[URBANTH-L]Conference announcement

Sanjay Srivastava sanjay.srivastava at deakin.edu.au
Fri Aug 24 12:11:36 EDT 2007


Dear List Editor,

Would it be possible to submit the following 
conference announcement on URBANTH? It may be of 
interest to those working on urban contexts of sociality. Thank you.
Sanjay Srivastava

-------------------------

In Relation To
New Cultures of Intimacy and Togetherness in Asia

New Delhi, India, May 9-10, 2008


This conference seeks to bring together scholars 
working across areas such as sociology, gender 
studies, film/media studies, anthropology, 
popular culture, and urban studies in order to 
explore emerging cultures of intimacy and 
friendship in contemporary non-Western contexts. 
We are particularly interested in perspectives 
that relate the topic to the making of social 
selves at a time great economic and cultural 
change in many Asian societies. Socially, 
‘non-Western’ has often been considered 
synonymous with traditional, conservative, static 
and illiberal, particularly in contexts of 
intimate/personal relationships that are expected 
to conform to certain values, norms and 
expectations of ‘heritage’. However, following 
modernity at large and contexts of change such as 
economic liberalization, globalization and the 
worldwide web, there is, increasingly, a 
perception (if not a belief) that social 
structures and networks have been affected, and 
“new” cultures of intimacy and togetherness are 
emergent (if not already established). There is a 
decided conviction that such new structures and 
networks are visible in day-to-day contexts at 
work, home and leisure, and that they reflect 
political, cultural, emotional and intellectual transitions and upheavals.

At this conference, we would like to explore this 
notion of emergent cultures of “new” intimacies 
and togetherness in the contemporary non-Western 
world, in as varied a social and cultural register as possible.

Some Possible Themes:

Televisual/Cinematic Intimacies
New/Changing Spaces of Intimacy
New Cultures of Marriage
Intimacy, Togetherness and Class
Non-heterosexual Cultures of Intimacy
Advice Columns and the Reading Public
Intimacies and Consumer Cultures
‘Youth’ Cultures and Intimacies
The ‘New Woman’ and the ‘New Man’
The Metrosexual/the Uber-sexual
‘Friends’ – Transformed Intimacies in Living Spaces
Sex and the City
Intimacies and New Urban Spaces
Changing Workplace Cultures
New Lexicons of Conversation/Communication


Inquiries, abstracts (350 words), and expressions of interest to:
<mailto:intimaciesconference at yahoo.com>intimaciesconference at yahoo.com

Brinda Bose, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, India
Sanjay Srivastava, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia




Professor Sanjay 
Srivastava 

School of Communication and Creative Arts
Faculty of Arts
Deakin 
University 
Phone: + 61-3-9244-6009
221 Burwood 
Highway                                          Fax: + 61-3-9251-7851
Melbourne 3125
Australia


For information on the Delhi film 'Kotla Walks. 
Performing Locality', go to  www.kotlawalks.com 


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