[csaa-forum] CFP: Coupling/Connections 4: Organising Organisations of Cultural Diversity

[Glen Fuller]

CALL FOR PAPERS

Coupling/Connections 4: Organising Organisations of Cultural Diversity


Symposium Date: 10 March


Location: Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney 
(further information will be available closer to the date)


Abstracts Due: 21 February, 300 words max


Contact/Abstracts: gfuller at uws.edu.au

Australia has an official policy of multiculturalism, but sites for the 
celebration, production and advancement of cultural diversity are often 
on the fringes of, or buried under, Australia’s dominant cultural 
landscape. One of the central problems relates to the production and 
maintenance of a sense of collective and individual identity in the 
contemporary period. What seems to be at stake is not a simple case of 
diversity or homogeneity of cultural identity, but the organisation of 
diversity.

What do we make of institutionalised governmental departments that have 
a problematic relation to cultural diversity? For example, the 
Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs 
(DIMIA), which proclaims an official policy of multiculturalism, yet is 
ultimately in charge of running the much criticised refugee detention 
centres. On the other hand, Community Cultural Development (CCD) groups 
operate within suburban and urban Australia developing projects that 
explore the limits and consistency of cultural diversity through 
cultural production. Between the two poles of organisation – production 
and containment – are the everyday and embodied experience of 
diversity, from the workplace to catching public transport to sport 
fans cheering on their team, there are many different ways ‘diversity’ 
is distributed across the cultural landscape.

Special guest on the day will be Helene Egeland. Helene is on exchange 
from the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden. She shall be 
giving a paper relating to her Ph.D. thesis that she describes as, “An 
analysis and discussion of how cultural diversity is performed and 
displayed using 'Södra teatern' [a famous Stockholm theatre] as a case 
study.”

Diversity in the field of postgraduate research, in terms of both 
discipline and method, is characteristic of the space of cultural 
studies and related areas. The Couplings/Connections symposia aim to 
provide possibilities for innovative and motivating networks for 
postgraduates in and around Sydney. We invite submissions of abstracts 
from all interested postgraduate students from cultural studies and 
related fields. Papers will be 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of 
question time.