[URBANTH-L]CFP: Identities in Transition (Mexico City)

[Angela Jancius]

Call for Papers: Identities in Transition

Mexico City, June 2007
The Enkidu Summer Conference 2007
June 1 - 5, 2007, Mexico City

Deadline: 2007-02-28

The primary focus of this inclusive and interdisciplinary conference 
organized by Enkidu Magazine and the International Society for Cultural 
History and Cultural Studies (CHiCS) in Mexico City is to interrogate 
storytelling, memories and identity constructions from a wide range of 
perspectives, definitions and in their manifold cultural and social 
manifestations. This year the conference will have a special focus on 
Identities in Transition and spaces and narratives of identities. Papers 
addressing remembering and forgetting of the past as well as translations 
between cultures and re-negotiations and re-constructions of cultural 
identities in one one way or another are particularly welcome.

"Identities in Transition" continues the tradition established by the 
previous held events in this conference cycle which has developed into an 
annual academic tradition in Mexico City, bringing together participants 
from all over the world to share and exchange their research, experiences 
and ideas in a truly multicultural, multilingual and interdisciplinary 
academic environment: Masculinities: New Perspectives (2004), Competing 
Diversities (2005), and Testimonial Texts: Stories, Lives and Memories 
(2006).

We welcome submissions from all branches of the social sciences, humanities, 
as well as the arts.
Graduate students are encouraged to participate.

The program will be organised in a large number of special thematic sessions 
and subconferences covering a highly diverse series of topics extending from 
"Conquest and Political Memory in late colonial Nahuatl texts from Central 
Mexico", "Migrations and Diasporas: Displacement Heritage, Global Spaces and 
Cultural Memories", "Imaginary Homelands", "'Memory' and 'Nostalgia' in 
cultural texts" to "Cyber-identities in movement" and "Slave Narratives from 
the Archives of the Spanish Inquisition".
Papers will be considered on related themes and topics from a wide range of 
perspectives. 500 word abstracts should be submitted to the organising 
committee in English, Castilian, German or French by 28th of February 2007. 
The conference languages will be English and Castilian.

Interpretations of the conference theme ranging from the predictable to the 
surprising are encouraged.
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.

CHICS' academic conferences are characterized by traditional paper 
presentations in panel sessions with three speakers each, followed by lively 
exchange, dialogue and interaction between speakers and audience in many 
small groups, workshops and seminars rather than by formal plenary sessions. 
Our conferences provide a forum for diverse voices from all over the world, 
to come together and make connections across linguistic, cultural and 
academic barriers.

The conference sessions will be conducted in Spanish and English. Some 
sessions will be bilingual and conducted in both languages with 
interpreters. Other sessions will have simultaneous translations. Many 
sessions will be conducted with interpreters for sign language (on request).

Among the themes of interest are the following:
Narrative and Linguistics
Linguistic borders and translation
Narrative and Myth
Storytelling in rituals, customs, and fetishism.
Storytelling and Visual/Performing Arts and Music
Oral Tradition and Contemporary Chronicle
Postmodernity and its narratives
Voice and reflexivity in oral and written texts
Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives
Globalization and indigenous cultures
Story, Dialogue and Discourse
Memory and truth-telling
Testimonial Narratives
Memory and Written Record
Text, Context and Intertext in Storytelling and Performance
Children's Stories
Language, Authority and Silence

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...

* Paper and panel proposals
500 word abstracts should be submitted to the organising committee in 
English, Castilian, German or French by 28. February 2007. The conference 
languages will be English and Castilian.
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 28. February 2007, along with the presenter's 
name, short bio, address, telephone, email, and institutional affiliation. 
It is recommended to use the form here: 
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/identities07/registration.htm , when 
submitting an abstract. However, abstracts will also be accepted as e-mail 
attachments to info at enkidumagazine.com.

All correspondence for this conference will be conducted via email. You will 
be notified by the 15th of March 2007 whether your proposal has been 
accepted or rejected.

* 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.

Dr. Lars Ivar Owesen-Lein Borge
Academic Coordinator
Enkidu Magazine
www.enkidumagazine.com
Dreieichstrasse 5
D-60594 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Germany: 0049 69 62491
Mexico: 0052 55 5961 7629
Email: info at enkidumagazine.com
Visit the website at 
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/identities07/intro_en.htm