Kategorie: Veranstaltungen

International Cofnerence, North American Studies Department, Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands), June 15-16, 2017

From booksellers and rock artists to diplomats and the President of the United States, many people have echoed the sentiment that Canada has something important to offer to the world. The 150 anniversary of Confederation in 2017 represents an excellent occasion to consider and highlight current social, cultural and political developments and critically explore the ways in which Canada defines itself and its place in the world. Can Canada be a blueprint for the world? To what extent can Canadian policies and solutions be transferred to other continents and cultures? Does the world indeed need more Canada?

With the election of Justin Trudeau, Canada seeks to move in different political, social and economic directions from the ones initiated and implemented by former president Steven Harper. At the same time, the legacy of Harper and his predecessors, including Pierre Trudeau, needs to be (re)negotiated and adapted to the realities of the 21st century.

For this conference, the organizers call for proposals that seek to critically examine Trudeau’s emphasis on change and the promise of revision. Specifically, they seek papers that explore continuities and disconinuities in Canada’s approaches to the following subset of themes: immigrations, justice and security; issues of indigeneity; the theory and practice of Canadian multiculturalism and the ideal of the „inclusive society;“ Canada in global perspective.

Proposals may include but are not limited to the following topics:

• New (transcultural) perspectives on Canadian national identity: still “our famous problem” (Northrop Frye)? Identity and issues of language, immigration and integration.
• Canadian multiculturalism: the legacy of Pierre Trudeau, (dis)continuities in Justin Trudeau’s present-day policies, theory and practice.
• Canadian culture: revision and change in the production, reception and study of Canadian literature, film, art and music, especially as related to multiculturalism and recent developments in transnational literary and cultural studies.
• Being indigenous in Canada Canada’s relation to indigeneity: First Nations and the world; the plans and policies of Justin Trudeau to wield change and bridge continuing social, economic and cultural gaps; “Idle No More” and related activist initiatives involving visibility, land claims and the protection of the environment; outcomes of and follow-ups to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee; contemporary indigenous literature, film, art, music.
• Canada and the world: Canada’s response to the international refugee crisis; CETA: curse or blessing? The Canadian North as conflicted space; Canada and the US; Canada and Europe: partners in peace?; The legacy of WWII: memory, memorialization, and the prospect of global peace.
• Canada and (inter)national issues of security, justice and human rights.

Please send your proposals (300 words) and a brief CV to the conference organizers Prof. Dr. Hans Bak and Dr. Mathilde Roza at this email address.

Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2017.

Annual Conference of the Indigenous Literary Studies Association, June 18-20, 2017, Stó:lō Nation Teaching Longhouse, Chilliwack, B.C. (CA)

Ethics of Belonging: Protocols, Pedagogies, Land and Stories: Indigenous Literary Studies Association ’s Annual Conference this year held at the Stó:lō Nation Teaching Longhouse 7201 Vedder Road, Chilliwack on the Unceded, traditional territories of the Stó:lō peoples.

The organizers invite scholars, knowledge-keepers, artists, and community members to join them in generating new conversations about protocols, pedagogies, land, and stories from a wide variety of perspectives, including tribally-centred, inter-tribal, pan-national, urban/suburban, and trans-Indigenous, at ILSA’s third annual gathering, this time taking place on the unceded, traditional territories of the Stó:lō peoples in the Stó:lō Teaching Longhouse in Chilliwack, B.C. In a 2007 essay Stó:lō historian Dr. Albert Sonny Naxaxalhts’i McHalsie shares a Halq’emélem statement that is often interpreted as an assertion of Aboriginal rights and title: “S’ólh Téméxw te ikw’elo. Xolhmet te mekw’stam it kwelat,” which can be translated as “This is our Land. We have to take care of everything that belongs to us” (85). As McHalsie reflects on the boundaries of his territory, he follows the protocols of his community, consulting his elders to uncover teachings embedded in the Halq’emélem language and in Stó:lō stories. Through these protocols he replaces Western concepts of ownership with Stó:lō understandings of personal connection to place, sharing stories that explicate multiple ways of reading the land around him. McHalsie concludes that the statement is not merely an assertion of what belongs to Stó:lō but of belonging, insisting that as his people take care of their territory they necessarily have to take care of stories and understandings of the world embedded within wider kinship relations—between communities, nations, cultures, languages, as well as with the other-than-human.

Inspired by McHalsie’s words, Ethics of Belonging: Protocols, Pedagogies, Land and Stories asks participants to consider ways in which our scholarship, activism, and creative work cares for stories and centres Indigenous perspectives. In what ways can this care and attention honour Indigenous protocols and shape our pedagogies? How might writers or artists who live distanced or alienated from home territories practice such ethics? How might we consider Indigenous cultural production in cyberspace as linked to land? What does it mean to read texts through treaty documents, the history of colonization, or stories that emerge from land-theft and dislocation? What new traditions are Indigenous people, especially those who live in the city, creating?

The Indigenous Literary Studies Association supports diverse modes of creating and disseminating knowledge. Prospective participants are invited to propose conference papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, performances, and other formats for special sessions. Panel sessions will be 90 minutes in duration, with at least 15 minutes for questions and discussion. In keeping with the organizers‘ desire to enable dialogue and community- based learning, they welcome session proposals that utilize non-standard or alternative formats. While open to all proposals dealing with Indigenous literary arts, ILSA encourages proposals for sessions and individual presentations that engage with the following topics:

• “Taking care of everything that belongs to us,” land claims and cultural repatriation
• Stó:lō narrative arts and Stó:lō literary history, present, and future
• Politics of belonging and kinship relations
• Land, ecological responsibility, and environmental ethics
• Land-based solidarities, urban Indigenous communities, and the literary arts
• Literary methods and Indigenous protocols
• The politics of protocols—gender and surveillance
• Two-Spirit and queer Indigenous critical ecologies
• Land, stories, and narrative arts as praxis
• Autonomy and alliance in unceded traditional territories
• Community-based participatory research, pedagogies, and literary studies
• Alliances among Indigenous and diasporic artists
• Mediations of orality and Indigenous material cultures
• Collaborative creation and multi-media
• Artistic expressions of sovereignty and self-determination
• Responsibility, community, and artistic expression
• Community-specific Indigenous knowledge and ethics in scholarship or art
• methodologies and practices in Indigenous literary studies to serve the needs of Indigenous communities

The Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA) was founded in 2014 to promote the scholarship and teaching of Indigenous writing and storytelling in Canada. One way to make the study of Indigenous literatures relevant to the writers who produce the stories we read, teach and study is to meet every other year at national conferences as part of Congress, and meet alternating years in Indigenous communities. In 2015 the ILSA met at Six Nations of the Grand River, near Hamilton, Ontario, and in 2016 they met at Congress, hosted that year at the University of Calgary. From June 18-20, 2017 ILSA will be meeting on the unceded, traditional territories of the Stó:lō peoples, in Chilliwack, B.C., about a half hour drive from the Abbotsford airport and about a one and a half hour drive from downtown Vancouver. This time was chosen to coincide with the annual conference of NAISA, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association meeting, at UBC from June 22-24, 2017.

Proposals are due on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 and this year’s proposals can be submitted to  this email address. If you do not receive an acknowledgment of your proposal within 7 days, please contact the ILSA council members directly, especially in-coming ILSA President Deanna Reder or ILSA Secretary Sophie McCall. Important: Prospective participants must be members in order to present at ILSA 2017 in Chilliwack.

Membership Rates are $40 (faculty) or $20 (students, community members, or underwaged) for one year. Please visit the ILSA 2017 website  to complete your membership.

International Conference of the Southwest Pole of the Institute of the Americas, October 11-13, 2017, University Bordeaux Montaigne and University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux (FR)

The international conference „Forest in the Americas,“ a scientific manifestation of the Southwest Pole of the Institute of the Americas, aims at refining knowledge about the fragile ecosystem of forests, and at improving the understanding of the roles they play in the imagination and development of both ancient and modern societies of the Americas. On every part of the continent, the forst is of prime importance, from Amazonian tropical rainforests to Canadian boreal forests; to all kinds of temperate forests. Nations such as Brazil, Canada, and the United States and Peru are among the ten countries with the largest forested land. Other nations, in Central America and the Caribbean islands, are also rich in forested areas sheltering often endemic fauna and flora.

The countries and the actors concerned by forestry rarely agree on common definitions of what constitutes a forest. The study of this theme poses first a conceptual and methodological problem that the participants will be encouraged to discuss. Another purpose of the conference is to define precisely, through interdisciplinary dialogue and comparative studies, the notions commonly used by scholars to talk about the forest. On this lexical and semantic foundation, diverse representations of the forest will be analyzed.

Because it is a major feature of the continent’s geography, the forest has always occupied a predominant place in the imagination of American populations, as illustrated in mythology, literature, and the arts. For example, the United States and Canada, as well as different South American nations, tell their history as a struggle between civilization and wilderness, notably embodied by the forest. A place of perdition and bewilderment for men, or a shelter for runaway populations and maroons, then the matrix of a new man – in the large part of the 19th and 20th century-U.S. literature and arts, the forest appears ambiguous and multifaceted in its representations.

Doctoral students and confirmed researchers are invited to study the diversity and the complexity of the symbolic, immaterial and material dimensions of the forest and to try to answer several major questions. During the building of the territories and the large cultural areas of the Americas, how were the forested immensities understood and represented? Were they perceived and experienced in the same way from the north to the south of the continent, by indigenous peoples, by colonizers, by intellectuals, and by artists? As early as the beginnings of the peopling of the continent, were they imagined and conceived by the ruling and business people as an asset or an obstacle to economic development? Scholars are expected to analyze the challenges and the risks of all kinds, old and new, to which American nations are confronted as far as forestry is concerned. Forest resources provide a significant part of American economic income. In Canada, for instance, they represent about 20% of exports and 10% of employment. However, forests are fragile ecosystems, sensitive to global changes, which should lead scholars to raise and try to answer a series of questions: when did forests become an object of attention and preservation? When and how were conservation movements born? What were their ideologies and claims? What role did the pioneer environmentalists and conservationist movements play in the establishment of the first forest reserves at the end of the 19^th century? What role did the forest play in the movement for the creation of national parks in North America? Moreover, what is the current influence of climate change on the aquatic and land biodiversity of forests? How is this change felt by local populations, and how do they adapt their practices to it? Finally, in the age of agro-industrial development, what problems are caused by deforestation due to the creation of more agricultural and pasture lands?

In spite of increasing mobilization of international institutions and NGOs since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, forest acreage, in particular in the tropical area, has decreased, along with its biodiversity. According to some specialists, the ambitious approach of sustainable forest management appears to be the only realistic one. Thus, as far as forest resources management and development are concerned, participants may also reflect upon the possible ways to confront new threats. Are there any isolated or collective, public or private initiatives, aiming at preserving forest balance and ensuring sustainable development? Forests play diverse and unequal roles in territory management. What policies would allow for the ecological and economic viability of these ecosystems? What political and social actors should intervene in the elaboration and implementation of environmental public policies?

This conference is organized by the Southwest Pole of the Institute of the Americas, at the University Bordeaux Montaigne and the University of Bordeaux, between October 11^th and 13^th, 2017. Bordeaux is the capital of the New Aquitaine Region, known for being the largest forested area in France, and the most productive forest in Europe.

Abstracts (no more than ten lines), as well as five keywords and a short résumé, should be sent before February 28^th, 2017, to Eric Dubesset (Référent IdA pour l’Université de Bordeaux), Lionel Larré (Référent IdA pour l’Université Bordeaux Montaigne), and Anne Stefani (Déléguée régionale du Pôle Sud-Ouest de l’IdA).

International Colloquium, July 6-8, 2017, UCL Institute of the Americas, University College London, 51 Gordon Square, London (UK)

The Center for the Study of Canada at State University of New York College at Plattsburgh (NY, USA) and Fulbright Canada, in partnership with the Institute of the Americas, University College London, and the London Journal of Canadian Studies, published by UCL Press, are pleased to announce the convening of a colloquium entitles „Canada Inclusive/Exclusive: 150 Years and Beyond.“ Scholars affiliated with universities and research centres across Europe (especially the United Kingdom), Canada and the United States working in areas relevant to Canadian Studies are welcome to submit proposals. Please note that the working language of the colloquium will be English.

The colloquium, which is open to proposals with a significant Canadian focus, seeks to explore the theme of Canada and inclusivity/exclusivity. Disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary scholarly inquiries dedicated to examining the relationship between Canada and inclusivity/exclusivity – in an anthropological, cultural, economic, geographic, historical, literary, natural sciences, political or social context – are especially encouraged. In what ways can Canada be rightly regarded as an inclusive society by the international community? What policies has Canada established and pursued over the past 150 years to foster and expand inclusivity? Have there over time been notable variations, across issues and governments, in Canada’s apporach toward inclusivity and how might these be explained? In other words, how might Canada be considered not to have embraced inclusivity? Finally, how well placed is Canada to embrace inclusivity – rather than exclusivity – moving forward, given the variety of pressing global concerns, as it celebrates its sesquicentennial?

The colloquium will be held at the UCL Insitute of the Americas, University College London, on July 7-8, 2017. The organizers are also looking at the possibility of arranging a pre-colloquium reception, featuring a keynote address, at Canada House, Trafalgar Square, on the evening of July 6th.

The deadline for the submission of colloquium proposals is February 15, 2017.

Dr. Christopher Kirkey, Director of the Center for the Study of Canada at SUNY Plattsburgh and Dr. Michael Hawes, Executive Director of Fulbright Canada, in partnership with Dr. Tony McCulloch, Senior Fellow in North American Studies at the UCL Institute of the Americas, will serve as the colloquium coordinators and journal editors.
Selected proceedings from the colloquium will be published as a special issue of the London Journal of Canadian Studies in Autumn 2018. Should there be a sufficient number of meritorious papers, a double issue of the LJCS will be published.

The London Journal of Canadian Studies is an online, open access (non-subscription)journal which has been published by UCL Press since 2014 and is underwritten by University College London –one of the world’s top universities and a world leader in open access publishing. As online access to the LJCS is entirely free, it has the largest potential readership of any academic Canadian Studies journal in the world. Printed copies are also available to journal contributors (up to 10 copies free of charge per contributor) and, upon request, to readers (for a small charge). Volume 32 (Autumn 2017) will be a special issue on Quebec and Volume 33 (Autumn 2018) will be the special issue on „Canada Inclusive/Exclusive“.

Colloquium Participation, Timing and Results

If you are interested in submitting a proposal for the July 2017 colloquium, please forward an abstract of not more than 300 words with a brief summary of your proposed paper, together with a working title, to each of the colloquium coordinators, as follows:

Dr. Christopher Kirkey

Dr. Michael Hawes

Dr. Tony McCulloch

All submissions, which should include a current curriculum vitae, are due no later than February 15, 2017. Each submission will be evaluated by the selection committee. Successful candidates will be notified by March 1, 2017. At that time, these candidates will be provided with detailed writing guidelines (length, format, footnote/reference style requirements, and the like) in conformity with the London Journal of Canadia n Studies Guide to Contributors. A maximum of 25 proposals will be accepted for the colloquium.

Confirmed participants will be required to submit their draft contributions to the editors by May 31, 2017, prior to presentation and discussion of the papers at the colloquium in July. The colloquium participants will receive all of the draft papers in advance of the colloquium, the main purpose of which is to provide general and specific advice for the revision of manuscripts prior to submission to the London Journal of Canadian Studies.

By August 15, 2017, all colloquium contributors will be provided with a formal written evaluation of their papers, reflecting the views and suggested edits of a senior scholar as well as those of the colloquium coordinators. Contributors will then have until December 1, 2017, to undertake any suggested revisions and to re-submit their papers to Drs. Kirkey, Haws and McCulloch for review prior to the selection of papers to be included in the London Journal of Canadian Studies. After this selection has taken place, there will eb a further opportunity for the chosen papers to receive revisions to final submission in April 2018.

Colloquium Support for Participants

 To facilitate involvement in this project, the Center for the Study of Canada, Fulbright Canada, and the UCL Insittute of the Americas are pleased to be able to provide conference presenters with the following support:

• an opening evening reception on Tursday, July 6, 2017
• refreshments, lunch and dinner, Friday, July 8, 2017; and
• refreshments and lunch, Saturday, July 8, 2017

To facilitate the participation of new scholars – i.e., masters and doctoral students and those holding a post-doctoral fellowship – and early career professionals not yet in full-time employment, the colloquium coordinators are further pleased to provide them with:

• hotel accomodation, near the UCL Insittue of the Americas, for three nights (arrival July 6 and departure of the morning of July 9) in London; and
• a contribution of up to 100 British Pounds per presenter towards any necessary travel expenses.

For any enquiries you may have, please contact the Drs. Kirkey, Hawes and McCulloch.

International Conference, jointly organized by Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke, March 23-24, 2017, Morrin Centre, Quebec City, Canada

Anniversaries invite us to reflect on where we have come from and where we wish to go, to make connections across time, and to ponder the very nature of time itself. With Canada marking its 150 years in 2017 and with the Université de Sherbrooke’s Comparative Canadian Literature Graduate Student Conference celebrating its fifteenth iteration, the organizers are inviting presenters to explore the theme of „Canadian Literatures and Time.“ While one or more meanings of time may figure as a theme, symbol, or motif in a given work or may be highlighted literally or metaphorically through setting, time often also functions as a feature of narrative or poetic technique. Inherently in flux, time is bound up in how scholars trace and reformulate literary histories as well as in how writers narrate and recuperate individual or collective histories or stage shifting identities. This conference is open to a range of theoretical and critical approaches that offer insight into an aspect of the manifold manifestations of time in literature. Papers must take a comparative approach and include at least one work originating within Canada, but there are no restrictions on the national origin of the work(s) with which it is compared. Comparisons between literature and other art forms are welcome. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

• The changing field of Comparative Canadian Literature: retrospectives, trends, new directions
• Literary periods, currents, influences: transnational or intra-national relationships, legacies
• (Re)constructuring or contesting identities: past, present, future
• Preserving, recuperating, rewriting histories: re-storying, revisiting the archive
• Translating the language of, or notions of, time
• Retranslations: revising and updating translations over time
• Evolution of literary uses of language
• Time and strategies ofr self-representation
• Linear and nonlinear time, breaking time, anachronisms, imparting „timelessness“ etc.
• Marking time, poetic tempo, narrative pacing, plotting time
• Temporal power, the measure and mismeasure of time, „doing time,“ lost time
• Mythological time, dream time, bending time vs. historical time, real time
• Foundational myths and narratives
• Coming-of-age or turning points: nations, literatures, narratives, artists, etc.
• Gerontology, mortality, aging, decay, death
• Passage of time and renewal: seasons, tides, cycles
• Time travel, imagined futures, or futurism
• Memory, traume, silence, war
• Hauntings, echoes, palimpsests
• Chaning nature(s): extinction, metamorphosis, reincarnation

The conference will be held on March 23-24, 2017 at the Morrin centre and ams to be a welcoming gatherind place for young scholars interested in comparative approaches to Canadian Literatures in English and French. The organizers invite graduate students (MA, PhD, as well as advanced undergraduates) from various disciplines (Literature, Translation Studies, Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Indigenous Studies, History, etc.) to submit proposals.

Please submit an abstract of 250 words and a short biography of 150 words to this email-address. Include your name, affiliation and degree program, e-mail address, equipment needs, as well as the title of yur presentation and upload the document as both PDF and Word attachments.

The deadline for proposals is January 27, 2017. You will be informed of the decision by February 25, 2017.