[csaa-forum] 'Fat Studies: A Critical Dialogue' Conference - Registration Now Open

Thu May 27 18:16:12 CST 2010

** APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTINGS **

Registration for the upcoming Fat Studies: A Critical Dialogue
Conference (10 - 11 September 2010) is now open.

Please find attached a conference registration form. We are experiencing
difficulties with the Somatechnics Research Centre website currently,
meaning access to registration form online is unavailable at present. We are
working to resolve this issue quickly, however, the form attached here can
be completed and returned to us via email at somatechnicsadmin at gmail.com

We are offering registration rates for waged, and student/low income
delegates. A special earlybird registration rate is available to those who
register by Friday 16 July 2010. After this date, the standard
conference registration fee applies. Pre-registration for the
conference will close on Friday 20 August 2010. While pre-registration is
preferable, a registration table will be set up on each morning
of the two day conference, and will accept cash and credit card
payments. The conference registration fee includes attendance; a conference
pack including abstracts, pad, pen; catered lunch, morning and afternoon tea
on each day of the conference. Closer to the conference dates, we will seek
advice from delegates about any dietary restrictions/requirements they may
have.

Conference Information
Fat Studies: A Critical Dialogue
To be held 10  11 September, 2010
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

While cultural anxieties about fatness and stigmatisation of fat bodies in
Western cultures have been central to dominant discourses about bodily
Œpropriety¹ since the early twentieth century, the rise of the Œdisease¹
category of obesity and the moral panic over an alleged global Œobesity
epidemic¹ has lent a medical authority and legitimacy to what can be
described as Œfat-phobia¹. Against the backdrop of the ever-growing
medicalisation and pathologisation of fatness, the field of Fat Studies has
emerged in recent years to offer an interdisciplinary critical interrogation
of the dominant medical models of health, to give voice to the lived
experience of fat bodies, and to offer critical insights into, and
investigations of, the ethico-political implications of the cultural
meanings that have come to be attached to fat bodies.

This two-day event will put Australasian Fat Studies into conversation with
critical fat scholarship from around the globe by gathering together
scholars from across a spectrum of disciplinary backgrounds, as well as
activists, health care professionals, performers and artists. This
conference seeks to open a dialogue between scholars, health care
professionals and activists about the productive and enabling critical
possibilities Fat Studies offers for rethinking dominant notions about
health and pathology, gender and bodily aesthetics, political interventions,
and beyond. 

Confirmed keynote speakers:

* Charlotte Cooper
(Department of Sociology, University of Limerick)

* Karen Throsby
(Department of Sociology, University of Warwick)

Venue Information
The conference will be held at Dunmore Lang College Conference Centre,
which is situated on the main campus of Macquarie University. We will
be uploading details regarding the venue, the registration form,
accommodation options and transport information onto the Somatechnics
Research Centre website shortly. The URL to visit is
http://www.somatechnics.mq.edu.au

However, in the short interim, please find details regarding
accommodation options and transport information to and from Macquarie
University campus below, to help you as you make plans to attend the
conference. This information is also attached separately above.

Getting to Macquarie University
Macquarie University is approximately 30 minutes from the city centre
of Sydney. Given this, you may wish to stay closer to the campus to be
near to the conference venue. However, you may also want to be more
centrally located and travel to the campus to attend the conference.
Below you will find transport information and accommodation details.

Train
Macquarie University railway station is located on Herring Road
between the University and the Macquarie Centre. Regular train
services operate on the Northern Line between Hornsby and the City via
Macquarie Park. The station is wheelchair accessible and open from 5am
to 1am each day. Services run approximately every 15 minutes in each
direction.

For more detail regarding timetables and fares, follow the links from this
page:
http://www.mq.edu.au/transport/train.html

Bus
Macquarie University has 21 bus services travelling to the campus and
is accessible from areas across the Sydney metropolitan area.
For specific bus operators and timetable information, follow the links
from this page:
http://www.mq.edu.au/transport/bus.html

Maps
Maps of the campus and the area surrounding Macquarie University can
be downloaded from this site:
http://www.mq.edu.au/transport/maps.html

Car Hire
You may choose to hire a car during your time in Sydney. Rates vary,
but some good sites to visit are:
http://www.bayswatercarrental.com.au
http://www.redspotcars.com.au
http://www.budget.com.au
http://www.europcar.com.au

Parking On Campus
Please note: Macquarie University strictly enforces its parking regulations.
For parking between 06:00 and 20:00, a valid parking ticket must be
purchased and displayed on the front windscreen of the car, on the
driver's side. Tickets may be purchased from parking ticket machines.
The cost is $5 for up to one hour, $8 for up to three hours, and $15
for the whole day. Please note that the machines are coin-operated and
do not accept notes.

Limited parking is available on streets close to the University.
Parking at the Macquarie Shopping Centre (located across the road from
the conference venue) is free for the first three hours, with paid
half-hour increments after that.

Accommodation

On campus accommodation:

MACQUARIE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE HOTEL (MGSM)
Ph: +61 2 9850 7800/ 9850 9300
Fax: +61 2 9850 8630
Email: MGSMrecep at mgsm.edu.au
Website: www.hotel.mgsm.com.edu <http://www.hotel.mgsm.com.edu>
Room Rates: From $120

DUNMORE LANG COLLEGE
Ph: +61 02 9856 1000
Fax: +61 02 9856 1012
Email: info at dlc.nsw.edu.au
Website: www.dunmorelangcollege.nsw.edu.au
<http://www.dunmorelangcollege.nsw.edu.au>
Room Rates: From $110

ROBERT MENZIES COLLEGE
Ph: +612 9936 6000
Fax: +612 9936 6005
Email: enquiries at rmc.nsw.edu.au
Website: www.rmc.org.au <http://www.rmc.org.au>
Room Rates: From $70/$85

TRAVELODGE
81 Talavera Rd (On campus)
Ph: +61 2 8874 5200
Email: tmqr at travelodge.com.au
Website: http://travelodgemacquarienorthryde.street-directory.com.au/
Room Rates: From $110

Nearby Off-campus accommodation:

STAMFORD GRAND
Cnr. Epping Road and Herring Road
Macquarie Park , NSW 2113
Ph: +61 2 9888 1077
On the corner of the campus; a short 10-minute walk to the conference site.
http://www.stamford.com.au/sgnr/
Room Rates: From $150

City Accommodation:
Central Sydney accommodation is plentiful and wide-ranging. For those
seeking to base themselves in the city, we recommend that you consult
sites such as www.wotif.com <http://www.wotif.com> , www.needitnow.com.au
<http://www.needitnow.com.au>  and
www.lastminute.com.au <http://www.lastminute.com.au> , who offer reduced
rates for three, four and
five star hotels, as well as budget and hostel accommodation.

You may also wish to consider the inner suburbs, especially the
queer-friendly inner west (Newtown, Glebe, Enmore, Erskineville).
While the inner suburbs are not close to the campus conference venue,
they are well-serviced by public transport.

Should you have any general conference queries, the main contact is
the Somatechnics Research Centre Administrator, Ms Vanessa Fredericks,
who can be contacted via email on somatechnicsadmin at gmail.com.
However, should you have specific concerns you would like to discuss
with the conference convenor, please contact Dr Samantha Murray at
samantha.murray at mq.edu.au

We hope to see you at the conference in September.

Best wishes,

Sam

Dr Samantha Murray

Lecturer in Cultural Studies
Department of Media, Music, Communication & Cultural Studies
Faculty of Arts
Macquarie University
Email:  smurray78 at gmail.com
        samantha.murray at mq.edu.au

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: FS Conf Registration Form.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 87040 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.cdu.edu.au/pipermail/csaa-forum/attachments/20100527/61c996a6/attachment-0002.doc 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: FS Conf Delegate Info.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 41984 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.cdu.edu.au/pipermail/csaa-forum/attachments/20100527/61c996a6/attachment-0003.doc 