Academic Identities in Crisis?
A University of Central Lancashire Conference
Call for Papers
4 - 6th September 2008

Fictional texts like Possession and the saga of the University of Poppleton
provide us with fascinating accounts of academic identity - and simply
surviving inside and outside universities. At this conference we aim to
explore the production and consumption of your academic identities.

Questions to consider include:
âˆ' How is your research and/or teaching identity structured? Is it literal
or symbolic? What metaphors do you use to explain and analyse your practice?
âˆ' What is the relationship between you and your research topic/teaching
area? What models do you use for understanding your academic work?
âˆ' How do you negotiate the interface between the ivory tower and the
marketplace? How do you get your research ‘out there’? How do you
construct and negotiate a ‘public’ identity?
âˆ' How do the texts, objects, people and places you research reflect and/or
shape your identity?
âˆ' Can you map changes in your identity through transformations in your
teaching/research, especially from postgraduate to lecturer/researcher or
from lecturer/research to professor? What about mapping changes in your
identity if you have moved from one discipline to another or one role to
another? How can interdisciplinarity be managed? How/Have you managed to
transfer your identity into the public arena?
âˆ' How do you manage the academic identities of others, either through line
management or staff development roles?
âˆ' Have changes in your life prompted transformations in your
research/teaching? How can we or how do we ‘enjoy’ these identities?
âˆ' Is there a conflict between your teaching and research identity? Do you
have more than one identity for different contexts and occasions and does
this cause you any physical and/or emotional and/or professional
difficulties? Do you have an ‘ideal’ identity you are trying to attain and,
if so, where does this come from (books, films, mentors etc.)? What choices
are we presented with?
âˆ' How do you think others conceive of your research, teaching or public
identities? What do external evaluators say/write about your research (peer
review, book reviews, in the news, at conferences) or your teaching
(students, peer observation etc.)? How do you feel about this?
âˆ' How do you negotiate external challenges to your research or teaching
identity such as the RAE, employability agenda, corporate strategies,
widening participation, QA, and internationalism etc.?

Your Methodologies and Approaches
We encourage a variety of methodologies, from qualitative
educational/sociological research to textual or visual approaches.
Presentations can include texts, objects, interview material, posters,
photos, podcasts, blogs, performance or films to represent and explain your
identities. We welcome both traditional and more creative approaches.

Deadline for Abstracts
Please send 300 word abstracts to Helen Day (HFDay_at_uclan.ac.uk) or
Abstracts to Helen Day (HFDay_at_uclan.ac.uk) or Abstracts to Helen Day
(HFDay_at_uclan.ac.uk) or Annemarie Mcallister (AMcallister1_at_uclan. ac.uk) by
14th December 2007. Abstracts can be for papers, posters, exhibitions or
objects, podcasts, blogs, performances and films. We are also interested
in abstracts for panel sessions or 2 - 4 members. The first day of the
conference will be a workshop for postgraduates and researchers new to
researching identity. If you are interested in running a sessions please
send an abstract or contact the organisers.

Why you would be interested in this conference?
This conference will be of interest to anyone who wishes to reflect upon
and interrogate their academic identity, in any subject area and from a
variety of backgrounds, both inside and outside the university.

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Received on Wed Oct 10 2007 - 02:15:57 EDT