**Apologies for cross-posting. Deadline for abstracts Wednesday 31st January 2018.** RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2018, Cardiff, 29 - 31 August 2018.
2nd Call for papers: The Super-diverse University?: Changing Landscapes of the Geographies of Higher Education
Session organisers: Panagiota (Peny) Sotiropoulou, Loughborough University ([log in to unmask]); Mark Holton, University of Plymouth ([log in to unmask]) and Kirsty Finn, Lancaster University ([log in to unmask]).
Co-sponsoring groups: GCYFRG and PGF
Abstract: Vertovec’s (2010) notion of ‘super-diversity’ has come to define contemporary Western societies. Alongside ethnocultural, socio-economic and religious diversity markers, other social identity markers such as notions of ‘hyper-diversity’, intersectionality and multiple inequalities, have prompted a broadening of conceptual understandings of diversity. Within higher education (HE) discourses, understanding diversities is recognised as vital to emerging academic and policy agendas (Valentine & Harris, 2016), particularly in terms of what we might consider ‘landscapes’ of (in)formal educational spaces (e.g. teaching spaces, libraries, accommodation, leisure spaces, Students’ Unions, chaplaincies etc.). As Holloway et al. (2010: 588) attest, HE institutions are embedded within “wider sets of social relations, [yet are] always in the making and thus potentially open to change” in relation to a multilayering of diverse cultures. This reflects not just official policies but also informal educators’ practices and diverse students’ cultures and experiences. Universities are consequently prominent spaces for the socio-cultural development of young people, influencing knowledge and identity formation; shaping behaviour and skill acquisition through formal and informal curricula (Collins & Coleman, 2008; Cook & Hemming, 2011; Gill, 2016; McCreary et al., 2013). This session will therefore seek to explore these changing landscapes of HE to critically examine the role of universities in preparing the new generation for ‘conviviality’ (or togetherness) (Nowicka & Vertovec, 2014) in multicultural societies.
Based on this, we invite contributions that examine how diversity is experienced and/or managed by the multiple actors involved in (in)formal HE spaces. This might include, but is not restricted to work attending to:
•the experiences, emotions, lifestyles, perceptions and behaviour of diverse students preparing for, studying in, or reflecting up their university education; •a range of spatial scales of HE, from the locality of institutions to the intersections of global higher education networks; •a focus on inequalities in higher education that might impact upon opportunities for diverse students/academics.
Please email a 250 word abstract to one of the convenors:
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Deadline for submission Wednesday 31st January, 2018.
For further inquiries or if you would like to discuss your papers before submitting, please contact any of the convenors.
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