[URBANTH-L]CFP: AIDS in CULTURE V, Mexico City, December, 2008

[Enkidu Magazine]

Call for Papers:
Aids in Culture IV: Explorations in the Cultural History of AIDS
México City, 9 - 13 December 2008

Focus for the 5th edition of the conference cycle "Aids in Culture:
Explorations in the Cultural History of Aids": Imaging and Imagining Aids:
The nature and role of images, visual representations, imagination and
narrative interpretation in making sense of experiences of health, illness
and disease.

Deadline for abstract Submissions: August 15, 2008
Conference Languages: English, Castilian, German, French and Nahuatl
Homepage: http://www.aidsinculture.org

AIDS is not simply an illness or a biomedical phenomenon. The conference
cycle "AIDS in Culture" organised by Enkidu Magazine in Mexico City and the
International Society for Cultural History and Cultural Studies (CHiCS) in
cooperation with CNDH (The National Human Rights Commission in Mexico) seeks
to examine cultural responses to AIDS in different cultures and societies
across a wide range of perspectives.

The conference will explore the processes by which AIDS is constructed as a
cultural phenomenon and how different societies in their encounters with
AIDS attempt to create meaning in health, illness and disease. The
conference aims at bringing together academics working in all relevant
disciplines as well as activists, artists and other professionals, and
promoting innovative multidisciplinary and multicultural exchange and
dialogue.

AIDS in Culture has already developed into an annual tradition and will be
organised for the fifth time in 2007 in Mexico City. In 2004 Aids in Culture
took place in the National Center for Human Rights (CNDH) in Mexico City and
had artistic and aesthetic responses to AIDS/HIV as a special focus. The
Artist of the Conference was Rolando de la Rosa -Mexican sculptor and
painter-. In 2005 AIDS in Culture II was held in the Archivo Histórico
Santamaría in the city of Papantla in the Mexican Federal State of Veracruz.
The second edition of the conference cycle had Indigenous knowledge and
conceptions of AIDS in Latin America, Africa and New Guinea as its core
theme. The Artist of the Conference was Morgan Alexander -American
photo-ethnographer-.

In 2006 AIDS in Culture III returned to Mexico City. The conference was
organised in a large number of special thematic sessions covering a diverse
series of topics extending from "The History of AIDS Activism",
"Representations of Aids in Literature", "Aids in Education" to "The
Politics of Aids and Aids in Politics" and "Perceptions of Aids in Lesbian
Sub-Cultures in Mexico". The artist of the conference was Arturo Ramirez
Juárez, Mexican painter, who died of AIDS in 1987.

In 2007 the conference activities took place both in the National Human
Rights Commission in Mexico City and in Hotel del Portal in the city of
Puebla. The conference had a special focus on Aids and Otherness and Aids in
narratives of identities. Many of the papers presented in 2007 addressed
issues related to translations between cultures and re-negotiations and
re-constructions of cultural identities in one way or another in relation to
AIDS and HIV. In 2007 the conference exhibitions were "Vihda y Draguería –
Life & Dragness" by Antonio Marquet from Mexico and "The Experiences of
HIV/AIDS for Mothers" by Samia Omar from Kenya.

In 2008, the conference will have the subtitle: Imaging and Imagining Aids:
The nature and role of images, visual representations, imagination and
narrative interpretation in making sense of experiences of health, illness
and disease.

UNESCO has proclaimed 2008 as International Year of Languages and linguistic
diversity and coexistence will be a common theme of many academic, cultural
and artistic activities organised by Enkidu Magazine throughout the year in
Mexico City. Also during Aids in Culture V, there will be a stream of panel
sessions  addressing the role of local languages in combating AIDS/HIV and
other diseases by safeguarding of local and indigenous knowledge and
know-how.

However, also in 2008 the conference will follow a similar model as in
previous years with a large number of thematic sessions addressing several
different issues. Papers are welcomed on virtually all related topics and
themes related to the cultural and social construction of Aids,
independently of time period and space. Also papers of comparative phenomena
will be considered. Interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged.

Among the themes of interest are the following:

- AIDS and Cultural Texts: Power and Representation.
- Representations of AIDS in art, movies, music, poetry, religion and
literature from the 1980s until today.
- Silences and taboos in discourses on HIV/AIDS.
- Aesthetic responses to the challenge. Rituals, customs, and fetishism.
- Cultural practices that influence the spread of HIV/AIDS
- AIDS and collective and individual identities: Race, Class, Gender etc
- AIDS and Politics, Lobbying and Activism: Power, Representation and
Activism.
- Constructions and reconstructions of AIDS in political, faith and ideology
based discourse, legal issues and policy making throughout the world: Who
has the authority to speak and who is silenced?
- AIDS and theory: Cultural Studies, Queer Studies, Religious Studies,
History, Anthropology, Sociology, Literary Studies and all related
disciplines. How do we theorize and analyse experiences and the meaning of
illness?
- The ‚significance’ of AIDS for individuals and communities; the cultural
factors influencing our perceptions of health and illness experiences.
- AIDS and psychosocial affects and effects. Cultures of silence.
- Indigenous knowledge and responses to AIDS
- Stories and Histories about AIDS
- AIDS and Oral History

Papers will be considered on related themes and topics from a wide range of
perspectives. Interdisciplinary perspectives are especially welcome since
all these topics in themselves stretch across several disciplines: history,
literary studies, linguistics, psychology, political sciences, pedagogy,
ethnology, anthropology, sociology...

Graduate and postgraduate students are encouraged to attend and present
papers. Selected papers from the conference will also this year be published
in book form.

* DISABLED PARTICIPANTS

We are pleased to announce that printed conference materials that will be
distributed during the conference, also will be available in large print or
Braille on request. If you require sign language interpretation during your
session, or you would like to distribute handouts or other materials in
Braille during your presentation, please indicate this in the registration
form.

Registration Form for Participants with disabilities:
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture/disca.htm

Participants with disabilities are recommended to fill in this form if they
require any special support or assistance during the event or during social
and cultural activities before or during the conference.

* PAPER AND PANEL PROPOSALS

500 word abstracts should be submitted to the organising committee in
English, Castilian, German or French by 15, August 2008. The conference
languages will be English and Castilian. Interpretations of the conference
theme ranging from the predictable to the surprising are encouraged.

Papers should be of approximately 20 - 30 minutes duration (circa 8 - 10
pages). Other forms of presentation, for instance workshops, panel debates
and poster sessions will be considered on request.

* PROPOSALS FOR PANEL SESSIONS

Typically, a panel of academic papers should include 3 (maximum 4) speakers
and 1 moderator (session chair). Each session will last for 2 hours allowing
for 30 minutes for each speaker and a further 30 minutes for questions and
discussion.

Proposers should submit:

(1)       Session title and a session intro (ca 100 words),

(2)       Paper titles,

(3)       Abstracts for each paper (500 words),

(4)       Short biography for each participant and the panel chair (ca
100-150 words),

(5)       Institutional affiliation and address for each participant,

(6)       Audio-visual and other technical requirements.

If you would like to propose a panel session, and want assistance in finding
speakers and/or a session chair, we can publish a call for papers for your
panel session on the conference web site and distribute it in our
newsletter. If you have an idea for a thematic panel session and would like
us to publish a call for papers on the conference website, please send us a
proposal by e-mail to info at enkidumagazine.com

* PROPOSALS FOR INDIVIDUAL PAPERS

Abstracts are to be submitted by 15th of August 2008, along with the
presenter’s name, address, telephone, email, and institutional affiliation.
It is recommended to use the form here:
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture/registration_en.htm
when submitting an abstract. However, abstracts will also be accepted as
e-mail attachments to info at aidsinculture.org

All correspondence for this conference will be conducted via email. You will
be notified by the 15th of September 2008 whether your proposal has been
accepted or rejected. Full conference papers should be submitted by the 1st
of November 2008. Abstracts and summaries of the conference papers will be
made available at the conference web page from August 2008.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted within
few days. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume
we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We
suggest, then, to resend your abstract and resubmit your registration form,
and if possible, suggest an alternative e-mail address. In particular
delegates using hotmail or yahoo accounts to receive conference related
e-mails often experience problems receiving conference information by
e-mail.

E-mails from the conference organisers are often delivered to your spam
folder and not to your inbox, unless you remember to add the following
e-mail addresses: info at aidsinculture.org and liowlb at aidsinculture.org to
your safe-list. The first address is the general e-mail address of
AIDSinCULTURE.org and will be used to send conference newsletters and
general information. The second, is the e-mail address of the academic
coordinator of the conference and will be used for individual communication
with delegates.

* EXHIBITORS, PUBLISHERS AND ARTISTS:

Artists are welcome to suggest exhibitions and displays of art during the
conference.
Organisations, universities and publishers are welcome to sign up for
information stands at the conference center.

The following information is required by artists, publishers and other
exhibitors during the conference:

1) Technical Description of the information stand or artwork with
indications of technical requirements for their presentation, the size and
extension of the individual artworks to be presented.

2) Estimated Insurance value of the artworks

3) One image of a representative sample of artistic work from the
exhibitions can be sent by e-mail to the conference organizers in the format
tiff or jpg.

4) Curriculum Vitae of artist (or organisation).

5) Description of Exhibition (300 - 500 words).

6) Short bio of artist (or organisation).

* CULTURAL AND SOCIAL PRE-CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

The academic sessions with formal paper presentations will take place
between 9 and 13 December, 2008. In the 2 weeks before the conference, we
will organise a number of cultural and social activities for conference
delegates and we hope that many international delegates will consider
arriving in Mexico City some days before the conference and participate in
these activities, which will include a guided tour to Teotihuacan, a city
walk through colonial and Aztec Mexico City, and an exploration of the
floating gardens of Xochimilco.

In addition conference delegates with name badges will be given discounts
and sometimes free access to various theatre plays, concerts, film
screenings and other events before and during the conference. The final
program for the cultural and social pre-conference activities will be
published on the conference web site in September 2008 and will be announced
also in the conference newsletter, which will be distributed by e-mail in
the months before the conference.

* REGISTRATION FEE for "Aids in Culture V":

Payment received via PayPal or bank transfer in advance (Payments completed
before 1. September 2008):

- Waged delegates (speakers): 125 USD/1300 MXP
- Students and unwaged delegates (speakers): 80 USD/882 MXP
- Observer Participant (Listener): 70 USD/782 MXP

Payment in cash, payment on location, and payments completed after 1.
September 2007:

- Waged delegates (speakers):  175 USD/1750 MXP
- Students and unwaged delegates (speakers): 100 USD/1008 MXP
- Observer Participant (Listener): 70 USD/782 MXP

Enkidu and the participating organisations will not be able to provide
travel support for conference delegates. It is therefore strongly
recommended to apply for a scholarship or a grant from other sources.

* PAYMENT INFORMATION:

For international participants we recommend using PayPal for the payment.
PayPal is an account-based system that lets anyone with an email address
securely send and receive online payments using their credit card or bank
account. PayPal accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express,
thus expanding your payment options. First time PayPal users will need to
set up a PayPal account. Instructions for paying the registration fee
through PayPal are found on the conference web site at:
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture/payment.htm

Upon completion of payment, PayPal will email a receipt to both the
conference organisers and yourself. The receipt will state that you have
paid "Registration Fee for "AIDS in CULTURE IV" and the amount transferred.
If you need any further documentation about the registration fee to attach
to grant applications or your visa application, please send an e-mail to the
conference organisers indicating the requirements of your institution and
which information the receipt should contain.

If you have any questions about using PayPal, or you prefer other forms of
payment, please contact José Ivan at jose_ivan at aidsinculture.org. You can
also visit the PayPal homepage for more information about this payment
system: https://www.paypal.com/

Centro Cultural Enkidu
http://www.enkidumagazine.com
Manuel Carpio 46 - 5
Santa Maria La Ribera
Mexico - D. F.
C.P. 06400
México
Email: info at enkidumagazine.com