CALL FOR PAPERS

Dance Matters

The School of Media, Communication and Culture at
Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India is pleased to
announce a two-day symposium titled Dance Matters on
August 10-11 2006. This symposium proposes to bring
to the forefront innovative approaches that have
placed dance at the center of scholarly research on
body, ritual, culture, identity, history, gender, and
power. Selected papers from the symposium will be
published in a book.

Dance is a vital aspect of expressive culture. It
embodies the cultural experience and expression of a
particular collective identity. Notions of culture,
identity, and history are continually re-invented
through dance. Indian dance forms have emerged as an
important critical lens to analyze narratives of
nationalism, transnationalism, women¡¦s bodies, and
postcolonial politics. Scholarly research on Indian
dance forms has spanned disciplines such as
Anthropology, Culture studies, Performance studies,
Art history, Postcolonial and Feminist studies. The
recent formulation of Dance studies as an academic
discipline is a result of the increased circulation of
various dance forms in the international scholarly and
art-culture circuits. This conference will bring
scholars and practitioners together on the same
platform to evaluate the status of Indian dance forms
(ranging from classical, to folk, to Bollywood) in
shaping current discourses on culture, tradition,
history, identity, human rights and more. The topics
to be covered include

"X Tradition and Globalization
"X Religion and Culture
"X Identity and Hybridity
"X Gender and Sexuality
"X Media and Popular Culture
"X Ethnography and Audience
"X Dance and Social justice
"X Ritual and Aesthetics

Please send a brief abstract (350 words) including a
title, name, address, email, phone number and
institutional affiliation by March 30, 2006. Submit
abstracts and direct queries to:

Dr. Nilanjana Gupta, Director
School of Media Communication and Culture
Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
Email: nilaguptaju_at_yahoo.com

Dr. Pallabi Chakravorty
Department of Music and Dance
Swarthmore College, Pa 19096, U.S.A
Email: pchakra1_at_swarthmore.edu

Jadavpur University will provide local hospitality for
the speakers at the University guesthouse.
Sponsored by UGC University with Potential for
Excellence Programme: Studies in Cultural Processes.

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Received on Sat Feb 18 2006 - 10:00:19 EST