ethnicity and national identity

JAMES HOGG AT 250: CALL FOR PAPERS

 An International Conference marking the semiquincentennial of James Hogg. University of Stirling, Scotland, 1-3 July 2020. Call for PapersPaper and panel proposals on any aspect of James Hogg's life and work are now invited. AbstractsAbstracts of no more than 250 words, of papers lasting no longer than 20 minutes, should reach the address below by 1 December 2019. Panel proposals are also welcome: please enquire prior to submission. Abstracts may be e-mailed to jameshogg250@stir.ac.uk

“Renaissance(s) / Rebirth(s)”, the theme chosen for the 2020 SAES conference, is particularly relevant in the context of postcolonial literatures in English. Often called “new literatures” in the early years of their emergence, postcolonial works were – and are – frequently characterised by their attempts to renew literary forms, genres and language. These innovative practices sought, and often still seek, emancipation from European norms and canons, with the risk of creating new orthodoxies, like the primacy of the novel in the Indian postcolonial literary scene.

This session focuses on positioning the humanities curricula within the growing "global turn" in higher education. In addition to administrative and programmatic perspectives, we welcome fresh insights on expanding the canon and global humanities pedagogies. Recommended areas of specialization include but are not limited to cultural studies, comparative studies, philosophy, translation studies, world literatures, (applied) linguistics, and pedagogy.

“I am a citizen of the cosmos” Cynic Diogenes replied in the fourth century BCE when he was asked about his origins. What does it mean to be a global citizen today? Highly complex, multilayered and always contemporary, the concept of cosmopolitanism offers fertile ground and uncharted waters for scholarly interpretations. For millennia, philosophers have theorized on the meaning of global citizenship in an effort to identify who are the “kosmopolites”, the real citizens of “the Small World, the Great” in the words of Nobel laureate Odysseus Elytis.

Food is a basic foundation of culture and society, it is vital to our health and well-being and it plays a significant role in our everyday creative engagement with nature. The shifts in activities surrounding food acquisition, preparation and consumption are not only essential for learning a culinary tradition but for examining a broader societal change.

This conference will explore food as a complex cultural product, an indicator of social, religious and political identity. It will focus on people's relationship with food and discuss how food choices are determined by historical period, region, class, gender, kinship and/or ethnicity.