NIGHT AND THE CITY
"Night and the city: the night is tonight, tomorrow night, or any other
night.  The city is. . ."--Night and the City
"A city has many faces--It's one o'clock in the morning now--And this is
the face of. . ."--The Naked City

March 16-18, 2001
McGill University
Montréal, Québec
Canada

Since the advent of urban illumination, and especially since
electrification, night in the city has been charged with numerous meanings
and possibilities. For more than a century it has been understood and
studied as a site of pleasure, terror, escape, reclamation, visibility,
invisibility, scopophilia, surveillance, crime, insurrection, consumption,
containment and chaos.  There are as many facets to nocturnal urban spaces
and practices as there are critical and theoretical approaches to studying
them.  This conference intends to bring together many of these perspectives
and highlight their intersections as well as their divergences. The broader
purpose of this conference is to open up discussion of the city's nocturnal
world which has so often been elided in recent examinations of urban
phenomena and social practice.  To this end, this conference is meant as an
interdisciplinary exploration of night and the city, encouraging dialogue
and debate across discplines and scholarly interests.  Possible areas of
discussion might include, but are certainly not limited to:

leisure and pleasure when the sun goes down
youth culture/s after dark
reclaiming urban spaces and architecture - nighttime versus daytime
the nocturnal cityscape in literature, film, music, and art
shadow economies - moral, financial, cultural
from dusk til dawn - nighttime labours
night and Modernity in the city
the city in noir
alternative urban geographies
scopic pleasure and the nocturnal city
nocturnal histories - notes from the underground
class at night - shadows and light and the social space of the city
sociologies/ethnographies of nightlife - doing it after dark
queer spaces - out at night
gendered spaces - pleasures and dangers among the shadows and light
bringing crime into the light - policing the night
and so on. . .

Abstracts should be no longer than 250-300 words and should be submitted no
later than December 8, 2000.  Suggestions/proposals for panels are
encouraged.  Abstracts/suggestions/proposals should be sent to can be
emailed to:
Anthony Kinik: [log in to unmask]
Geoff Stahl: [log in to unmask]

Or hardcopies can be mailed/faxed to:

The Department of Art History and Communication Studies
853 Sherbrooke St. W
Montreal, QC
H3A 2T6
Fax: (514) 398-7247

"Night and the City" will also include a number of events designed to
encourage experiences of Montreal's vibrant nightlife.  A film series,
exhibits of art and architecture as well as musical events will all be an
integral part of this conference.

http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/gpc/nightandthecity/
contact: [log in to unmask]
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