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Aktuelles Call for Papers Veranstaltungen

Conference and CfP: „Imagi/Nation: Canada Past and Future“

Imagi/Nation: Canada Past and Future
Imagi/Nation: Le Canada, son passé et son avenir

18th Biennial Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in Ireland

Maynooth University, May 13-14, 2016

Organising Committee: Professor Michael Brophy (ACSI President), Professor Jane Koustas (ACSI and UCD Craig Dobbin Chair of Canadian Studies), Dr Julie Rodgers (ACSI Secretary)

As Ireland prepares to celebrate the centenary of the historic events of 1916, it is timely to recall that the ensuing Constitution of the Irish Free State owes much to the Canadian Constitution, referencing that nation as a model in a number of its articles.

This conference will explore the multiple facets − political, economic, historical, geographical, linguistic, literary and artistic – of Canada as a nation defined not only by its past, but by a future conceived through diverse and ever-evolving representations of that past.  Possible topics might include:

•    Nation and commemoration
•    Nation-building and legislation
•    Mapping the nation
•    National identity/ies
•    Trans-national relations
•    The eco-nation
•    The future of nationhood
•    (Re)imagining the nation

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, along with a short CV, to this email address.
Submissions in French or English are welcome.

The deadline for proposals is Friday 15 January 2016

For further details, please visit the Association’s website.

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Aktuelles Call for Papers

Call for Contributions: Canadian Sites of Resistance: Solidarity—Struggle—Change (?)

Editors: Weronika Suchacka, Hartmut Lutz, and Anna Kricka

The editors of TransCanadiana: Polish Journal of Canadian Studies invite sumbissions for the journal’s 8th volume „Canadian Sites of Resistance: Solidarity – Struggle – Change (?)“. TransCanadiana is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Polish Association of Canadian Studies (PACS). Every issue comprises articles on a subject specified by the editors, as well as short reviews of recent publications in the field of Canadian Studies, and a newsletter presenting information and updates on the activities of the PACS and Canadian Studies Centers in Poland.

In Culture and Resistance: Conversations with Edward W. Said, David Barsamian opens his introduction to the volume with the following words by Said: „I have been unable … to live an uncommitted or suspended life: I have not hesitated to declare my affiliation with an extremely unpopular cause.“ We hear the meaning of Said’s words reverberating in those by Audre Lorde in her seminal essay „The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power“: „And this is a grave responsibility projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.“ Each statement in reflecting upon different matters, yet both speak in the same voice – that of being ready to, as Lorde continues, „begin to give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation, and with the numbness which so often seems like their only alternative in our society.“ This is the voice that speaks loud and clear about disagreement with any form of enforcement and about resistance „against oppression“ (Lorde).

The capacity to resist dehumanization and to act in solidarityx against any forms of oppression constitute defining and fundamental human qualities throughout the course of history. Faced with our contemporary world of global and local unrest – wars, military interventions, terrorist threats and attacks, economic crises, political and social oppression, as well as environmental destruction – „a grave responsibility“ of reacting and taking a stand falls on all of us. Yet, the possibility of any change to a given status quo hinges not only on a standpoint one takes but most importantly on the actions that one performs, and these, as history shows, are rarely successful without group solidarity and mutual commitment to the struggle for a common cause.

As the previous volume of TransCanadiana has shown, Canada occupies an influential position in the global arena, shaping its international renown of soft power, and so while working towards its internal political, economic, social and cultural stability and progress, it „has sought constructive global solutions to increasingly global problems.“ Yet as the editors of the previous volume have also rightly pointed out, „There is, however, a darker side of Canada’s international image.“ Indeed, Canada’s path to its positive profile worldwide has been quite winding, resting on the largely unacknowledged systemic dispossession of Indigenous populations, and being marked in its history by conflict and struggle against political enforcement, racial and ethnic prejudice, social injustice, economic inequality and the destruction of the ecosystem. Moreover, what many examples from Canadian history and present current affairs in Canada show is that disagreement with and opposition to political, social, cultural and/or economic inhibition has been taking place in Canada from the bottom up, so that grassroots movements have become a crucial dimension of resistance in this country. It is thus from this perspective that the editors would like to open up a discussion about Canadian sites of collective resistance, their past and present examples, their meanings for the future, but also their potential for or failure at effecting change. Consequently the editors would like to examine the reassons and consequences, as well as forms and substance of different instances of group protest and defiance that have taken place not only within Canada but also beyond its borders to see if, how, and to what extend Canada voices and enacts its solidarity „against oppression“ in local and global terms.

The editors would like to invite contributions from Canadianists and scholars of other sutides who want to address the issue of resistance in Canada’s internal and international context. In this way, we hope to create an interdisciplinary exploration of the topic that might include, but is not limited to the analysis of opposing and protesting against:

  • a hierarchical structuring of society and social existence;
  • class, race, ethnic, and gender prejudice and marginalization;
  • heteronormativity and all forms of sexist oppression;
  • controlling and restricting various means of empowerment, e.g. access to knowledge;
  • political oppression and disenfranchisement, e.g. censorship and silencing;
  • discrimination against people on grounds of age or physical and mental impairment;
  • the damage of ecology;
  • persistence of internal colonialist structures and other forms of (neo)colonialism;
  • linguistic and cultural assimilationist practices;
  • globalization and late capitalism;
  • strucutral and personal violence.

Brief article abstracts of c. 350 words as well as proposals for book reviews of c. 150 words (with complete bibliographical dertails) should be e-mailed to the editors by February 29, 2015. After the selection process is completed, and no later than March 31, 2015, the editors will invite authors to submit completed articles (max. 20 pages, double spaced, following MLA style) or reviews (max. 4 pages, double spaced,  following MLA style) by May 1, 2016. Abstracts, proposals for book reviews, articles, and reviews should be written in English or in French.

Submissions in English should be e-mailed to Weronica Suchacka (PhD) or Hartmut Lutz (Prof. dr hab.).

Submissions in French should be e-mailed to Anna Kricka (PhD).

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Aktuelles Call for Papers Veranstaltungen

Conference and Call for Papers: „Inuit Traditions / Traditions Inuites“

20th Biennial Inuit Studies Conference

Oct 7-10, 2016, St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (CA)

Inuit traditions are a repository of Inuit culture and a primary expression of Inuit identity. The theme for the 2016 Inuit Studies Conference invites Elders, knowledge-bearers, researchers, artists, policy-makers, students and others to engage in conversations about the many ways in which traditions shape understanding, while registering social and cultural change.

The institutional hosts of “Inuit Traditions,” Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Nunatsiavut Government, invite you to contribute to an exchange of knowledge to be held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, October 7-10, 2016. Presentations on all aspects of Inuit studies will be welcome. The host committee particularly welcomes presentations, discussions, workshops, performances and other opportunities for dialogue on Inuit traditions that may include:

  • community knowledge
  • expressions of identity
  • social, communal and political interaction
  • relationships with the land and the environment
  • language and cultural expression
  • intergenerational transmission
  • technology and change
  • community health and well-being

Finally, the organizers hope that the 2016 Inuit Studies Conference will rekindle the dialogue between traditional knowledge and scholarly ways of knowing – a dialogue that animated the Inuit Studies Conference twenty years ago, the last time it was held in St. John’s. With the perspective of a further two decades of collaborative work, the ambition is that the conference will provide a forum to encourage and examine the conversation between diverse knowledge traditions. Warmly welcome are ideas from all who are willing to help enrich this conversation.

For more information, please visit the conference’s website.

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Aktuelles Call for Papers Veranstaltungen

CfP Young Scholars‘ Panel at the Annual Conference of the GKS

Grainau/Zugspitzdorf (Germany), 12. – 14. Feb 2016
Organizers: Young Scholars‘ Forum

The 37th Annual Conference of the GKS will again feature a panel for young scholars from all disciplines. Advanced BA/MA students, doctoral students, and post-docs who have never presented in Grainau are invited to present and discuss their research.

The framing topic of the 2016 conference is:

Soziale Gerechtigkeit / Social Justice / La Justice Sociale

The Young Scholars‘ Forum invites papers that position themselves within the general framework of the conference, but also contributions on any other topic in Canadian Studies, and from any discipline. They are looking forward to your proposals.

The deadline is december 15, 2015. Please send 200-word abstracts for 20-minute papers and a short biographical note (100 words) via email.

 

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Aktuelles Ausschreibungen

Leitungsteam-Nachfolge für das Nachwuchsforum gesucht!

logo_nachwuchs_grossCall for Applications

Das Nachwuchsforum (NWF) der Gesellschaft für Kanada-Studien e.V. sucht junge, engagierte Kanadist_innen, die sich aktiv im NWF-Leitungsteam einbringen und die Förderung von Nachwuchswissenschaftler_innen im Rahmen einer interdisziplinären Kanadistik unterstützen möchten.

Die Leitung des NWFs setzt sich aus zwei Teams zusammen, die jeweils versetzt für zwei Jahre amtieren. Turnusgemäß wird das Team Potsdam-Kanada auf der nächsten Jahrestagung der GKS (12. – 14. Feb 2016 in Grainau) sein Amt abgeben. Auf der Jahrestagung wird außerdem traditionell auch das zukünftige Team vorgestellt, das dann gemeinsam mit Team Wien die Leitung des Nachwuchsforums übernehmen wird. Ausführlichere Informationen zum Nachwuchsforum und Team Wien findet man auf der NWF-Homepage.

Das Leitungsteam ist für die Organisation des jährlichen Nachwuchspanels auf der GKS-Jahrestagung sowie für die Ausrichtung einer Graudiertentagung zuständig. In das Aufgabengebiet fällt außerdem die Vernetzung im deutschsprachigen Raum mit anderen Partnerorganisationen, akademischen Einrichtungen, Kanadazentren und den Vertretungen der Regierungen von Kanada und Québec. Dies geschieht u.a. durch die Aktualisierung der Webseite, das Erstellen eines monatlichen Newsletters mit Informationen zu Konferenzen, Stipendien, Jobangeboten und weiteren Neuigkeiten im Bereich der Kanada-Studien sowie die Repräsentanz des NWFs in Social Media Plattformen (Facebook und Twitter). Die Arbeit im NWF verschafft einen aktiven Einblick in die Organisation von wissenschaftlichen Konferenzen, die Drittmittelbeschaffung, den Umgang mit neuen  Medien und das Vernetzen der im deutschsprachigen Raum angesiedelten Kanadistik.

Besonders im Hinblick auf die Ausrichtung und Finanzierung der jährlichen Graduiertentagung hat sich die institutionelle Anbindung des Teams an eine akademische Einrichtung bewährt. Bewerber_innen sollten über gute Kenntnisse in mindestens einer der beiden offiziellen Amtssprachen Kanadas verfügen; es ist von Vorteil, wenn im Team sowohl die englische als auch französische Sprache repräsentiert werden. Bewerbungen von interdisziplinär besetzten Teams, die ein möglichst breites Spektrum der Sektionen der GKS vertreten, sind besonders willkommen; Einzelpersonen, die wir ausdrücklich zu einer Bewerbung ermutigen, werden jedoch gleichermaßen berücksichtigt.

Das Team Wien freut sich über zahlreiche Einsendungen! Bewerbungen sind bis zum 15. Dezember 2015 an die E-Mailadresse des NWFs möglich und bestehen aus einem Motivationsschreiben (max. 2 Seiten) und dem Lebenslauf der Interessierten. Alle Bewerber_innen werden bis Anfang Januar 2016 über die Entscheidung informiert.