Upcoming Conferences and Meetings

Kingston, Jamaica

The Rex Nettleford Cultural Studies Initiative is proud to host the 2008 ACS Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference in Kingston, Jamaica, on the Mona Campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI). The international Crossroads conferences were started in 1996 in Tampere, Finland to fill what was felt to be a gap in the international cultural studies community. Although cultural studies was becoming increasingly international and multi-centered - or rather centerless because of its virtual nature - cultural studies people had scarce opportunities to see each other and socialize.

The Caribbean could well be regarded as one of the first crossroads of the modern era, where Africa and Asia met Europe on Amerindian soil. The conditions were a forced and bitter crucible. The results of that encounter contributed not only to the making of the modern western world but also to the dynamism that is central to all the cultures of the Western Hemisphere. Being a site of conquest, dislocation, crossings, enslavement and rebellion, but also of memory and survival, hope of return, culture-building, in-between-ness, and immense creativity and heritage, the Caribbean is a relevant site for hosting the 7th International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, under the theme Of Sacred Crossroads...

Key themes for the Conference include: Rituals of arrival and contact; Crossings—the art of the crossroads; Spirituality and identity; Language rituals; Globalization and the spirit; Indigenous spiritualities; Rituals of conflict - rites of rebellion; Virtual realities; virtual spiritualities; (Spiritual) Tourism; Rituals, substances and sacred geographies; The spirit of music; Cultures of reconciliation; Storytelling; Crossroad deities and divination; Geographies of the body and spirit.

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Paris, France

The International Conference on Sustainable Human and Social Development (SHSD 2008) aims to bring together researchers, scientists, engineers, and scholar students to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas, and research results about all aspects of Sustainable Human and Social Development, and discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted.

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Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom 

This inter- and multi-disciplinary project seeks to explore the contemporary experience of Diasporas - communities who conceive of themselves as a national, ethnic, linguistic or other form of cultural and political construction of collective membership living outside of their 'home lands.' In particular, key issues to be addressed include:

• What are the defining characteristics of Diasporas and what distinguishes one from the other?
• What role does 'home' and 'host' cultures play in developing relationships between communities in a global environment?
• How new is the concept of Diasporas; does it capture new global realities or designate old phenomena in a new way?

The project will also assess the larger context of major world transformations, for example, new forms of migration and the massive movements of people across the globe, as well as the impact and contribution of globalisation on tensions, conflicts and the sense of acceptance, rootedness and membership. Looking to encourage innovative trans-disciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers from all disciplines, professions and vocations which struggle to understand what it means for people today to have diasporic experiences and a multiplicity of social, political and cultural memberships.

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Paris, France

The International Conference on e-Social Sciences (ICESS 2008) aims to bring together researchers, scientists, engineers, and scholar students to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas, and research results about all aspects of e-Social Sciences, and discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted.

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Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

The conference will explore the ways in which childhood and youth are represented as life course categories and how, in changing cultural and historical contexts, these are beginning to be questioned and re-presented. The conference offers a chance for reflection and review about the different ways in which this is taking place. We are inviting papers across 4 main strands:

Theory – what new theoretical approaches are being developed in the study of childhood and youth? How do these re-present children and young people? What insights can different disciplines contribute?

Methods – how are children and young people’s views being accessed and represented and what implications do these have for the re-presentation of children’s voices?

Discourses & cultures – how are ideas about children and youth changing? What similarities and differences are there across different cultural sites – e.g. film, literature, art, law, education? How is childhood represented in different societies and cultures? How do children understand and experience these representations of themselves?

Policy – what impacts are changing policy representations of childhood and youth having on young people’s everyday lives and experiences and how are young people responding to these representations?

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