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CfP ASAUK: September 7-9, 2016, University of Cambridge Panel 5257: Beyond healing? Popular culture and conflict Convenor: Andrea Grant (University of Cambridge); Chair: Angela Impey (SOAS) This panel considers the relationship between popular culture and conflict. More specifically, it explores the various forms popular culture takes in the aftermath of war, conflict, and genocide. Although much work has been done on the “healing” potential of art, we do not assume that popular culture will automatically be concerned with healing individuals or communities. In fact, the “art through healing” mantra seems to be most often espoused by NGOs and government bodies, and the “healing” produced is intimately tied up in relations of power and/or concerned with reinforcing “official” narratives of the conflict and the past more broadly. These works rarely become popular, and instead are only performed at government functions or NGO-sponsored events. Producers and consumers of popular culture, we suggest, may be little concerned with how popular cultural works attempt to “heal”, and may instead evaluate songs, dances, and jokes based on their ability to articulate the hardships and aspirations of their everyday lives. While “healing” may occur, it is often an unexpected or indirect result. Instead, popular culture may provide a site wherein alternative understandings of justice, truth, and reconciliation may be articulated and circulated, and they may diverge from the “official” line in complex and important ways. Thus, we ask: in the aftermath of conflict, how does popular culture address violence and trauma? Is this accomplished indirectly or obliquely, or not at all? How can we interpret the intentions of popular cultural producers and the ways in which their productions are understood and put to work by audiences? How is popular culture concerned with the past, perhaps as a site of competing memories of conflict, and with the future, perhaps as a site of hope? How might “traditional” and “transnational” forms be caught up in these processes? How is the body – as wounded, amputated, or maimed – represented or made central? If conflict reconfigures relations and identities, how is popular culture tied up in this? How does popular culture help to constitute post-conflict publics, and what shapes do they take? Popular cultural forms to be explored include, but are not limited to, music, dance, theatre, fiction, fashion, rumours, and jokes. Those interested should submit a 250-word abstract and short bio to Andrea Grant ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>); they should also submit their abstract via the ASAUK’s online system (http://www.asauk.net/asauk-biennial-conference-2016/ <http://www.asauk.net/asauk-biennial-conference-2016/>) by April 2. ************************************************************* * Anthropology-Matters Mailing List * http://www.anthropologymatters.com * * A postgraduate project comprising online journal, * * online discussions, teaching and research resources * * and international contacts directory. * * To join this list or to look at the archived previous * * messages visit: * * http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML * * If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all * * those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: * * [log in to unmask] * * * * Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new * * CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com * * an international directory of anthropology researchers * * To unsubscribe: please log on to jiscmail.ac.uk, and * * go to the 'Subscriber's corner' page. * * ***************************************************************