Upcoming Conferences and Meetings in Europe

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Blame it, perhaps, on a hangover from nationalism's early mingling with European romantics, but the primacy of ‘the rural' in nationalist imaginaries remains well established, recurring in political and cultural discourse as the fundamental site of national authenticity, tradition and identity. This tendency has resulted in a distortion of nationalism's crucial yet ambivalent relationship with the pastoral inverse - the smoky, crowded, dynamic space of ‘the urban' - and despite the usual eagerness of scholars to dismantle any and all ‘myths' propagated by nationalist paradigms, very little has been done to theorize this pivotal interplay between nationalism and the city.

How are we to understand the role of cities in nationalism's pasts, presents and futures?

The urban landscape is at once intensely local and profoundly global, while commonly appropriated (internally or externally) as a compelling (though never uncontested) representation of ‘the national whole'. It was through cities that intellectuals traded early ideas of ‘the nation', and it is in cities that national identities have been pushed to their breaking points. The urban has helped to shape the national and this relation also works in reverse: cities can be sites for national consolidation and commemoration, but also facilitate the emergence of ‘spaces of alterity' and zones of conflict.

This conference will move to ‘re-centre' the urban in theories of nations and nationalism, facilitating a dialogue across disciplines to address the many layers of what has been described as ‘the urban palimpsest'. A special emphasis will be placed on integrating the insights of those focused on dynamics in the city and those addressing the broader phenomenon of nationalism, to enliven debates on space, identity, and politics and to illuminate important convergences and contradictions, conjunctures and disjunctures.

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Gottenheim near Freiburg, Germany

The (IJAS) International Journal of Arts and Ssciences) Conference Series takes place annually in several cities across Europe and North America. The series has three primary aims.

The first aim is to provide opportunities for academics from a range of disciplines and countries to share their research both through the conference podium and IJAS' double-blind refereed publications. All IJAS conferences are inter- and multi-disciplinary.

The second aim of the Conference Series is to provide opportunities for academics to receive informal in-depth feedback through discussions, and to enable them to establish contact with professionals in other countries and institutions. The tours are the main way of "breaking the ice" away from the formalities of the conference hall, providing an informal setting for discussing different points of view. Even in an increasingly networked world of internet and satellite conferences, there is no substitute for personal interaction, what Edward R. Murrow calls "the last three feet of communication." It is individuals, not data streams, who must ultimately build the connections that in turn create lasting international research partnerships.

The third aim of the Conference Series is to introduce academics to educational premises in locations that are suitable for study abroad programs and which may meet their students' educational needs. IJAS draws its inspiration from the Fulbright Program, an integral part of the United States' foreign educational relations, where face-to-face exchanges have proven to be the single most effective means of engaging international publics while broadening dialogue between academics and institutions.

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Bamberg, Germany

Attempts at turning Europe into a highly problematic region of postcolonial analysis have recently - though warily - been made. Significantly, Paul Gilroy (2004) has coined the concept of "convivial culture" to signal a possibility for the development of a new cosmopolitan dimension to European culture, namely one of "radical openness" to its colonial past and postcolonial present.

Rising to the challenge of Gilroy's intuition, the conference seeks to be a first step towards the mapping of individual literary paths into such "radical openness". The aim is to bridge European colonial past "abroad" and current issues of migration, race and ethnicity "at home". Ideally, this should involve seeking out the transformative potential of individual experiences of cohabitation and interaction across European borders - geographical, economic, literary, historical, etc. Such individual practices of "cosmopolitan conviviality", as they take place in literature written in Europe especially over the last twenty years, represent the main focus of this project.

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Portsmouth, United Kingdom

The Centre for European and International Studies Research is holding its Flagship Conference at Portsmouth University beginning on 28 June 2012.

This event is a three-day international conference hosted by the University's School of Languages and Area Studies. It will bring together academics and practitioners from a broad range of disciplines including sociology, politics/IR, history, linguistics and gender studies.

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York, United Kingdom

The conference theme is prompted by the challenge of globalization and the notion that Europe can no longer be studied primarily through the lens of particular national histories and historiographies. What does this mean for French history and its traditional chronological boundaries? How do we write French history beyond the framework and boundaries of national histories? How did France perceive and influence its neighbours? What is the French contribution to the pattern and dynamic of transnational interconnection? How did France's colonies and interactions with non-European regions influence European society and culture and how, in turn, was she influenced by them? To what extent does a transnational approach bring fresh perspectives to the regional and local history of France? We invite the submission of twenty minute papers that explore these themes from different angles and perspectives and on any period of French history from the early medieval to the contemporary. Proposals for themes of two or three papers which cross chronological and/or geographic boundaries are particularly welcome. However, our theme is not exclusive as to subject and we also welcome contributions that reflect the broad diversity of the discipline of French History.

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