Reminder:
 

New extended submission deadline - 15 November 2006

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

CULTURAL STUDIES NOW: an international conference

Docklands Campus, University of East London, UK, 19-22 July 2007

Plenary speakers and presenters will include Ien Ang, Rosi Braidotti,
Kuan-Hsing Chen, Jeremy Gilbert, Judith Halberstam, Stuart Hall, Dick
Hebdige, Doreen Massey, Horace Ove, Mitra Tabrizian.

Cultural Studies, as the paradigmatic interdisciplinary project, has always
been defined by its relationships to proximate sets of ideas, practices and
institutions. As Cultural Studies has grown and matured, its borders have
multiplied. Cultural Studies has affected and been affected by contiguous
disciplines, academic and non-academic institutions, political movements and
projects, and creative practices of many kinds.

The question now is: has Cultural Studies been expanded, relocated and
disseminated to the point where it no longer has a coherent identity? Is
there a future for Cultural Studies as such? This major international
conference will consider these issues by addressing a number of connected
topics:

· Cultural Studies and politics: Cultural Studies was once closely
allied with socialism, feminism and antiracism. Is this still the case? Has
Cultural Studies lost its political edge? Has it moved to the right? Or is it
finding a home in the latest new social movements?

· Cultural Studies and its disciplinary neighbours: history,
literature, sociology, philosophy, geography, visual culture, psychoanalysis,
political science, postcolonial theory, economics, environmental studies,
science and technology studies, film and media studies, queer studies and
popular music studies are among the disciplines and fields that have
contributed to and drawn on Cultural Studies. Has Cultural Studies been a
good neighbour?

· Cultural Studies in the public sphere: what has been the influence
of Cultural Studies outside the academy? How has the corporate universe made
use of it? Has the selective uptake of Cultural Studies in a range of
institutional contexts, including government, been positive in its effects?

· Cultural Studies and creative practice: what are the actual and
potential relationships between Cultural Studies and other forms of creative
practice? What has been the impact of Cultural Studies on cultural practices
and vice versa? How has this been played out?

· Cultural Studies and national contexts: does Cultural Studies
occupy different institutional and intellectual spaces in different national,
international, and global contexts? Is there a cosmopolitan Cultural Studies
or have local conversations predominated? Is there any continued relevance
for the Birmingham CCCS models?

Today, when Cultural Studies risks responding to these challenges by
collapsing into theoretical obscurantism or technocratic ineffectuality, we
at the University of East London believe that there is a place for a Cultural
Studies which is politically committed and relentlessly experimental in its
intellectual, institutional and creative practices.

To this end, we invite contributions which address these topological and
methodological questions directly or which present examples of current work
in the field. We welcome proposals for papers and presentations engaging with
the full range of current themes and issues in contemporary cultural studies,
cultural theory and cultural production.

Panels will normally consist of three twenty-minute presentations. Abstracts
(max 200 words) and biographical notes (max 150 words) for individual papers
and/or suggestions for panels or alternative formats to be sent by 15th
November 2006 (extended deadline) to:

csnow_at_uel.ac.uk

School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies

University of East London

University Way

London E16 2RD

Established in 1985 as the first ever Department of Cultural Studies in the
UK and twice awarded the high rating of 5 in the British Research Assessment
Exercise, the University of East London is a widely-recognised centre for
research and teaching in the Cultural Studies field. Now part of the School
of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies, the subject area is located
in the University's newly-built waterside Docklands Campus, where the
conference will take place. Accommodation will be available on campus and in
hotels in Canary Wharf and Central London. The campus is sited within easy
reach of the arts and cultural scene of East London and is well-served by
public transport. Details of associated cultural programmes and London-wide
events of interest will be available on the conference website
http://www.uel.ac.uk/culturalstudiesnow

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Received on Fri Nov 10 2006 - 18:14:13 EST