ADVANCE NOTICE
Conference to be held at Luigj Gurkuqi University of Shkodra, Albania
5-6 May 2016
Myth and Memory: Representing and Misrepresenting National Cultures and Peoples
The Faculty of Modern Languages together with the Department of English is pleased to announce a call for papers for an international and inter-disciplinary conference to be held at the University of Shkodra in May 2016.
The end of the 20c saw the break-up of several apparently established nation states, often following violent conflict. All this took place paradoxically in an era in which the idea of universal human rights was widely promoted in the context of a so-called globalised economy.
The virulent racism of the early 20c returned as ‘ethnic cleansing’. This process, compounded by sectarian, linguistic and cultural difference and rivalry has continued into our own century seemingly accompanied by even greater violence. The older religious and imperial orders were largely replaced during the 19c by the appeal to a new dynamic of ‘nation building’. What appeared as a progressive movement of liberation, one of the grands recits of history, had consequences that proved disastrous, not least for Europe’s ‘dark twentieth century’. The subsequent break-up of Europe’s overseas empires, the struggles for anti-colonial independence, may be thought in many cases to have produced similar results.
Patriotic sentiment and revolutionary fervour, in both their positive and negative formations, have always been deeply entwined with cultural and educational activities and programmes. The whole fabric of civilisation is present: writing novels, history, poetry, journalism; composing music; sculpture, painting and architecture; building schools and universities; science and technology; mobilising and training armies; founding constitutions; establishing territorial and sectarian/confessional claims are all necessary and complementary features of a conflicted ‘modernity’, that defers to the existence of nation states, while invoking a wider common multi-cultural humanity.
In order to explore these issues, whether in the past or the present (or even, possibly, the future) we invite papers that address aspects of national, ethnic, sectarian, linguistic and cultural identities, and their relative importance as they are manifest in the following fields:
Literary, artistic, and popular cultural (film, TV, newspapers, etc) production
Political and economic history
Legal and educational systems and practices
Social psychology
We hope to attract speakers from a wide variety of disciplines including literary, media and cultural studies; linguistics; sociology and political science; theology and philosophy; law and economics; history; education.
Shkodra is the principal city of Northern Albania. Still a bustling marketplace, full of bars and excellent restaurants, it is a wonderfully welcoming place, close to the magnificent mountains of the interior. Beautifully situated on the banks of the River Buna it lies close to the shores of the huge lake that forms the border with Montenegro. Rich in history of different periods it was the site of the 1479 siege of Rozafat Castle, whose spectacular remains lie on the edge of the city. Delegates will have the chance to get to know one of the most interesting places in Europe at the height of the Mediterranean/ Illyrian spring, as well as engaging with its lively intellectual and artistic culture.
PRACTICALITIES
The conference fee of c. 130 euros will include transfer to and from Tirana airport and all meals and refreshments for the two days. En-suite accommodation will be available in comfortable local hotels from 30 euros per night including breakfast.
Delegates unfamiliar with Albania may like to refer to Byron’s ‘Childe Harold, Canto II, XLVI’
Ev’n to the centre of Illyria’s vales
Childe Harold pass’d o’er many a mount sublime,
Through lands scarce noticed in historic tales;
Yet in famed Attica such lovely dales
Are rarely seen; nor can fair Tempe boast
A charm they know not; loved Parnassus fails,
Though classic ground and consecrated most,
To match some spots that lurk within this lowering coast.
Call for papers will be circulated in September 2015.
In the interim any queries can be addressed to Simon Edwards
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