CALL FOR PANELS, PAPERS, AND PRESENTATIONS



The 15th International Bakhtin conference



Bakhtin as Praxis: Academic Production, Artistic Practice, Political Activism



July 23rd-27th, 2014 Stockholm



http://bakhtinconference.com/index.html



Since The First One Hundred Years of Bakhtin (Caryl Emerson, 1997), much has changed in the way we read Bakhtin and interpret his thought in theoretical and practical work. On the one hand, the strong emotions that accompanied his appearance as an authority on the international academic and intellectual scene now seem to have calmed down. Bakhtin is no longer a symbol, not a name of an ideology, but a well-used, carefully read book on every intellectual’s bookshelf, an object of critical-historical, comparative, and theoretical interpretation but also – importantly – a powerful inspiration for action, whether in artistic research and practice, or in political activism. The 15th International Bakhtin conference to be held in Stockholm in 2014, seeks to provide answers to these questions: Who, and What is Bakhtin today, twenty years after his first one hundred years, and how to account for his transformation: from symbol – to text – to theory – to practical action.



We are proud to arrange one of the renowned International Bakhtin Conferences in Stockholm in 2014, under the aegis of the Bakhtin Centre at Sheffield University. All scholars working on problems related to Bakhtin and history, language, literature, the arts, cultural studies and culture theory, philosophy, and other topics representing the broadest possible range of interest, are warmly welcome to take part in this conference.



To achieve a truly interdisciplinary discussion, we would also like to encourage participation of new areas and disciplines. We propose the Stockholm conference to become a forum for dialogue between the academia, literature, and the art world. Creative writing and translation, as well as artistic and curatorial research, are areas where Bakhtin’s ideas have been actively developed lately in parallel to the academic discussion. A dialogue between established Bakhtin research and these new fields of practical and theoretical knowledge will hopefully enrich both parties. To encourage artistic research, artists, translators other practitioners to take part in discussions, and to announce an innovative orientation towards (artistic) practice to complement academic Bakhtin scholarship, we have chosen a venue that is new for Bakhtin conferences: The Royal Institute of Art and the Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art) in Stockholm.



The invitation therefore includes presentations of art projects, curatorial work and performances from all artistic fields related to the topics of the conference.



With this conference, we would like to emphasize Bakhtin’s role as a thinker of the act, action, and activism. Such notions as, for example, dialogue and the carnival are indispensable for the understanding of today’s social, political, and creative phenomena. We would also like to make visible those Bakhtinian projects that lie outside the scope of traditional disciplines within Bakhtin-related knowledge, such as political theory, the social sciences, educational science, critical heritage studies, education studies, or any other field of knowledge that has discovered Bakhtin as a source for a better understanding of social and political practice in general.



Thirdly, we would like to celebrate the “Nordic” Bakhtin: the Nordic school of reception and investigation which has been no less important even though smaller than the Russian, the West European, the Northern American, or the Brazilian traditions. A comparative discussion about various “territorial” varieties of Bakhtin’s reception will be also very welcome.



The purpose of this conference is to encourage inter-disciplinary and international discussion. We are inviting future participants to submit panel proposals that would respond to these conditions.



Individual papers will be assembled into panels upon peer-review, also preferably on an inter-disciplinary basis.



The working language of the conference is English. We will be able to provide simultaneous translation for key events. Contributions submitted in other languages are not excluded, but the matter will be negotiated with the contributors on an individual basis.



Information about the Conference will soon be available at www.bakhtinconference.com that is right now under construction.



Paper/panel proposals will be accepted and registered with the help of an automatic program. You will find the link on the homepage.



The Organizing Committee



Charlotte Bydler, Andreas Gedin, Lars Kleberg, Irina Sandomirskaia, Jaakko Turunen, Johan Öberg



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