"If I told you about a land of love, friend, would you follow me and come?" (Yunus Emre, 13th century Turkish mystic poet).

"The Future of Ecocriticism: New Horizons," organized by Hacettepe and Ankara Universities, Ankara, and co-sponsored by The Turkish Fulbright Commission, will be the first international conference on ecocriticism in Turkey. It welcomes papers on topics related to ecocritical studies from diverse theoretical and literary perspectives. The conference encourages papers on the following topics:

-    International responses to American and world environmental literatures
-    Ecocritical interpretations of Turkish literature and literatures of Turkic speaking peoples
-    Mediterranean environmental literatures
-    Ecocritical theory in new perspectives
-    Connections between Eastern and Western environmental sensibilities
-    Bioregionalism in theory and practice
-    Environmental ethics and aesthetics
-    Deep ecology and ecophilosophy
-    Postmodern ecologies
-    Ecopoetics
-    Environmental education and ecological literacy
-    Narratives of animals and animality
-    Ecological humanism in children’s literatures
-    New ecofeminist approaches to literary texts
-    Ecocritical approaches to myths, legends and folk tales from around the world
-    Literature and environmental justice
-    Marine life and water in ecocritical studies
-    Literary responses to the global ecological crisis and climate change
-    Wild life conservation in ecocritical studies

The official conference language is English. For registration, payment, and booking, please visit our website: http://www.ecocriticism.hacettepe.edu.tr.
Please submit your paper title, an abstract of no more than 350 words, your short bio, and your contact details (institution, mailing address, telephone number, email) by July 31, 2009 to <ecocriticism@hacettepe.edu.tr>. All email submissions will receive a confirmation of receipt. For further information, please contact:

Serpil Oppermann, Hacettepe University, <opperman@hacettepe.edu.tr>
Ufuk Özdağ, Hacettepe University, <ozdag@hacettepe.edu.tr>
Nevin Özkan, Ankara University, <ozkan@humanity.ankara.edu.tr>.

(posted 2 May '09)

Corpora – principled collections of data in electronic format - have emerged over the last decades as a powerful analytical tool both in applied and theoretical linguistics. They have turned out of particularly significant importance in studies on language variation and language varieties. Indeed, the wealth and amount of data  made available through corpus compilation and query tools  have increasingly enabled researchers to explore differences across spoken and written discourse, social, diachronic and geographic varieties, age groups, gender, idiolects, etc. The widening of studies on language variation and language varieties, however, still calls for discussion on significant methodological issues, which pose, among others, the following questions: What are the major methodological problems in the research field? What is the role of the comparative perspective? Which tools and methodology best suit research?

The conference intends to focus on such issues in order to provide a better definition of the concepts under investigation and bring together significant and innovative contributions in what is now understood as a widely researched area, thus presenting new tools and perspectives to be investigated.  This is also the main general objective of the CLAVIER research group (Corpus and Language Variation Research Group), a research centre recently founded by the Universities of Bergamo, Firenze, Modena and Reggio Emilia, Roma "La Sapienza", and Siena, and currently based in Modena. The point of departure is the invaluable contribution of two complementary strands of linguistic investigation - corpus analysis and discourse analysis – to research on language variation in English, both in quantitative and qualitative terms.

One of the purposes of the 2009 CLAVIER conference is to reinforce national and international cooperation with scholars and research centres that can widen and complement the interest in language variation currently driving research at the centre.

Udo Fries (University of Zürich)
Anna Mauranen (University of Helsinki)
Josef Schmied (University of Chemnitz)
Geoffrey Williams (University of Bretagne-Sud)

We would like to bring together different perspectives on  language variation and use. Plenaries and papers will aim at giving a special insight into the following topics:  

a.    using historical corpora to investigate diachronic language variation
b.    using corpora as an innovative tool in exploring geographic varieties
c.    corpus linguistics  in the investigation of non-native language use in professional settings
d.    corpus linguistics tools, special languages, and specialist lexicography.

Contributions concerning other topics will also be accepted on condition that they are relevant to the special theme of the Conference.

The conference will start early in the afternoon on the first day and close around lunchtime on the third day. It will be immediately  preceded by a pre-conference workshop on specialist lexicography organized by the Modena Lexi-Term research group. Conference participants are welcome to join the workshop.

Papers will be allotted 20 minutes, plus 10 minutes for discussion.
Time will be allotted for a poster session.
Working Language: English

Please send your anonymous abstract totalling no more than 500 words by June 30th 2009 to the following address: <clavier09@unimore.it>.

Please do not include any self-identifying information on the abstract; indicate only the title and the abstract itself. On a separate cover sheet, include: title, format: (paper/ poster), author, affiliation, postal mailing address (for primary author), e-mail (for primary author).

June 30th, 2009: Deadline for receipt of abstracts
July 20th, 2009: Notifications of acceptance/rejection
September 10th, 2009: Programme

Organizing committee: Marina Bondi, Silvia Cacchiani, Silvia Cavalieri, Giuliana Diani, Giuseppe Palumbo.

Scientific Committee: Julia Bamford (Napoli), Marina Bondi (Modena e Reggio Emilia), Gabriella Del Lungo (Firenze), Marina Dossena (Bergamo), Rita Salvi (Roma), Elena Tognini Bonelli (Siena).

(posted 4 Jun '09)

Museums are in various ways connected with narratives: they have prompted the literary imagination and feature in a wide range of texts, such as David Lodge's The British Museum is Falling Down, A.S. Byatt’s "Morpho Eugenia", and Evelyn Grill's Der Sammler. Writers and literary texts have been 'developed' in museums or museum-type venues, and museums themselves have experimented with spatial arrangements resembling narrative structures.

Making sense of material data and telling stories about them is one of the basic functions of the public museum, which emerged in the 18th century out of private collections, and which has become ever more experimental in the light of new technologies and the postmodern foregrounding of experience, activity, and process.

The aim of this conference is to exploit the various connections between narratives and the materiality and mediality of the museum. We invite papers dealing with

Our interest is mainly in museums and museum-type venues, such as heritage sites, in Anglophone countries, and we would particularly like to encourage those actively involved in museography and museology to contribute papers and engage in what we hope to be a rewarding debate about the 'literariness' of museums.

Papers may not exceed 30 minutes delivery time and will be followed by 15 minutes of discussion. Two papers will be given in one session of 90 minutes in all. The language of papers and discussions is English. This conference also includes a forum for PhD students working in this area and a teachers' forum. The latter will be announced separately.

(posted 14 Feb '09)

Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches sur les Langues, les Littératures, la Lecture et l’Elaboration de la Pensée, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne.
The notion of the people will be at the core of our reflections. How is the people defined? Does the notion of people exist autonomously and/or in its relation to others? Why, when and how does the notion appear in history, language, literature and the arts? Do the people write about themselves? If not, who speaks for them? What is the legitimacy of such endeavours? Do they imply a hidden agenda? For whom are such representations meant? How are they implemented?

(posted 14 Dec '08)

'Is there a shadowy presence behind tragic heroes, in the person of "Adam", the first and greatest man? Adam is certainly their archetype, as Chaucer’s Monk implies by beginning his "tragedies" with Adam’s story.’ Michael Edwards, Towards a Christian Poetics, 1984, p. 15.
'Our beginning is neither at the creation of the world, which could make of us God's continuers, nor in Eden, where our art would be the Word of the universe, the voice of creation responding to its Creator, but rather in the Fall of man, whether that also be an event in history or simply a manifest fact of the human condition. For us, it is the cherubim with flaming swords that have invented art.' Michael Edwards, 'Lunar Shadows: Reflections on Literary Creation' (from Ombres de lune: réflexions sur la création littéraire, Paris, 2001) in The Glass No 19, p. 6.
'Without the Fall, or some other explanation which we must suppose for our unhappiness, we would not continuously have this desire to re-invent the earth, to invent times and places, narratives, events, characters other than those of life outside literature, to prize the difference writing makes between the world and the book.' Ibid., p. 11
The Fall motif is found widely in modern literature; the idea is a middle term: there's better before and after, actual or suggested.
Keynote paper: After the Garden: Re-imagining the Fall in Contemporary Fiction, Dr Andrew Tate, Department of English and Creative Writing, Lancaster University

Offers of papers to be read at the conference (and subsequently printed in The Glass) are invited before the deadline, 30 April 2009. Papers should have a reading length of 25 minutes. Please send a provisional title and short paragraph stating how you will approach your topic, add some information about your background.

(Posted 3 Feb '09)

This conference, organised jointly by Lucy Cavendish College and Anglia Ruskin University, is aimed at all those with an interest in Heyer's historical novels, whether academics or general readers.
It will include formal papers and more informal discussion sessions.  We would welcome papers on any aspect of Heyer's historical novels.
Possible topics might include:

-    her sources and influences
-    theoretical approaches to her works
-    her critical and popular reception
-    gender, sexuality and class

Proposals for 20 minute papers should be sent to <sarah.brown@anglia.ac.uk> by 15 July 2009.

(posted 2 Jun '09)

Convenors:

Travel and translation are two sides of the same coin. Travel writing translates its readers to new climes; translation makes a text travel in time and space. We invite contributions which focus on the relationship between translation and non-fictional travel writing ˆ both towards the "scientific" and "literary" ends of the spectrum ˆ for the period 1750-1850, which saw great changes both in the practice of travel and travel writing and in the quantity and type of books translated. We welcome papers taking theoretical and historical approaches, as well as case studies. We particularly welcome contributions with a focus on book history.

- Fidelity vs. creativity and self-expression in the translation of travel accounts
- Gender and the 'visibility' of women as translators of travel writing
- Professional vs. amateur translators
- "Scientific" vs. "literary" models of translation in travel accounts
- Translation and anthologisation of travel accounts
- Translators as travellers
- Translating the Grand Tour
- Domestication/foreignisation of travel accounts through translation

It is anticipated that the main focus will be on English, French, Dutch and German but contributions on other European language areas will also be considered.

- Dr. Alison E. Martin <alison.martin@anglistik.uni-halle.de>

- Dr. Susan Pickford <susan.pickford@gmail.com>.

(posted 20 Jan '09)

Conference organised on behalf of the Société d’études anglaises contemporaines (SEAC).
Keynote speaker: Derek Attridge (University of York).   
Convenors: Lacy Rumsey (ENS LSH), Simon Jarvis (University of Cambridge), Paul Volsik (Université Paris Diderot).

The twentieth century was one of great change in poetic rhythm in English-language poetry, in Britain as elsewhere, seeing the powerful spread of free or non-metrical forms, continued strength and innovation within the metrical tradition, and - lying between the best-known examples of modernist free verse and the most recognisable metrical forms - a vast range of rhythmic experiment of all kinds, much of which falls outside the dominant paradigms for apprehending poetic rhythm.

The century's closing decades also saw significant changes in the models used to describe and understand poetic rhythm.  Much contemporary work in prosody uses ideas and models drawn from linguistics to further the understanding and criticism of poetry.  Such work has permitted advances in the apprehension of the multiple facets of rhythm in both its linguistic and its psychological aspects, including an exploration of its relationship to metre, intonation and phrasing; it has also helped renew attempts to theorize rhythm’s role in the construction of meaning.  Despite this, a great deal of the twentieth century’s best and most interesting British poetry remains, with regard to its rhythm, under-described, and criticism more generally seems to steer clear of what is often seen as an essential but difficult topic.  This conference will seek to provide an occasion for dialogue between criticism and prosody, in the hope of improving understanding of a rich, various and powerful period for British poetry.

Papers will be welcomed on any aspect of the theory and practice of poetic rhythm in twentieth-century British poetry, with possible topics and approaches including:

-    accounts of individual poets' rhythmic practice;
-    problems and opportunities for rhythmic analysis thrown up by single poems or groups of poems;
-    period styles and their historical and cultural connotations;
-    the place of rhythm in debates over poetic canon, tradition, school;
-    mutations of particular metres or stanza forms;
-    rhythms associated - rightly or wrongly - with particular national, regional, dialect, class or community identifications;
-    the rhythms of music and song as they relate to poetry;
-    rhythm and cognition;
-    the place of prosodic ideas - notions of rhythm, metre, the foot, the beat - in poets’ compositional practice;
-    poets as prosodic theorists and commentators;
-    the relationship between metrical and non-metrical language;
-    free verse as a 'period style' (Marjorie Perloff);
-    the influence of, and on, other national traditions (American, Irish, French…)
-    issues of performance: accent and beat placement, metrical choice, contexts of reading, rhythm in private and public performance;
-    the relationship of scansion to literary theory, of prosody to poetics;
-    "rhythm" in its looser sense of the structure, pattern, movement of a text or body of work.

Lacy Rumsey: <lrumsey@ens-lsh.fr>
Simon Jarvis: <spj15@cam.ac.uk>
Paul Volsik: <paul.volsik@univ-paris-diderot.fr>

(posted 12 Feb '09)

Over the last hundred years many creative writers, critics, thinkers and artists -- for example Peter Ackroyd, Derek Jarman, Carl Jung and Marina Warner - have turned to the magicians and alchemists of the Renaissance period for inspiration. Some have been drawn to the intriguing remoteness of such figures from our own more scientific and sceptical age.  Others, by contrast, have sought to discover unexpected points of contact between the mysteries of the occult and more modern mysteries, such as quantum science. The lure of the occult today may partly be explained by a growing dissatisfaction with Enlightenment rationalism and its perceived failure to address fundamental human concerns.

This conference, which will take place on Saturday 14 November 2009 at Anglia Ruskin University, will explore these more recent aspects of the afterlife of the Renaissance Occult.
We welcome brief proposals for 30 minute papers from creative writers and scholars in any relevant field.

Keynote speakers will include Professor Gyorgy Szonyi, a Leverhulme Visiting Professor from the University of Szeged, Dr Ewan Fernie (Royal Holloway) and Professor Marina Warner (Essex). Please send your abstract to <sarah.brown@anglia.ac.uk> by 3 1 May 2009.

(posted 29 Apr '09)

In recent years trends in biography have shifted from the desire to present a definitive life to a more self reflexive approach. Metabiographies such as Lucasta Miller's The Bronte Myth, Sarah Churchwell's The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe and Richard Holmes's The Age of Wonder provide alternative renderings of both the biographical subject and his or her entry into collective cultural consciousness.

This one day postgraduate conference intends to respond to these recent innovations in life writing by offering the opportunity to explore such questions as:

- Is the "definitive life" dead?
- How can we write about subjects with pervasive public images?
- Does biography have a claim to truth of representation?

We invite postgraduate researchers to submit abstracts for papers of 15-20 minutes considering the questions posed above or indeed any topics connected to the role of myth in biography and history.  These may include but are not confined to the following research areas:

- Works in Progress: Strategies for Negotiating Mythologized Subjects

- Critical Readings: Analysing History, "Truth" and Perception in Life Writing
- Theoretical Approaches: Audience Expectations, Historical Conventions and the Biographical Form

Paper title with an abstract of between 200-300 words should be emailed to <Biography@uea.ac.uk> by 1st September. Please include your name, email address and university affiliation along with brief details of your writing or research project.

The conference will commence with a keynote speech by life writer Kathryn Hughes, and the event will conclude with a 60 minute round table discussion in which practicing biographers Jon Cooke, Lucasta Miller, Helen Smith and DJ Taylor will consider themes arising from the day.

(posted 5 May '09)

Amsterdam has always been a locus of powerful imagining, and for centuries the city has been the subject of representation in literature, music, and the visual arts. Yet while artists and writers have long emphasised the city's reputation for permissiveness and tolerance, in recent years the international image of Amsterdam as the paradigm of an "open society" has been charged with new significance and urgency. Against the backdrop of the war on terror, an increasingly polarised debate has taken place about multiculturalism and about new, global challenges to our Western models of capitalist democracy. In this context Amsterdam has emerged as a privileged site of representation which registers changes, instabilities, and contradictions in the contemporary self-image of the West. On the one hand, the city’s small scale and friendly face continue to secure a special - though often caricatured - place for it in the iconography of liberal democracy, and images of Amsterdam as open and tolerant have been reinflected and reassessed. On the other hand, international media coverage of the murder of Theo van Gogh and other recent events has located Amsterdam at the forefront of transformations that are felt to be underway or imminent in European society at large, turning the city into the site of various imaginings of the future. In a variety of ways, the image of Amsterdam stimulates utopian, heterotopian, as well as dystopian scenarios and speculations. Writers, artists, and film makers use the image of Amsterdam as a vehicle for reflection on much wider social, political, and cultural concerns, and their literary, filmic, and artistic renderings allow us to explore contemporary ideas about global and international developments.

This conference aims to examine the popular, literary, cinematic, and artistic image of Amsterdam in the age of globalisation. From internationally acclaimed novels by John Irving, Arnon Grunberg, and Ian McEwan to blockbusters like Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve; from historical fictions by Deborah Moggach and David Liss to sociological journalism like Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam; and from Albert Camus's classic novel La Chute to art films like Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching, the storehouse of international representations of Amsterdam is vast and diverse. But whether these representations focus on the city as the setting of experimental and alternative lifestyles, on its history as a cradle of early-modern and modern capitalism, or on the inter-cultural tensions (including a religiously motivated killing) which it has seen in recent years, Amsterdam has always triggered an intense and multifaceted response in the eyes of its international and Anglophone beholders. The conference welcomes papers that explore these issues from various theoretical, critical, analytical, and cultural perspectives.

1.    Representations of Amsterdam as a transcultural meeting place: How do imaginings of Amsterdam situate the Netherlands in the world? By which strategies is the city constructed and marketed as a "brand"? In what sort of cultural practices and representations do the notions of tolerance, liberty and freedom commonly associated with Amsterdam find embodiment?

2.    Representations of Amsterdam as an historical centre of capitalism, commerce, and colonial trade: What are the politics and aesthetics of these imaginings in the face of a changing economic world order? How does Amsterdam function as a lieu de mémoire of the financial and economic world? Which scenarios for the future does the image of Amsterdam invite?

3.    Representations of "libertarian" Amsterdam: In imagining Amsterdam as a sanctuary for legalised prostitution and euthanasia, do artists and film makers respond to a reality which they see as being unique to Dutch society? Or, do they displace foreign or international concerns, problems, and issues onto the Dutch city? What sort of authority - historical or artistic, fact-based or fictional - do these representations claim? And how can we historicise these, often stereotypical representations?

4.    Representations of Amsterdam as the paradigm of an "open society" whose tolerance and long-standing multiculturalist ideals are currently under question: How has the image of the city changed since 9/11 and the "clash of civilisations" debate? How do literature, cinema, and the arts respond to the global coverage of recent Dutch news events? What sort of cultural transfers are facilitated by these responses?

•    Cinematic transfers in mainstream film (e.g. Paul Verhoeven, Dick Maas) and art house cinema (e.g. Theo van Gogh, Peter Greenaway).

Proposals for individual papers of no more than 300 words should be sent to both Dr. Joyce Goggin <j.goggin@uva.nl> and Dr. Marco de Waard <marco.dewaard@uva.nl> by February 14, 2009. We also welcome proposals for panels of three speakers (summarising the rationale of the panel and providing abstracts of each paper). The conference will be held in Amsterdam, November 19-21, 2009, and will be jointly hosted by the Department of English and the Institute of Culture and History (ICH), University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam University College.

(posted 3 Nov '08)

At a time when the term 'spatial turn' has almost become a truism in Cultural Studies, the spatial grounding of identity constructions is a central topic of cultural analysis. Based on the approaches of New Cultural Geography, many researchers aim at ‘reading’ spaces in a semiotic way, i.e. at looking at the meanings that are subconsciously or deliberately associated with them. This is especially productive with regard to group identities. On the one hand, this includes those traditionally mediated in spatial terms like national or class identities. On the other hand, there are new, potentially contested constructions of social or cultural hierarchies (e.g. in the workplace) that can be naturalised by giving them a supposedly solid spatial basis.

The conference will address such questions with a specific focus on Britain. Comparative perspectives e.g. with regard to Germany or the US can however also be included in the discussion. Papers will deal both with actual spaces and with their representation in fictional, non-fictional and visual texts. A range of different approaches from more general analyses to very concrete historical and contemporary case studies is welcome.

•    the processes and problems of constructing national identity in Britain
•    the British regions and the identity clashes between them
•    the contrast between city and countryside and its development
•    gendered spaces in Britain
•    spatial manifestations of social class
•    relationships between space and constructions of ethnicity in Britain
•    the functioning of British cultural spaces
•    the use of space in British literary and medial representations
•    metaphorical, imaginary and 'lost' spaces in Britain

Please send prospective paper titles (for 20-minute slots) and abstracts (of about 300 words) to: <toennies@mail.upb.de> by 5 June 2009.

(posted 7 Mar 2009)

Darwin’s theory of evolution was to revolutionise the understanding of the natural and social world and has had far-reaching implications on theological, sociological, biological and political issues as perhaps no other scientific theory. The English Department of Göttingen University will celebrate the long-lasting impact of Darwin's evolutionary model in academic fields as well as popular culture with a two-day academic conference "Darwin Among the Disciplines" on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species in November 2009. By bringing together contributions from the humanities and arts, natural sciences, social sciences and theology, we hope for a transdisciplinary exploration of how Darwin's ideas have reshaped our understanding of human nature and engendered ongoing debates and controversies.

We invite papers exploring Darwin's legacy with particular, though not exclusive, relevance to the following themed sessions: Darwin's impact on art, music, and literature, the Darwin industry (books, exhibitions), evolution and religion, evolution and popular culture, evolution and the social sciences, evolution and biotechnology; evolution and sex / gender.

The conference will take place November 20-21, 2009 at Göttingen University; the conference language will be English.
Keynote speakers include Ian Duncan, CU Berkeley, Eve-Marie Engels, Tübingen and Virginia Richter, Berne University.

200-words abstracts should be sent by April 1st, 2009 to Barbara Schaff, Englisches Seminar der Universität Göttingen, Käte-Hamburger-Weg 3, D - 37073 Göttingen. Email: <bschaff@uni-goettingen.de>.

(posted 2 Mar '09)

As part of its series of meetings on "Early Modern Cartography of Difference" the TIMEE research group is organising a two-day conference on the politics of exception in the Elizabethan era (broadly interpreted) on 20th-21st November 2009, hosted by the University of Paris Ouest - La Defense.
This conference follows up on a previous gathering in 2006 where we traced ways in which a number of forms of otherness (the deviant, the uncanny…) were negotiated or enacted through language and texts.
While very much connected to these issues, the notion of exception calls for a shift of focus to cases where difference occurs and is read against a background of variously self-conscious, explicit norms. It may indeed be provided for or pre-empted in the very rationale of such norms. The notion obviously cuts across a very wide range of discourses and social uses, both in terms of Early Modern categories and modern academic disciplines (law, literature, history of science…) and transdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged. Exception can be usefully approached through such cognate notions as monstrousness, rarity, the exotic or cases of jurisprudence but whichever the perspective adopted, papers should, as much as possible, attend to the social uses of the concept(s) chosen in the Early Modern era and/or their syntactic incorporation. Whilst literary approaches will most likely form the core of the conference, alternate angles include, but are not limited to: natural history, history of collecting, history of law, social history, lexicography…
Proposals (about half-a-page long) should be submitted by 30th June 2009 to François Mallet and Yan Brailowsky: <timee@u-paris10.fr>.

(posted 8 Jun '09)

The Bulgarian Society for British Studies and the History Department of  New Bulgarian University (NBU), Sofia  organize a conference to mark the Gladstone Bicentenary entitled William Gladstone, Victorianism and Nationalism in historical and literary perspective, to be held at NBU on November 20-21, 2009.
The panels at the conference will be centered on:

(posted 23 Mar '09)

Catherine Belsey
Simon Critchley
Stefan Herbrechter
Giuseppe Mazzotta
Laurent Milesi
Jean-Michel Rabaté

Abstracts for papers, preferably stylishly brief, should be sent to styleintheory2009@um.edu.mt by 30 June 2009, copied to the addresses below. The organizers will also be glad to respond to questions about the conference.

(posted 19 May '69)

The English-speaking film world, united by the English language and the circulation of talents, technicians and capital, encompasses a variety of types of industrial organisation. There is a number of cooperations between the industries of the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. These countries not only work together, they also have relationships with other audiovisual industries across Europe, Latin America and Asia. At a time when globalisation is thriving, English-speaking film and television industries are getting more and more involved abroad.

The involvement of English-speaking film and television industries abroad takes various shapes. One is the shooting of productions abroad, i.e. runaway productions. Another is producing abroad, i.e. financing films or television programmes of non-English-speaking countries, sometimes in the local language. Although these two types of involvements, runaway productions and direct investments, stem from different economic and cultural practices, they should not be considered conflicting but rather complementary.

Studying such issues depends on the standpoint you adopt. First, the meanings of "abroad" and "foreign" are problematic and imply defining the concept of "nationality". As the world is becoming increasingly "global", is the concept of nationality still relevant? This question is particularly apt when one analyses the close relationships which link English-speaking film and television industries. Secondly, these issues should be considered both from the point of view of the investors and from the point of view of the host countries and industries. Why shoot and produce abroad? What specific kinds of films and programmes are shot and produced? How do the host countries and industries react? Are these relationships profitable (financially, technologically, etc.) or do they create tensions or disagreements?
We will welcome historical perspectives on this phenomenon, but more especially studies which emphasize its current specificities and possible future impacts. The aim is to analyse the cultural phenomena at work in a globalized world where national cultures still have a role to play. What are the industrial and cultural stakes of the involvement of English-speaking film and television industries abroad?

- relationships between investors and local players (collaboration or control, difficulties arising in the working relationships, mutual advantages)
- changing movie-making landscapes
- types of films and programmes shot and produced
- distribution of those films and programmes
- privileged relationships between two countries (Britain/India, United States/Canada, etc.)
- definition of the  nationality of the productions
- cultural content
- questions of hybridization and transnationalization
- cultural exchanges or tensions
- marketing practices
- reception of those productions

(posted 8 Jun '09)

Third International English Department Conference on “Perception/s”
The concept of perception is open to endless speculation and debate. The way individuals and societies come to operate within a coherent and presumably unchanging reality, the way language and ideology name, validate, and reinforce ostensibly immutable worldviews, are subjects that command considerable interest and research in the human sciences. With the advent of globalization - the implosion of borders between national communities, co-incident with the strengthening of micro-nationalisms and revival of local allegiances - the assumption that reality and perception are relative, fluid and particular, threateningly hidebound and bigoted, seems to be the order of the day. However, while in current philosophy reality openly sloughs off universality and timelessness, in international politics, however, certain worldviews are waging fierce battles against particularism and change.

The English Department at the 'Institut Supérieur des Sciences Humaines de Tunis' invites papers on perception, especially the way it has been re-thought in the modern era. If perception refers to the process of acquiring sensory information and stimulating the mind to organize and interpret that information, then can we assume that our perception of things is context-free? If perception necessarily has an empirical basis, is it capable of reaching total objectivity and uniformity? Is there a gap between the phenomenal and the noumenal, as Kant argues, and is there such a thing as ‘intrinsic reality’, the unattainable ‘things-in-themselves’? Or do we operate in the realm of perception – constructed realities and self-contained linguistic and ideological universes - as Hegel would rather argue? What is the role of apperception in creating and organizing our understanding of the world?

These question and others are worth re-asking in the light of recent (and old) scholarship. The conference will be a forum to exchange research findings, points of view and ideas regarding the concept of perception

•    Literary discourse and the representation of reality.
•    Literature and ideology.
•    Aesthetic theories of perception.
•    Postmodern theory and the concept of perception?
•    Language and meaning.
•    Language and reality.
•    Coherence and pragmatism theories.
•    Contingency.
•    Political discourse and perception.
•    Truth and perception.
•    History / Historiography and perception..
•    Media and perception.
•    International relations and perception.

Oral presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes. Please submit abstracts not exceeding 300 words. The deadline for abstract submission is March, 14th, 2009.

By e-mail to: <confperceptions2009@gmail.com>
Or by snail mail to:
Tel. 71 569 499 / 71 561 439
Fax. (216) 71 571 911

January 2009: call for papers
March 14th, 2009: deadline for submitting abstracts.
April 18th, 2009: notification of participants of selected abstracts.

Mr Imed Bouslama, Mrs. Lamia Tayeb, Mrs. Hela Ayed, Mr Adel Manai

Mr Imed Bouslama, Mrs. Fatima Radhouani, Mrs. Sameh Ben Aziza, Ms. Karima Arif

(posted 10 Feb '09)

2009 marks the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth (12 February 1809) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his groundbreaking On the Origin of Species (24 November 1859).

The University of Porto CETAPS (Centre for English, Translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies) is holding a special conference to honour Charles Darwin's enduring legacy, and examine how his ideas remain central to contemporary research, within and beyond the biological sciences, echoing the global celebrations of his life and work, and his impact across the disciplines.

David Amigoni (Keele University, UK), http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/en/staff/d_amigoni.html
John Van Wyhe (Cambridge University, UK), http://darwin-online.org.uk/people/van_wyhe.html

João Cabral – Botanist (FCUP).

Jorge Vieira – Biologist/Molecular Evolution/IBMC (Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology).
Maria Teresa Malafaia – Specialist in English/Victorian Studies/Social Darwinism (UL).
Nuno Ferrand – Biologist. CIBIO coordinator (Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources - UP).
Octávio Mateus – Biologist and Paleontologist (specialist in Dinosaurs. FCT-UNL/Museum of Lourinhã).

The conference title draws inspiration from the notable conclusion of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. In it he writes:

Darwin's descriptions rely on the formulation of incredibly complex and visual pictures, often portrayed in a series of "imaginary illustrations" which combine colourful arrangements of both facts and suppositions. The reader is constantly involved in a visual perceptual chaos of entanglements and webbed relationships, performances and theatricalities, exhibiting the way in which the human, animal and natural worlds are mutually imbricated. This conference wishes to contribute to the ongoing disentanglement of Darwin's legacy, which remains as controversial to twenty-first century critics as it was to Darwin's contemporaries. There are still many missing links and inherent contradictions that continue to attract growing, interdisciplinary attention from a wide range of specialisms. All in all, the re-drawing of physical and psychological frontiers demanded by evolutionary theory in an attempt to define what is meant by human nature is still very much in progress, validating at the same time extraordinary opportunities for further research.

We welcome 20-minute papers in English dealing with all aspects of Darwin's legacy, from science to literature and the social sciences, the visual arts, religion, philosophy, politics and cultural relations.

Please include the following information with your proposal: the full title of your paper; a 250-300 word abstract; your name, postal address and e-mail address; your institutional affiliation and position; any audiovisual requirements you may have.

The deadline for proposals is 15 October 2009. Participants will be notified of acceptance no later than 31 October 2009.

- Porto: http://www.travel-in-portugal.com/Porto/
- Airport: http://www.ana.pt/portal/page/portal/ANA/AEROPORTO_PORTO/

(posted 8 Jun '09)

Drawing on the impact of postcolonial feminism and its enactments, this conference will examine how women are affected by political systems in a global climate, how feminism translates and moves across borders, and how feminism can be utilised as a methodology for understanding the transnational context.

Here the transnational is understood to be a complication of notions of the 'elsewhere', highlighting the challenges of fluidity, movement and instability whilst also paying close attention to locatedness. This is a feminism that is engaged with the woman-as-subject without making universalising claims regarding women's experience; it both considers how gender operates and critiques categorisation.

The purpose of this conference is to explore the vitality of feminist interdisciplinarity as it pertains to the transnational, providing space for these debates to come together, creating an interrogation of transnational feminist theory and practice from academic, activist and artistic standpoints.

The conference will also engage with ideas of transnational feminism through workshops, exhibitions and a history walk. We welcome contributions from academics, postgraduates, activists and artists.

Doctor Anne-Marie Fortier (University of Lancaster)
Professor Gabriele Griffin (University of York)
Doctor Amrit Wilson (Royal Holloway)

Contributions may take the form of papers, workshops, exhibitions or reading group style discussions, amongst others. Paper presentations will consist of panels of 3 x 20 minute papers.

Global markets of cultural production
Religion and the nation state
Belonging and home
Feminism and neo-colonialism
Diaspora and migration
The international as the popular
Historical moments of transnational feminism
The struggle for, and violence of, borders
Postcolonial/queer intersections
Feminism and gender in a wider global political debate
Sites and voices of privilege
Historicisation and genealogies
Alliances
Cultural and textual translations
Memorialisation
Feminist anti-racism

(posted 27 Jun '09)

The English Department at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, is pleased to announce the third international conference on English language and literature studies, which will be held on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Department. The aim of the ELLSIIR conference is to promote exchange of ideas across different areas and theoretical frameworks of English linguistics and anglophone literary/cultural studies throughout a broad academic community.

We welcome proposals for papers addressing diverse issues within the general theme of the conference - IMAGE, IDENTITY, REALITY - in the following fields:

•    Theoretical Linguistics
•    Applied Linguistics
•    Literary Studies
•    Cultural Studies

•    David Crystal OBE (Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bangor, UK)
•    Bas Aarts (Professor of English Linguistics, University College London, UK;
 Director of the Survey of English usage)
•    Lynne Cameron (Professor of Applied Linguistics, The Open University, UK)
•    Stephen Regan (Professor of English, University of Durham, UK)

•    Samuel Thomas (Lecturer in English, University of Durham, UK)

<ellsiir.belgrade@gmail.com>

(1)    Title of the paper
(2)    Name of the author(s)
(3)    Affiliation of the author(s)
(4)    Key words
(5)    E-mail address

Submission of abstracts: 1 July, 2009           
Notification of acceptance: 15 September, 2009           

•    conference pack
•    coffee break refreshments
•    welcome party

Katarina Rasulić <k.rasulic@fil.bg.ac.rs>                            
Ivana Trbojević <i.trbojevic@fil.bg.ac.rs>.

(posted 10 Mar '09)