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CONFERENCE CALL FOR PAPERS
Belonging: Cultural Topographies of Identity
University College Dublin
8-9th June 2012
If, in the first decades of the twenty first century, belonging is firmly
‘back on the agenda’ (Antonsich: 2010, 652) then this is not only due to
increased mobility, in both its territorialized and deterritorialized
aspects, but also the growing need for a more semantically complex way of
understanding and exploring who, what and where we are. As Vikki Bell puts
it, ‘[…] one does not simply or ontologically belong to the world or any
group within it. Belonging is an achievement at several levels of
abstraction.’ (1999: 3). Incorporating at once notions of citizenship,
emotional and psychological attachment, emplacement and
deterritorialization, the legal-material and the imaginary-symbolic, the
concept of belonging suggests a fruitful point of departure for
understanding the complexities of space, place and identity in the
twenty-first century.
This two-day conference will focus on the ways in which belonging is
produced, maintained and transposed across a wide range of cultural and
intellectual discourses and creative modes. This includes but is not
limited to, architecture, archaeology and anthropology, visual art,
literature and life-writing, intellectual history and critical theory and
discourse analysis. Papers will engage with the general question of how
concepts of belonging are instrumentalized in the creation of topographies
of identity. Key issues for discussion may include:
· Which metaphors predominate in narratives of belonging and how
do these metaphors relate to empirical discourses (e.g. natural science)?
· How do these tropes migrate across time and space, across
geographic, social and political boundaries?
· In what ways do different perceptions of belonging intersect and
interact culturally, socially, politically, legally?
· How is the material environment instrumentalized in performances
and daily practices of belonging (architecture, public space, personal
belongings, objects)?
· What role does emotion and/or affect play in perceptions and
conceptions of belonging?
250-word proposals for papers, along with a brief bioblurb, should be sent
by 14 March 2012 to either of the conference organizers, Dr Gillian Pye
([log in to unmask]) or Dr Alison Ribeiro de Menezes
([log in to unmask]). A number of modest bursaries towards travel
expenses will be available for postgraduates and postdoctoral scholars who
present a paper. For further details, please contact the conference
organizers.
Dr. Graham Finlay
School of Politics and International Relations
University College Dublin
Belfield, Dublin 4
IRELAND
+353 1 716 8345
Fax: +353 1 716 1171
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