CALL FOR PAPERS

The Republic of Tunisia

The Higher Institute of Applied Studies in the Humanities, University of Monastir in partnership with “l’Association de la Creation Culturelle” and the research laboratory “Approches du Discours” (LAD), University of Sfax organize an international conference on

Literacy,  Journey,  and Cultural Encounter

Venue : The Higher Institute of Applied Studies in the Humanities of Mahdia, University of Monastir, Tunisia.

April 11-12-13, 2018

In traditional approaches, literacy has been described as a static skill limited to the ability of reading and writing. New literacy Studies, however, conceives of literacy as a social practice in its social situations, viewing that moving across cultures and contexts couches a plethora of literacy practices (Street, 1984, 2000, 2005; Heath,1983; Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Pahl & Rowsell, 2006). If we travel in space across physical borders or metaphorically across social contexts for daily practices, we can talk of schooled literacy practice, academic literacy practice, digital literacy practice, literacy-literary practice, media literacy, or commercial literacy practice.  The potential of literacy practices resides in opening up “powerful pathways through new cultures…, pathways that wind through globalized and local, virtual and material social fields” (Luke & Carrington, 2002:233).  One clear effect of moving across physical geographical borders or across figural borders is encounter with difference and otherness.

We aim to explore socially-oriented views of literacy as a journey of learning in connection with cultural encounter across communicative situations and cultures. This leads us to raise the following questions: How does the metaphor of literacy as a journey relate to cultural encounter?  Is the ability to read and write sufficient to assimilate cultural specificities? Is linguistic literacy sufficient to move across cultures and contexts? How do texts as sites of literacy practices instantiate the formation of selfhood and cultural identity practices? How do texts travel across cultures? How can we lift literacy from the local to the global? How can we lift our locally embedded knowledge to accommodate globally oriented knowledge?

The discussion in the conference will focus on the relationship between literacy as a journey, culture, and assimilation/digestion in a variety of fields such as cultural studies, media studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, pedagogy, linguistics, translation, and literature.  

For the conference, we invite as yet unpublished papers on Literacy and cultural encounter. Motivated by multidisciplinarity, the conference navigates across several areas of interest. We welcome proposals dealing with, but not restricted to, the following topics:

Literacy and geographical borders

Literacy and migration

Literacy and metaphorical/ fictionalized borders

Linguistic literacy and cultural encounter

Multimodal literacy and cultural encounter

The literacy-literary journey and cultural encounter

Cultural encounter in reading as a journey in text

The journey of texts across cultures, contexts, modes (meaning making sources), and genres

The literacy-education journey and pedagogy-related literacy practices

Literacy for children with special needs

Early literacy and cultural encounter

Multimodal literacy and the question of teaching sciences and/or languages in the Tunisian context

The literacy-technology journey in the 21st century

Teachers and learners on the “technospace” cline

Literacy practices and cross-cultural communication

Literacy and cultural hybridity

Literacy and “transnational worlds” (Appadurai 1996)

Literacy and “cultural capital” (Bourdieu 1977)

Media-related literacy practices

Literacy and youth culture

The conference is organized by The Higher institute of Applied Studies in the Humanities of Mahdia, University of Monastir, Tunisia and sponsored by “l’Association  de la Creation Culturelle” and  the research laboratory “Approches du  Discours”, Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Sfax.

Submission details

We welcome proposals of 300 words (maximum) with a title and at least 5 key words for 15-minute presentations in English. Please, submit your proposals to the advisory board through Colloque.iseah.mahdia@gmail.com  and a biographical statement of 100 words to abderazakt@yahoo.fr. Deadline submission is January 15, 2018. All submitted proposals will be peer-reviewed. Once the proposal is accepted, you will be notified by January 30, 2018. Full drafts of the articles (no more than 20 pages and no less than 12 pages) should be submitted to the advisory board by February 20, 2018.

Conference fees

Registration : 200 EUR  for participants from outside Tunisia and 200 TND for Tunisian  participants

Registration includes: conference participation, refreshments,  4 nights full-board accommodation in a hotel in Mahdia  for participants from outside Tunisia and 2 nights for Tunisian participants, shuttle from and to airport  for foreign participants/ publication of accepted articles.

Scientific Committee

Pr. Mounir Triki (Head of LAD, University of Sfax) /Pr. Mounir Guirat (University of Sfax)/ Pr. Mansour Khalifa (University of Sousse)/ Pr. Henda Ammar (University of Sfax)

Coordinator: Dr. Abderazak Tebbeb, (ISEAH, Mahdia, University of Monastir; member of LAD, University of Sfax)

Organizing committee

Youssef Shili, MA (Philosophy)/ Abderrouf Ben Flah, MA (Biology) /Amor Khammari, A (Theatre)/ Moheddine ben Slimene, A ( translation)/Wejdi haj Abdallah A (Musicology)/ Injazet Bouraoui Mabrouk, MA (French)/Abderazak Tebbeb, MA (English).