Narratives of Citizenship

University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
March 23-25, 2007

* Deadline extended to December 22, 2006.

In celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Canadian Citizenship
Act, the Graduate Students of English Association at the University of
Alberta is hosting the interdisciplinary conference Narratives of
Citizenship. This conference addresses key issues concerning the
interrelation of the arts, the academy, and narrative constructions of
"the citizen" and his or her duties, rights, and privileges—both
locally and globally. We are pleased to welcome as our keynote
speaker Daniel Coleman (McMaster University), author of White
Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada (2006) and Masculine
Migrations: Reading the Postcolonial Male in "New Canadian" Narratives
(1998).

We are also pleased to announce featured presenter Smaro Kamboureli
(University of Guelph), editor of Making a Difference: Canadian
Multicultural Literature (2006) and author of Scandalous Bodies:
Diasporic Literature in English Canada (2000). Invited papers will
also be given by David Chariandy (Simon Fraser University),
Co-director of the Institute of the Humanities-funded Study Group on
Culture and Citizenship, and Lily Cho (University of Western Ontario)
who specializes in diasporic citizenship.

The conference aims to destabilize traditional community boundaries by
providing a venue for scholars and students to workshop ideas with
artists, community leaders and social activists from both inside and
outside the University environment. An Artists' Gala featuring local
Alberta performing artists and writers, including Myrna Kostash,
Shirley Serviss, Darrin Hagen, and Trevor Tchir will be held on
Saturday night.

We invite papers concerned with the construction of citizenship as a
textual, narrative phenomenon, where "text" is understood to refer to
a spectrum of media, including film, theatre, historical or legal
documents, and literature, to name but a few possibilities. Suggested
topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Dominant and counter-narratives of citizenship in literary,
philosophical, legal or other texts;
• The relationship between academic practices and citizenship;
• The translation or dissemination of discipline-specific knowledge to
communities outside the University environment, or vice-versa;
• The use of pedagogy to engage, support, and trouble the notion of
citizenship within and beyond the classroom;
• The effect of marginalization upon discourses of civic obligation;
• The impact of multiculturalism on contemporary articulations of citizenship.

To submit a paper, please send a brief bio and an abstract of no more
than 400 words to the conference organizers. The deadline for abstract
submission is December 22, 2006. E-mail or online submissions are
preferred:

Aloys Fleischmann: aloys_at_ualberta.ca
Nancy Van Styvendale: nancyv_at_ualberta.ca
Submit Online at: www.arts.ualberta.ca/~gsea/conf/

Mailing Address:
Narratives of Citizenship
Department of English and Film Studies
Humanities Centre 3-5
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
T6G 2E5

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Received on Sat Dec 09 2006 - 17:46:42 EST