[csaa-forum] ACS and Crossroads Jamaica

[Melissa Gregg]

Due to website technicalities, there has been a final extension of
submissions for next year's Crossroads conference. Last chance to get to
Jamaica!
 
NB Previous and current members of ACS: there will be a board election
before next year's conference with results announced at the conference.
If you would like to vote or even nominate yourself as a candidate for
the Australasian rep please make sure you are signed up as a member... I
can assist with any enquiries about this, but details are on the nice
new website: http://cultstud.org/
 
Cheers
Melissa 


Final Call - Deadline Extended to January 15, 2008

 

7th Association for Cultural Studies

International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference

University of the West Indies 

Jamaica

 

Date: July 3-7, 2008

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Proposals are invited for PAPERS and a limited number of panel proposals
at the 7th International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference,
scheduled for July 3 to 7, 2008 in the Caribbean.

 

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.

 

Of Sacred Crossroads

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.

 

Contemporary emphasis on materialism and consumerism as measures of our
humanity, arising from the unbridled excesses to which science and
technology have been sometimes put, is of growing concern, putting under
duress the intangibles embodied in the values by which we live as human
beings. Out of these concerns has sprung deepening dialogue at the
interface between science and spirituality. UNESCO's celebration of the
intangible heritage of humankind is a timely reminder that civilizations
rise not only on great edifices, monuments and artefacts that defy time,
but also on those moments of 'livity', or human relationships, that last
only as long as they are lived, without which human life would have
little meaning.

 

Of Sacred Crossroads captures many of these concerns in a manner that
allows for the broadest of interpretation and accommodation across
disciplines and forms-religion, art, dance, song, orature, healing,
re-creation, performance, ritual, belief systems, ethics, globalization,
communication, among others. 

 

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.

 

General areas of interest include:

Body,

Identity and difference

Media

Gender and sexuality

Popular culture

Cultural industries

Performance and gender

Youth culture

Religion and culture

Nation states

Power and knowledge

New information technology

Globalization and diaspora

Nationalism and locality

Consumerism and fetishism

Culture and economy

Fundamentalisms

Cultural Studies pedagogy

Policing the crisis

Culture and ethics

Critical methodologies

Politics of opposition

Cultures of everyday life

Social and cultural theory

The city

Cultural policy

Centre and periphery

Space and culture

Imagined communities

 

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF PAPERS
Proposals on any key, general or related theme will be considered.
Please submit abstracts of no more than 150 words in length via the
website. All abstracts are being accepted via the website at
www.crossroads2008.org <http://www.crossroads2008.org/> . The absolute
deadline for submission of abstracts for consideration by the programme
committee is January 15, 2008. 

 

Please note that accepted SESSION proposals can be viewed on the
website. Potential participants are invited to view the list of accepted
sessions and send abstracts to the Organizers of open panels if there is
a fit with your paper. Additional sessions will be created based on the
papers proposed. 

 

Be sure to include the following information on the website where
indicated: author(s), affiliation, email address, title of abstract, and
body of abstract. We will acknowledge receipt of all paper proposals
submitted. 

If your paper proposal is accepted you will receive notification no
later than February 1, 2008. Papers for presentation should be no more
than 8 or 9 pages long and ready for a 20 minute (maximum) presentation
during the conference.

 

THE VENUE

The 7th Crossroads Conference will be held at the University of the West
Indies (UWI), Mona Campus in Kingston, Jamaica, the largest of the three
UWI campuses. The Campus is situated in a suburb of the city of
Kingston, itself a cultural magnet, with excellent communications and
telecommunications systems, accessibility through two international
airports, and a highly developed road network. 

                           

The campus, with a student population of over 15,000, has a rich
tradition in hosting international conferences. Nestled in the Hope
Valley under the Blue Mountains, the campus is itself culturally
diverse, drawing on regional as well as international students and
boasting its own choir, steel band, dance group and rich nightlife.
There is accommodation in student Halls of Residence as well as the Mona
Visitor's Lodge, and interconnectivity including an extensive wireless
network is a feature. 

 

Given Jamaica's appeal as a tourist destination we encourage
international participants to plan a vacation which can include
excursions to famous beaches in Negril, Ocho Rios, Montego Bay or
Portland. Various cultural and natural sites of interest include, in
Kingston, the Bob Marley Museum and the National Gallery of Art, and
elsewhere in the island the spectacular Dunn's River Falls, the Blue and
John Crow Mountains National Park, Seville Heritage Park, and Treasure
Beach, among many others.

 

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Registration information is posted on the website at
www.crossroads2008.org <http://www.crossroads2008.org/> . 

Note: To avoid no-shows and guarantee the quality of all sessions, all
paper presenters will be asked to register before April 30, 2008.

 

 

For further details on the Conference

or on the Cultural Studies Initiative and Programme 

at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus,

please email: crossroads_2008 at yahoo.com

  

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