultures
• Marginalised aesthetics, literatures & pedagogies
• Geographies of non-urban: migration and movement
• Indigenous practices and social division / cohesion
• Colonial impacts and Postcolonial perspectives
• Emerging Voices/Noises: indigenous cosmopolitanism & literary nationalism
• Indigenous rhetoric and theory
• Indigenous art and artists
• Life Writing and native literatures
• Cultural memories: Knowledge Keeping and preservation
• Cinematic representations and stereotypes
• Using Local Literatures in English
• Pedagogy of/about the indigenous
• Taking indigenous cultures to the classroom

DETAILS OF ABSTRACT SUBMISSION, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY:

• Please email a 300-word abstract with the requisite information (paper title, name, designation, affiliation, contact information: Address, email ID & phone no.) along with a 75-word bio note. Early submissions are welcome.
• The subject line of your email should read “Abstract MACONF 2013: (YOUR NAME)
• All abstracts will be peer reviewed before acceptance.
• In your proposal, please outline your presentation plan and any audio - visual and space needs. We also seek proposals for panels, workshops and performances that address the central theme of the conference.
• Presentation time for the delegates will be to 15 – 20 minutes.
• Accepted abstracts will require a full draft paper, double-spaced, in not less than 3000 words and not exceeding 4000 words to be submitted electronically in MS-Word by 20th December 2012. Select papers presented at the conference will be published as part of a digital or paperback book.
• Local Delegates from Delhi and those who do not need accommodation are required to pay registration fees of Rs 800 which will entitle them to the conference kit and meals.
• Delegates from India and abroad requiring accommodation are required to pay Rs. 1500/ USD 60 which will entitle them to accommodation, conference kit & meals.
• Overseas delegates may contact us at the given email id for payment details.
• Mode of payment will be via Demand Draft drawn on any nationalized bank payable to Maharaja Agrasen College, Delhi payable at Delhi latest by 20th December 2012.
• Delegates will have to fund their own travel to Delhi, India: venue of the conference.
• Boarding and Lodging (on shared basis) will be provided to limited delegates at University guesthouses/hostels etc from the afternoon of 5th February till forenoon of 8th February, 2013. Early registration and confirmation on a first come- first served basis will be the criteria for the same.

IMPORTANT DATES:

• Last Date for Abstracts 31st October, 2012
• Intimation of acceptance 15th November, 2012
• Last Date for Registration Fees 20th December 2012
• Last Date for complete paper 20th December 2012
• Conference 6th and 7th February, 2013 (Wednesday & Thursday)

INVITED SPEAKERS:

• Dr Jeannette Armstrong, first indigenous woman novelist of Canada & Director, Enowkin Center, Pentictin, Kelowna, Canada
• Prof. Julie Cruikshank, author and anthropologist, Canada.
• Prof. Malashri Lal, Dean, Academic Activities & Projects, University of Delhi
• Prof. Anjali Gera Roy, IIT, Kharagpur
• Dr Sukrita Paul Kumar, poet and critic, Delhi
• Prof. Jawahar Handoo, President, Indian Folklore Congress, Mysore
• Prof. Ronald Strickland, Michigan Technological University USA
• Dr Deana Reder, Simon Frazer University, Canada
• Dr Beatrice Smith, Michigan Technological University, USA
• Prof Saugata Bhaduri, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
• Dr Nancy Wachowich, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
• Dr Simi Malhotra, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: maconf2013@gmail.com

Website: http://mac.du.ac.in/

02 October 2012

Deadline: 11 January 2013

Intensities is a peer-reviewed online journal first launched at Cardiff University in 2001 under the editorship of Matt Hills and Sara Gwenllian Jones. It later moved to Brunel University, where it was edited by David Lavery, and is about to relaunch (again at Brunel) with Leon Hunt as its new editor. Intensities will publish two issues a year. The journal addresses all aspects of cult media including cult television, cult film, cult radio, cult comics, literary cults and cult authors, new media cults, cult figures and celebrities, cult icons, musical cults, cult geographies, historical studies of media cults and their fandoms, cult genres (e.g. science fiction, horror, fantasy, pulp fiction, Manga, anime, martial arts etc.), non-generic modes of cultishness, theorisations of cult media, relevant audience and readership studies, and work that addresses the cult media industry.

In addition to publishing refereed essays (of between 6000 and 8000 words), Intensities also features a non-refereed Cult Media Review section which will carry shorter speculative reviews, reviews of cult phenomena (e.g. cult TV series, cult films, cult novels, science fiction, comics), short critical essays, video reviews and essays, interview transcripts, conference and convention reviews and articles about aspects of industry, fan culture, production and authorship.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Intensities will publish two themed issues in 2013. Essays should be between 6000 and 8000 words, referenced Harvard style and sent as a word document – a 200 word abstract should be sent as a separate document.

ISSUE 3.1 COMIC BOOK INTENSITIES – COMICS AND CULT MEDIA

The first new issue seeks submissions dealing with comics as cult media. Topics might include:

• National and international comic book cultures – French bandes dessinees, Italian fumetti, Japanese Manga.
• Comic book fan cultures – Cosplay, collecting and beyond.
• Cult comic book auteurs – Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Max Bunker/Magnus, Moebius, Masamune Shirow.
• Cult films from comics – Cinefumetti, Manga and Anime, the Turkish KIlink films, Dredd 3D.
• Underground and alternative traditions.
• Beyond the cape and mask – neglected comic book genres.
• From Dark Horse to Dylan Dog – Horror comics.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: leon.hunt@brunel.ac.uk

Website: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/arts/research/screen-media

01 October 2012

Deadline: 15 November 2012

The Department of and Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin are pleased to announce that they will host the 3rd Annual Jil Jadid Conference in Arabic Literature and Linguistics, a graduate student conference to be held at the University of Texas at Austin, February 21-23, 2013.

Jil Jadid is a graduate student conference that aims to provide a forum for young scholars spread across a variety of disciplines to come together, share ideas and research, and discuss the future of their respective fields as they move forward in their careers and come to represent the eponymous new generation of scholars doing work on the Arabic-speaking world and its cultures. For the past two Februaries, graduate students from a wide range of universities, both domestic and international, have assembled in Austin to set the tone for Arabic studies in the twenty-first century. The ongoing positive feedback we have received from these past conferences prompts us to once again assemble with the same goal of uniting students from area studies, linguistics, comparative literature and other departments in order to facilitate a productive and interdisciplinary exchange of new ideas.

Fostering fruitful, engaging, relevant and innovative dialogue remains our topmost priority. The conference will feature keynote speeches on both Arabic linguistics (Rania Habib from Syracuse University) and literature (TBA), as well as a career development workshop offered by faculty from UT's Department of Middle Eastern Studies. We will likewise be exploring panel arrangements that encourage increased coordination between individual presenters and breakout sessions where graduate students will have an explicit opportunity to discuss their collective vision of their fields as they hope to see them in the near future. More details will be announced as the conference approaches.

The 2013 Jil Jadid Conference is sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Linguistics, Program in Comparative Literature, and the Graduate School.

TOPICS:

All papers treating topics in Arabic literature (classical and modern) and Arabic linguistics (including applied linguistics) will gladly be considered, in either English or Arabic (we ask that an English summary be prepared for any papers to be presented in Arabic). We especially encourage state of the field papers that provide a focused overview of a specific subfield of Arabic studies and suggest new avenues for research in that area. We also encourage submissions on the following topics:

• Defining Linguistic Prestige: Case Studies from Literature and Linguistics
• Uncharted Pedagogical Ground: Novel Approaches to Arabic Language Teaching
• New Media, New Literary Genres
• The Voices of Arab Youth: Linguistic and Literary Perspectives
• Quantitative Approaches to Traditionally Qualitative Topics
• Between the City and the Countryside: The Role of Geographic Identity
• As It Was Said: Authentic Materials in the Arabic Classroom

Papers that are to be presented at other conferences, such as ALS and ACLA, are welcome, as we hope to provide a forum for students to further develop and refine their research.

Unfortunately, this year we will not be able to accommodate virtual presentations via video-chat. We will instead be providing a live online stream of the conference proceedings that will allow those who are not physically able to attend the conference to follow along and contribute by leaving comments and feedback. It is our aim to reinstate virtual presentations at future iterations of the Jil Jadid conference.

ABSTRACTS: Applicants may submit abstracts of no more than 400 words, not including references, in PDF format with fonts embedded. Abstracts may be submitted online. Abstracts should not include identifying information; you must, however, indicate the highest degree you have obtained and your current position (e.g. "M.A., Graduate Student," "Ph.D., Assistant Professor," etc.).

FUNDING: Graduate students whose abstracts are accepted will be eligible to apply for a limited number of partial travel grants to defray some of the costs of attending the Jil Jadid conference. Lodging with local graduate students will be available where possible.

CONFERENCE FEES: There will be no fees required of presenters and/or attendees.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: jiljadidconf@gmail.com

For submissions: via the online abstract submission page

Website: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/mes/

30 September 2012

Deadline: 10 October 2012

The Department of English Literature, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, invites papers for a three-day international conference (Unveiling a Secret Agreement: Revisiting the Contours of English Studies) to be held from 19 to 21 November, 2012.

Does the phrase “English Studies” connote something greater than its so-called destiny as originally intended in a colonial framework? Can we imagine an English literary and language “community” outside the history of canon formation intertwined with the history of colonialism? The function of English in a nation-state such as India constituting many ‘nations’ and bound by a sense of Indianness—again an offshoot of anti-colonial politics of resistance—is certain to be entrapped in a liminal space where identities are at best fluid and in a state of flux. On the one hand, it professes loyalty to the Shakespeares, the Miltons and the Dr. Johnsons with the idea of reaching out to a forever "uncontaminated" space unaffected by the politics of the present. On the other hand, it seeks to engage with a version of the canon based on interpretations generated within specific cultural milieus such as the Caribbean writer Derek Walcott’s Omeros, the epic rereading of Homer’s Odyssey, and Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Teheran: A Memoir in Books—the latter in a more popular vein. Frederick Jameson argues that “[a]ll third-world texts . . . in a very specific way . . . are to be read as . . . national allegories.” Are "we" in the non-western worlds creating “national allegories” in the process of rereading/misreading the canon?

In the enigmatic text “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” Walter Benjamin notes that “[t]here is a secret agreement between past generations and the present one. Our coming was expected on earth.” The global usage of English with a fetishized language component is more and more inclined towards a sterile emphasis on communication devoid of the literary and cultural dimension. The cultural understanding of English language and literature is equally nebulous, lost in contradictions that emerge from the “secret agreement between past generations and the present one.”

The aim of this conference is to discuss the problems and prospects in unveiling the “secret agreement” between the colonial past and the postcolonial present. In post-independence India, English education often tends to valorize with a dint of hidden irony the literature of Anglo-America, the roots of which may be traced to hegemonic agendas behind the introduction of English language and literature during the British rule. The interest in non-canonical texts in the wake of the advent of interdisciplinary studies has confined canonical studies to a position where departments of English award degrees without any required courses on Chaucer or Shakespeare. This conference proposes to problematize the anxieties of influence that go into the making of canons of English literature and to examine their plausible relevance to the present. Cultural materialists, political psychologists and literary theorists have engagingly looked at literature as part of an intertextual space reaching out to the ethos that produced it. With the arrival of Postmodernism/ Poststructuralism/ Postcolonialism the historicity and politics of a canonical text have become apparent making one wonder if “[o]ur coming was expected on earth.” In the process of revisiting the contours of English Studies this conference aspires to rekindle interest in what constitutes canons in view of a corporate global economy with a declared antipathy to conventional notions of the nation-state. At the same time, the sense of belonging that literary and cultural histories and historians have given the believer is threatened at a fundamental level.

Are canons based on imagined communities or are they relics of a feudal colonial past irrelevant to the present? Is the arrival of discourses such as postmodernism an “expected one”, well within the parameters of the conventional understanding of the canon? What is the shape of a future literary and cultural history given the power big publishers wield over the reading market? What kind of power relations along with languages of resistances can we expect in the emerging political economies of the future as embodied in literary texts? What role does literature and cultural studies, intensely isolated from mainstream disciplines, play in sustaining the idea of counter canon paradoxically bringing past writers into the present? This conference provides more questions than are likely to be answered in any conclusive manner. The debate on “revisiting the contours” is expected to generate a dialogue that responds to the transformative role of English Studies in creating arguments that bring a cautiously interpreted past into a redefined future.

Papers may broadly revolve around the following areas:

• English Studies: Its Past, Present and Future
• Towards Definitions of Culture and its Others
• Translating the Un-translatable
• Comparison as a Framework of Literary Thought
• Canonizing the Subaltern
• Literary Studies as Figurative Languages
• Idioms of Multiculturalism
• The Hyphen (-) As a Site of the Intertext
• Transgressing Disciplinary Borders
• Problematizing Research Methodologies
• Art, Politics and Styles of Writing
• Narrating the Histories of Words

Scholars are encouraged to submit papers that are densely analytical and not limited to fact-gathering and data assortment. Each presenter will be allowed 15 minutes presentation time and five minutes for a question and answer session. Abstracts of not more than 300 words must be sent by e-mail. Acceptance will be intimated by 15 October 2012.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: englitconference2012@gmail.com

Website: http://www.efluniversity.ac.in/

17 September 2012

Deadline: 1 November 2012

An important development in the postwar period is the rise of the ‘feminist literature’. A new consciousness of the peculiarity of women's outlook and social role opens up new directions for women's writing. For women writers like Doris Lessing, Muriel Spark, Angela Carter, Iris Murdoch, Margaret Drabble, Sarah Grand, Mary Cholmondely, Hillary Mantel, Michele Roberts, Joanna Trollope, Fay Weldon, and Jeanette Winterson, narrative fiction became a canvas to challenge the hegemonic practices of a gender-biased society. The concept of women merely as wife and child-bearer was abandoned. The writing of these female novelists came as a revolution that was to be perceived in the female sensitivity to the unfair or highly limited roles of women, to their restricted representation in society and its literature. They have portrayed many a woman who overcame odds and liberated herself from male and social oppression at various levels as mental, emotional, physical, social and even political. They have focused on female self definition in spite of the position they have been pushed to by patriarchy. However, contributors can think of writing on other British contemporaries too.

PROPOSED PUBLISHER: The volume will be published with an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) by a renowned publisher.

EDITING REQUIREMENTS:

• Paper size: A4, Font & size: Times New Roman 12, Spacing: Single line, Margin of 1 inch on all four sides.
• Title of the paper: bold, title case (Capitalize each word), centered.
• Text of the paper: justified. Font & size: Times New Roman 12.
• References: Please follow MLA style (Only Author-Date or Number System) strictly. Don’t use Foot Notes. Instead use End Notes.
• Titles of books: Italics.
• Titles of articles from journals and books: “quoted”.
• Articles should be submitted as MS Word 2003-2007attachments only.
• The paper should not usually exceed 14 pages maximum, 7 pages minimum in single spacing.
  

Each paper must be accompanied by i) A declaration that it is an original work and has not been published anywhere else or send for publication ii) Abstract of paper about 100-200 words and iii) A short bio-note of the contributor(s) indicating name, institutional affiliation, brief career history, postal address, mobile number and e-mail, in a single attachment. Please don’t send more attachments. Give these things below your paper and send all these things in a separate single MS-Word attachment. The papers submitted should evince serious academic work contributing new knowledge or innovative critical perspectives on the subject explored.

MODE OF SUBMISSION: Each contributor is advised to send full paper with brief bio-note, declaration and abstract as a single MS-Word email attachments to any of below mentioned email address.

SELECTION PROCEDURE: All submissions will be sent for blind peer reviewing. Final selection will be made only if the papers are recommended for publication by the reviewers. The details of the selection of your paper will be informed to you telephonically or on your email. The editor has the right to make necessary editing of selected papers for the sake of conceptual clarity and formatting. Non-selected papers will not be sent back to the contributor in any form. So, all contributors are advised to keep a copy of their submission with them. Each contributor will get a free complimentary copy from publisher but in case of joint paper, only first writer will get free copy.

PLAGIARISM ALERT: Contributors are advised to adhere to strict academic ethics with respect to acknowledgment of original ideas from others. The editors will not be responsible for any such lapse of the contributor. All submissions should be original and must be accompanied by a declaration that it is an original work and has not been published anywhere else. It will be your sole responsibility for such lapses, if any. Neither editor, nor publisher will be responsible for it.

EDITORS:

Dr. Vivekanand Jha
Editor, Translator & Award Winning Poet
L N Mithila University Darbhanga
http://poetvjha.wordpress.com

Mr. Ajit Kumar
Asst. Professor of English
M.L.B. College, Bhiwani Rohilla (Hisar) Haryana
Best Research Paper Award Recipient AIAER-2010

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: beditors@yahoo.com or british_englishkuk@yahoo.com