Spawned by the linguistic turn, and in psychology specifically by the narrative turn associated with the names of Theodor Sarbin and Jerome Bruner, language became the central focus in many areas of the social sciences. The special issue of the German Journal für Psychologie aims to look behind the curtains of this development to investigate the meaning of language for our understanding of psychic life as the core subject matter of psychological investigations. Specifically, language shall be investigated with respect to its critical potential for psychology in particular and the social sciences more generally.

The works of Giambattista Vico and Johann Gottfried Herder mark an important starting point for two different developments in the conceptualization of language. The positivistic approach regards language as a tool, used by actors to communicate. Language is seen to be a specifically human ability, a system to be investigated. It is merely used in order to describe reality, from which it is completely detached. Hence, language is not seen to be actively creating something, but merely an ability to describe and capture reality.

In contrast, the aim to define language can also be understood as an investigation into the being-in-the-world of subjects. The major categories such as ‘world’, ‘reality’, ‘nature’, ‘humanity’ may be counterposed or related to the category ‘language’, but it seems clear that all categories, including the category ‘ language’, are themselves constructions in language, and can thus only within a particular system of thought be separated from language for relational inquiry. Thus, language is not seen as a passive tool but as the active praxis of subjects to create the world. Fundamental for this understanding are the works of Mikhail Bakhtin. He introduced a new understanding of the ’sign’ which is never equivalent to what it signifies, but instead derives its meaning from social convention. Bakhtin, therefore, not only rejects a positivistic understanding of language but also de-individualizes language and renders it a social element which makes possible collaborative action. It was Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky who utilized these insights for psychology by studying the internalization of these social signs in the process of language acquisition.

Another point of departure for investigations into language can be found in the works of Karl Marx. His ideas and concepts are present – even though implicitly – in the works of Bakthin as well as the Vygotsky School. Similarly implicit is the way in which Marx treats the phenomenon of language. Most commonly quoted are the Theses on Feuerbach, in which an idealistic understanding of language is countered with a dynamic-dialectical approach. Language is thus rendered as practical consciousness and combines the creative and active character of language with its analytic character.

While the above outlines only a few approaches among many to a critical understanding of language, this special issue of the Journal für Psychologie aims at exploring language as a concept that is capable of critique. Is language emancipatory per se, creative, and as such critical? Or do we need a specific concept of language in order to unfold its critical potential? Is it possible to deconstruct existing illusions, ideologies and fetish form by means of language? And most importantly: To what extent is it possible to envision a critical psychology that utilizes the power of language?

Abstracts (approx. 2 pages) should be submitted to mdege@clarku.edu no later than August 31, 2010.

http://www.socialscienceblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/cfp191en.pdf

Thursday, 8 July 2010 * 6:30 – 7:37:30 pm
“Auto/biographical reflections on personal and
other legacies: Much more than money”
The Phil Salmon Memorial Lecture by Gayle Letherby, University of Plymouth

Friday, 9 July 2010 * 9:00 – 9:50
“Reflections ns in the Hall of Mirrors: emotion,
history, and the self,” by Michael Erben and Hilary Dickinson

“Looking for my reality: Touching the social
sensibility of sports coaching,” by Jake Bailey, U.W.I.C.

9:55 – 10:45
“The phenomena of social networking siites in
developing digital identities,” by Jenny Byrne, University of Southampton

“We are Hoo’: Negotiating the legacy of
Hearingness,” by Rachel Sutton-Spence and Donna West, University of Bristol

11:00 – 11:50
“When Mums & Dads die: Insights from an
ethnographic study of young people, living with
bereavement,” by Andrew C. Sparkes and Joanne Brewer, University of Exeter

“Michael Kidner’s Legacy,” by Sybil Myerson

11:55 – 12:45
“Secrets,, lies & family stories,” by Clare Lomas, London College of Fashion

“All that we leave behind: Midwives, mothers and
memories,” by Faye Sutton, University of Plymouth

2:00 – 2:55
“Legacies,” by Josie Abbott and Maggie Boniface,
Universities of Southampton and Chichester

“Legacy or gift and what difference does it
make?,” by Sue Lovell, Griffith University

2:55-3:45
“Women’s theatrical memoirs-âEUR”revolutionising
eighteenth-century historiography,” by Julia
Swindells, Anglia Ruskin University

“The legacy of the lie: Hidden objectivity and
the experience of being,” by Clair Morrow, Goldsmiths

4:00- 4:50
“Memories of a remarkable woman: Pasa
KavazoviÄŸ, her place in the histories of
genocide and reconstructive surgery,” by Jennifer Hargreaves

“’You were quiet. I did all the marching’:
Challenges in hearing the voices of South Asian
girls,” by Anne Chappell and Geeta Ludhra, Brunel University

Saturday, 10 July * 9:00 – 9:50
br>”Witnessing, false witnessing and the legacies
of suffering,” by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson,
University of Michigan and Ohio State University

9:55 – 10:45
“Putting down the baggage: Occupational
therapists’ art and narratives of moving on,” by
Teresa Job, University of Southampton

“Diaries and letters as legacies: Spanish women
writers in exile,” by Maria-José Blanco, University of London

11:00-11:50
“Fragments: A legacy concealed and revealed in
creative methods,” by Kay Inckle, Trinity College Dublin

“The legacy of self-inflicted death-picking up
the pieces via the internet,” by Saffron Sccott, University of Southampton

1:55 -“ 12:45
“Legacies Art Workshop”

“Things my mother taught me: Everyday phrases and
social contexts,” by David Morgan, University of Manchester

For the full program and registration
information, contact Michael Erben at
michaelerben@gmail.com or Gill Clarke, School of
Education, University of Southampton, Southampton SO 17 1BJ, UK.

STORYTELLING

Bewitching the Modern Mind

By CHRISTIAN SALMON

Published 22nd March 2010

—————————–

EVENTS:

8 April, 1pm at the RSA, London: ‘Storytelling: How narratives shape our
reality, ideas and behaviour’. For more information and book your free place:
http://www.thersa.org/events/our-events/storytelling-how-narratives-shape-our
-reality,-ideas-and-behaviour
<http://www.thersa.org/events/our-events/storytelling-how-narratives-shape-ou
r-reality,-ideas-and-behaviour>  

8 April, 6.30pm at the ICA, London: ‘Making Believe’, with Julia Hobsbawm,
founder of media analysis and networking firm Editorial Intelligence and
pioneer of ‘integrity PR’, and Neil Boorman, author of Bonfire of the Brands.
Chaired by ICA director Ekow Eshun. For more information and booking:
http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=24203 <http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=24203>  

—————————–

“French writer Salmon here treats us to the useful spectacle of a relentless
polemic against a ubiquitous idea widely held to provoke only positive
feelings. As used by branders or politicians, “storytelling” is, on his
argument, a sedative, suppressing the desire for truth in favour of
satisfying narrative form.” Steven Poole, Guardian

“This book, which is both concise and clearly written … guides us through
these texts which are largely unknown and now very influential.” Le Monde

“There are certain books that make you feel less stupid after reading them
than before. … It is a fascinating and never jargon-heavy book.” Le Progres

“Lively, very well informed and slickly handled.” Les Inrockuptibles

—————————–

Some stories tell of real, lived experience, passing on its lessons: telling
stories is an art that has been cultivated by humanity and lies at the heart
of the social bond. Others mask reality and distort the truth, concealing
reality rather than elucidating it: these stories, Christian Salmon argues,
work to convince people to believe in the existence of WMDs and buy things
they don’t need.

Through groundbreaking research, Salmon builds upon Naomi Klein’s No Logo for
the Internet age, Salmon examines how storytelling has been exhumed and
employed by the same PR and marketing and management gurus who sold the world
brands before products. Narrative history is the triumphant successor to the
image or brand as the weapon of choice to format the minds of consumers – and
citizens.

Behind the advertising campaigns for heritage brands such as Chivas Regal
(“Live with Chivalry” i.e. like Frank Sinatra) and the founding stories of
all-natural, ‘ethical’ brands such as Innocent and Ben & Jerry’s- but also in
the shadows of victorious electoral campaigns from Bush to Sarkozy hide
“storytelling management” and “digital storytelling” technicians. Salmon
argues “Obama turned political storytelling into a new rhetorical art”; the
Obama legend shows how the construction and marketing of politicians’ life
stories is key to their electoral success.

With the journalist’s nose for a story, the lucid mind of an analyst, and the
keen affinity with the nuances of narrative as a literary critic, Salmon’s
rigorous research untangles the

worldwide web of discourse. From the world as painted by Fox News, training
videos for soldiers made by the Pentagon in collaboration with Hollywood, and
the Enron house of cards, Salmon finds fabulous artificers weaving the
reality of our world.

As well as in the commercial company and on the political level, Salmon also
detects the creeping impact of storytelling strategies across the judicial
system in the rise of surveillance and profiling. But where this threatens
individual freedom, citizens are increasingly distracted by telling stories:
a new blog is started every second, and a 2006 report entitled “A Portrait of
the Internet’s New Storytellers” found that “seventy-seven percent of
bloggers are interested only in talking about “my life and experiences.”

Salmon founded the International Parliament of Writers in 1993 as a human
rights organization that would create awareness of writers living in
oppressed circumstances and offer them something concrete. A key media and
cultural figure, Salmon has published over ten books in his native France.
Salmon has already caused a media storm with Storytelling and is set to do
the same here with his exposure of the Scheherazades in the White House and
Whitehall who have hijacked the human imagination.

—————————–

AUTHOR: Christian Salmon is a writer and researcher in the Centre for
Research in the Arts and Language at the CNRS in Paris. He is the founder of
the International Parliament of Writers, of which he was president from 1993
to 2003 and editor of the organisation’s journal Autodafe. He has worked as a
literary critic and is the author of several works, including Kate Moss
Machine, Verbicide and Devenir minoritaire and writes a regular column for Le
Monde.

——————————-

ISBN: 978 1 84467 391 9 / $24.95 / £14.99 / CAN$31 / 192 pages

On October 28th, the conference will begin with a round-table discussion by a
range of practicing (auto)biographers and scholars in this field. Among the
participants will be Rebekah Bloyd (USA), Sharon Butala (Canada), Donna
Coates (Canada), Amanda Hale (Canada), Theresa Kishkan (Canada), Raili
Marling (Estonia), Thomas McConnell (USA), Libora Oates-Indruchová (Czech
Republic), Richard Pickard (Canada), Randall Roorda (USA), Christopher Stuart
(USA), and Aritha Van Herk (Canada). A special issue of the bi-annual
scholarly journal “Brno Studies in English” (a print and open-source,
peer-reviewed publication of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University), an
issue devoted to papers by these individuals and others, will be published
and made available by September 2010. This publication will serve as the
object of consideration during the round-table discussion.

The two-day conference that will follow will be comprised of seminars and
workshops on Transgressive (Auto)Biography. Some of the areas that will be
addressed are biography in fiction, dialogic (auto)biography, fictionalized
biography, innovative biography, literary biography, metabiography, pastoral
biography, and personal nonfiction.

Although there is no registration fee, please send an email by 15 September
2010 letting us know that you will be attending.

If you are interested in presenting a paper, an (auto)biographical essay,
workshop materials, or a poster at the conference, please send an abstract by
1 June 2010.
Michael Matthew Kaylor, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of English and American Studies
Faculty of Arts
Masaryk University
Arna Novaka 1
602 00 Brno
Czech Republic
Email: kaylor@mail.muni.cz
Visit the website at http://www.phil.muni.cz/wkaa/home/conference/biography

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS EXTENDED UNTIL 14TH APRIL 2010

The Biographical Narrative in 21st Century Film and Television

POSTGRADUATE SEMINAR SERIES

THURSDAY 27TH MAY & THURSDAY 3RD JUNE 2010

This seminar series welcomes proposals for papers from postgraduate students
that consider the biographical narrative, the ‘Biopic’, in cinema and
television of the last decade.

Despite its status as one of the most commercially and critically successful
film and television genres of the 21st Century the Biopic, and its recent
resurgence, has received relatively little scholarly attention; Carolyn
Anderson and John Lupo in the introduction to the ‘Journal of Popular Film
and Television’s special issue on Biopics describe the form as an
‘overlooked, underappreciated genre whose [...] manifestations deserve new
and rigorous scrutiny.’ This seminar series aims address the need for a
reconsideration of the Biopic and its place in contemporary popular culture.

Submissions of abstracts of 250-300 words for papers of 20 minutes in length
are invited.

Possible topics for papers include, but are by no means limited to:

*       Biopics and national/international histories
*       Biopics and the question of ‘authenticity’
*       Biopics and celebrity
*       Biographical films and nostalgia
*       Biopics and their representations of race, gender, sexuality.
*       Postmodern, ironic Biopics and the role of the biographical film in
contemporary US Independent cinema.
*       Biopics and the ‘auteur’
*       Star personas and the portrayal of the biographical subject
*       The biographical television series and the place of the Biopic in
contemporary television programming.
*       Biographical documentaries
*       The biographical narrative in European and World cinemas.

Please submit abstracts by 14th April 2010 to Victoria Kearley,
vlk204@soton.ac.uk

México City, 28 July – 2, Augst 2010

Deadline for paper proposal submissions: 20. April, 2010
Conference Languages: English, Castilian, German, French and Nahuatl
Languages for presentation: English, Castilian

Conference Homepage:
http://enkidumagazine.com/chics/esc.htm

The primary focus for the 6th edition of this inclusive and interdisciplinary
annual conference organized by Enkidu Magazine and the International Society
for Cultural History and Cultural Studies (CHiCS) in Mexico City with the
support of the National Human Rights Comission of Mexico, is to interrogate
storytelling, memories and identity constructions from a wide range of
perspectives, and in their manifold cultural and social manifestations.

Among the themes of interest are the following:

- Narrative and Linguistics
- Linguistic borders and translation
- Narrative and Myth
- Storytelling in rituals, customs, and fetishism.
- Storytelling and Visual/Performing Arts and Music
- Oral Tradition and Contemporary Chronicle
- Postmodernity and its narratives
- Voice and reflexivity in oral and written texts
- Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives
- Globalization and indigenous cultures
- Story, Dialogue and Discourse
- Memory and truth-telling
- Testimonial Narratives
- Memory and Written Record
- Text, Context and Intertext in Storytelling and Performance
- Children’s Stories- Language, Authority and Silence

Interdisciplinary perspectives are especially welcome since all these topics
in themselves stretch across several disciplines: history, literary studies,
linguistics, psychology, political sciences, educational sciences, ethnology,
queer studies, anthropology, sociology…

We welcome submissions from all branches of the social sciences, humanities,
as well as the arts.

Interpretations of the conference themes ranging from the predictable to the
surprising are encouraged.

Graduate students are encouraged to participate.

The conference has developed into a unique international academic forum for
interpretative approaches in the humanities and social sciences. The
conference has traditionally also been a forum for discussing creative
historical and political memory, remembering and forgetting of the past, as
well as translations between cultures and re-negotiations and
re-constructions of cultural identities in one one way or another.

The conference is organised into a large number of thematic sessions and
sub-conferences addressing several different issues. The conference has an
exceptional multilingual and multi-cultural approach, typically bringing
together participants from all over the world to share and exchange their
research, experiences and ideas in a truly multicultural, multilingual and
interdisciplinary academic environment.

The special sessions and subconferences will cover a highly diverse series of
themes extending from “Conquest and Political Memory in late colonial Nahuatl
texts from Central Mexico”, “Migrations and Diasporas: Displacement Heritage,
Global Spaces and Cultural Memories”, “Imaginary Homelands”, “‘Memory’ and
‘Nostalgia’ in cultural texts” to “Cyber-identities in movement” and “Slave
Narratives from the Archives of the Spanish Inquisition”.

The conference sessions are conducted in Castillian and English.
Occasionally, the conference also has sessions conducted in German and
French. Some sessions will be bilingual and conducted in both languages with
interpreters. Other sessions will be conducted in one of the two conference
languages, and the session moderator will give summaries of the paper in the
other language. Many sessions are being conducted with interpreters for sign
language (on request).

Papers are welcomed on virtually all related topics and themes, independently
of time period and space. Also papers of comparative phenomena will be
considered. Interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged. The conference
aims at bringing together academics working in all relevant disciplines as
well as activists, artists and other professionals, and promoting innovative
multidisciplinary and multicultural exchange and dialogue.

CHICS’ academic conferences are characterized by traditional paper
presentations in panel sessions with three speakers each, followed by lively
exchange, dialogue and interaction between speakers and audience in many
small groups, workshops and seminars rather than by formal plenary sessions.
Our conferences provide a forum for diverse voices from all over the world,
to come together and make connections across linguistic, cultural and
academic barriers.

* Paper and panel proposals

The conference languages for presentation will be English and Castilian.

500 word abstracts should be submitted to the organising committee in
English, Castilian, German or French.

Final papers should be of approximately 20 – 30 minutes duration (circa 8 -
10 pages). Other forms of presentation, for instance workshops, panel debates
and poster sessions will be considered on request.

* Proposals for panel sessions

Typically, a panel of academic papers should include 3 (maximum 4) speakers
and 1 moderator (session chair). Each session will last for 2 hours allowing
for 30 minutes for each speaker and a further 30 minutes for questions and
discussion. Proposers should submit:

(1) Session title and a session intro (ca 100 words),
(2) Paper titles,
(3) Abstracts for each paper (500 words),
(4) Short biography for each participant and the panel chair (ca 100-150
words),
(5) Institutional affiliation and address for each participant,
(6) Audio-visual and other technical requirements.

If you would like to propose a panel session, and want assistance in finding
speakers and/or a session chair, we can publish a call for papers for your
panel session on the conference web site and distribute it in our newsletter.
If you have an idea for a thematic panel session and would like us to publish
a call for papers on the conference website, please send us a proposal by
e-mail to identities@enkidumagazine.com

* Proposals for individual papers

Abstracts are to be submitted along with the presenter’s name, short bio,
address, telephone, email, and institutional affiliation.

It is recommended to use this form when submitting a paper proposal:
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/chics/esc/esc_registration.htm
However, abstracts will also be accepted as e-mail attachments to
identities@enkidumagazine.com All correspondence for this conference will be
conducted via email. You will be notified by 15. May whether your proposal
has been accepted or rejected.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted within few
days. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we
did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest,
then, to resend your abstract and resubmit your registration form, and if
possible, suggest an alternative e-mail address. In particular delegates
using hotmail or yahoo accounts to receive conference related e-mails often
experience problems receiving conference information by e-mail.

E-mails from the conference organisers are often delivered to your spam
folder and not to your inbox, unless you remember to add the following e-mail
addresses: identities@enkidumagazine.com and liowlb@enkidumagazine.com to
your safe-list. The first address is the general e-mail address of the
conference and will be used to send conference newsletters and general
information. The second, is the e-mail address of the academic coordinator of
the conference and will be used for individual communication with delegates.

* EXHIBITORS, PUBLISHERS AND ARTISTS:

Artists are welcome to suggest exhibitions and displays of art during the
conference.
Organisations, universities and publishers are welcome to sign up for
information stands at the conference center. Commercial exhibitors pay a
modest daily fee.

The following information is required by artists, publishers and other
exhibitors during the conference:
1) Technical Description of the information stand or artwork with indications
of technical requirements for their presentation, the size and extension of
the individual artworks to be presented.
2) Estimated Insurance value of the artworks
3) One image of a representative sample of artistic work from the exhibitions
can be sent by e-mail to the conference organizers in the format tiff or jpg.
4) Curriculum Vitae of artist (or organisation).
5) Description of Exhibition (300 – 500 words).
6) Short bio of artist (or organisation).

* BOOK EXHIBITION:

We would like to organise an exhibition of books written by conference
delegates in the conference centre. If you are the author of a book, you or
your publisher are welcome to send a copy of your work to the book
exhibition. If you would like to be a part of the book exhibition and your
publisher has a Mexican or Latin American representative, we would appreciate
the contact information.

* PROPOSALS FOR BOOK PRESENTATIONS

Publishers and delegates with recent publications of relevance to the
conference themes, are welcome to propose book presentations in the days
during, before and after the conference. The book presentations will be open
to the general public and the press and will take place in the evening as
special sessions, after the regular conference sessions.

Libreria Educal – Biblioteca Vasconcelos, which is a bookstore founded by the
Ministry of Culture, that serves the function of commercialising and
distributing books published by the cultural institutions of Mexico will host
the book presentations.

These book presentations will usually have duration of 2 hours. In the podium
will be the author, 2 or 3 presenters and a moderator. The publisher or the
author are free to suggest one or two presenters, while the moderator and a
further presenter will be appointed by the Academic Committee of the
conference.

Publishers and book authors who would like to be considered for book
presentations during the conference, should send a review copy to Agustin
Villalpando, news editor in Enkidu Magazine:

Agustin Villalpando
Centro Cultural Enkidu
Calle Ezequiel Montes #37, int. 2
Colonia Tabacalera
06030 Mexico D.F.
Mexico

Together with the review copy, please send a synopsis of the book (max 500
words), a short bio of the author and if available, an image which we may use
for posters and promotional materials for the book presentation in electronic
form (on CD or by e-mail). If you have suggestions for a book presenter,
please include a short bio.

Publishers can also sign up for information and sales stands in the
conference for a modest daily fee. Please, contact the organisers for more
information.

* CULTURAL AND SOCIAL PRE-CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

The academic sessions with formal paper presentations will take place between
28. July and 2. August 2010. In the 2 weeks before the conference, we will
organise a number of cultural and social activities for conference delegates
and we hope that many international delegates will consider arriving in
Mexico City some days before the conference and participate in these
activities.

In addition conference delegates with name badges will be given discounts and
sometimes free access to various theatre plays, concerts, film screenings and
other events before and during the conference. The final program for the
cultural and social pre-conference activities will be published on the
conference web site and will be announced also in the conference newsletter,
which will be distributed by e-mail in the months before the conference.
* Disabled Participants

We are pleased to announce that printed conference materials that will be
distributed during the conference, also will be available in large print or
Braille on request. If you require sign language interpretation during your
session, or you would like to distribute handouts or other materials in
Braille during your presentation, please indicate this in the registration
form. Registration Form for Participants with disabilities

Participants with disabilities are recommended to fill in this form if they
require any special support or assistance during the event or during social
and cultural activities before or during the conference:
http://enkidumagazine.com/eventos/identities07/disca.htm

* REGISTRATION FEE for “Storytelling, Memories and Identity Constructions”:

- Waged delegates (speakers): 200 USD
- Students and unwaged delegates (speakers): 100 USD

Payment received via PayPal or bank transfer in advance (Payments completed
before 1. June. A suplement of 50 USD applies after this day and for payments
on location). We recommend everyone to arrange their payment of the
registration fee before the conference. On location, we have no possibility
to process credit cards, nor issue official receipts and the registration
desk will generally be staffed with volunteer students who are not entitled
to receive payments in cash. If you for any reason prefer to pay on location
in Mexico, please inform the organizers in advance, and we will find a
solution for you.

Enkidu and the participating organisations will not be able to provide travel
support for conference delegates. It is therefore strongly recommended to
apply for a scholarship or a grant from other sources. Delegates from
non-OECD countries and students and unwaged delegates from any country who do
not receive financial support to attend the conference, can apply for a
reduced registration fee.

Centro Cultural Enkidu
http://www.enkidumagazine.com <http://www.enkidumagazine.com/>  
Calle Ezequiel Montes #37, int. 2
Colonia Tabacalera
06030 Mexico D.F.
Mexico
Email: identies@enkidumagazine.com
Visit the conference website at http://enkidumagazine.com/chics/esc.htm

In the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, US public officials seemed to
have no idea how many of the 1.3 billion Muslims across the world supported
the bombing.  The result was the largest most comprehensive study of its
kind.  

Organised by Gallup, taking six years and representing 90% of the world’s
Muslim community, the report Who Speaks for Islam?  What a Billion Muslims
Really Think
<https://uel-mail1.uel.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://email.britac.ac
.uk/_act/link.php?mId=A8834901766795756416866383921%26tId=8361519> , was not
only illuminating but surprising.

On Wednesday 24 March
<https://uel-mail1.uel.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://email.britac.ac
.uk/_act/link.php?mId=A8834901766795756416866383921%26tId=8361520> , co
author Dalia Mogahed, a member of a key advisory council to Barack Obama,
will talk on the findings of this ground breaking research.  In her lecture
she will show that conflict between Muslims and the Western world is not, as
often thought, inevitable and in fact has more to do with policies than
principles.  

She will illustrate how Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject
attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable, and also reveal what most
Muslims think is the most important thing Westerners can do to improve
relations with their societies.

To conclude, Mogahed will look to the future with a caution, as in the book,
that “until and unless decision makers listen directly to the people and gain
an accurate understanding of this conflict, extremists on all sides will
continue to gain ground.”

Who Speaks for Islam?  What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L Eposito
and Dalia Mogahed was published in 2008.  It is an important book that
challenges conventional wisdom and sheds unprecedented light on what
motivates Muslims worldwide.

Who Speaks for Islam?  is on Wednesday 24 March from 6.00-7.00pm at the Royal
Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 5AH.  The event is free to the
public and registration is not required.  The lecture will be introduced and
chaired by Henry Hogger CMG, Chairman of the Council for British Research in
the Levant and a former British ambassador to Syria, who specialises in
Middle East affairs.

The Lecture is linked to an international symposium on Islamic Studies in
Europe, talking place at the British Academy in conjunction with the Higher
Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), on 23-24 March.

*        Dalia Mogahed is Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim
Studies in Washington DC and co-author of the book What a Billion Muslims
Really Think (2008). She leads the collection and analysis of Gallup’s survey
of worldwide Muslim opinion, and directs the Muslim­West Facts Initiative, in
collaboration with the Coexist Foundation, which disseminates the findings of
the Gallup World Poll to key opinion leaders in the Muslim World and the
West.

The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH Tel: 020 7969
5200, Fax: 020 7969 5300, Web: www.britac.ac.uk
<https://uel-mail1.uel.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://email.britac.ac.uk/_act/link.php?mId=A8834901766795756416866383921%26tId=8361521

The Amateur Fiction Film

A One-Day Symposium

University of Liverpool, Wednesday the 9th of June 2010

This one-day event, hosted by the University of Liverpool, invites papers
exploring issues around the many meeting points between amateur cinema and
fictional film practice. For around fifty years, roughly between the 1930s
and the 1980s, cine-clubs and individuals working within the framework of the
organised amateur cine movement created many remarkable fiction films. The
works produced by these usually part-time cinephiles developed in a range of
directions, and often exhibited very contradictory attitudes towards
neighbouring professional practice, symptomatic of the amateur mode of film
production, and very distinct senses of cultural value. Some of this output
has now been incorporated into archival film collections, but often enjoys a
marginal or at least uncertain status in comparison with non-fiction
materials, with more immediately ‘preservative’ value. While recent years
have certainly witnessed growth in scholarly work around amateur cinema, this
has often focused on amateur non-fiction films, effectively ignoring the
wealth of fictional material produced by clubs and individuals over the
years. This day event aims to address the potential artistic, historical and
scholarly value of amateur fiction films from a range of perspectives.
Suggested themes include:

- Surveys of fictional sub-genres
- Micro-dramas; cameo films, sketch films
- Epic productions on a small budget
- Amateur acting/performance in the fiction film
- Cartooning and animation
- Competitions; Institute of Amateur Cinematographers, Ten Best & regional
variations
- Group fictional filmmaking in cine-clubs
- Discussions of exemplar amateur fiction films at selected archives
- Archival policy on amateur fiction films
- Screenwriting and amateur films
- Landscape and the amateur fiction film
- Technology and amateur fiction films

For enquires and further details please contact Dr. Ryan Shand
(r.shand@liverpool.ac.uk <mailto:r.shand@liverpool.ac.uk> ), Dr. Les Roberts
(les.roberts@liverpool.ac.uk <mailto:les.roberts@liverpool.ac.uk> ) or Dr.
Ian Craven (i.craven@tfts.arts.gla.ac.uk
<mailto:i.craven@tfts.arts.gla.ac.uk> ).

VENUE: UNIVERSITY OF EVORA – PORTUGAL
DATE – 24-26 November 2010
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS – TO BE ANNOUNCED

The Centre for the Study of Letters and the
research team of the project ‘Landscapes of the
self’ invite scholars, theorists, researchers,
and practitioners of autobiography in all media
to attend the 1st International Conference
LANDSCAPES OF THE SELF, proposing as its
inaugural theme IDENTITY, DISCOURSE, REPRESENTATION.

We envisage to develop discussion and to enhance
the appearance of edging theories and practice on the issue.

The conference aims to discuss the tangled web of
critical positions regarding the study of
autobiographical documents which has, over
decades, opened debates about the
autobiographical act, as well as about the range,
structure and essential features of the
autobiography. We would like to encourage
reflection on the process of representing the
self as a selective and imaginative construction
of who we have been and who we are.
Autobiographies are positioned within discourses
that construct identity and power, and inasmuch
as the individual is a discursive formation,
autobiography is one of the major discourses
through which it is produced. Autobiographical
representation is an act of interpretation, where
the lived experience is shaped, constrained and transformed.

Representing the self in a filigree of
ontological, epistemological and organizational
principles of identity, any autobiographical act
can be read as geography of the possible (Probyn
1993) where the self is represented by means of
several technologies of power, like memory, and
several trajectories, materializing itself
through discourse. To represent the self through
an autobiographical discourse can be considered a
political act where the autobiographer chooses to
draw a map of meanings of his life and of his/her
self, a self that is multiply coded in a range of
discourses and conditions and represented by
means of several metaphors and modalities,
asserting the right to speak rather than to be spoken for.
To read autobiographies as landscapes of the self
is to understand them as a canvas where the
images of the self are represented; it is to
understand autobiographies as a space of
communication, where author and audience
articulate meanings – where the audience has to
make sense of the identity of the author in a
simultaneously produced and productive
relationship; a relationship which is
constitutive of communication as a social
practice, and in which the audience has to
understand to whom the author is creating, why, how and when.

This conference invites 20-minute papers
addressing the topics of identity, discourse and
representation from a wide range of
interdisciplinary critical perspectives, as well
as self-referential works in all media. Although
other topics may be considered, we welcome papers
dealing with, but not being limited to, issues such as the following:

Discourse Analysis;
Autobiographical Studies;
Memory;
Place;
Referentiality vs. fiction;
The invention of the self;
Construction/representation of identity;
Individual and collective representations of the self;
Gender studies;
The self and the other(s);
Social and cultural identities;
Human geography;
Visual arts/visual culture;
Identity/Representation and genre;
Political Discourse/Political identity;
Ethnical issues;
The self in literature;
Egodocuments
Autobiographies in translation;
Theorizing identity and representation in life writing;
The emergence of the self in the social context,
The self and history

CONFERENCE LANGUAGES:
Papers may be presented in English or in French

Conference Convenors
Ana Clara Birrento – birrento@uevora.pt
Maria Helena Saianda – mhrs@uevora.pt
Olga Gonçalves – obg@uevora.pt

ENQUIRIES may be sent to the conference convenors
SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS to the conference
convenors – deadline – 15th June 2010
NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE – 15th July 2010
SUBMISSION OF FULL PAPERS – 30th September 2010
REGISTRATION
EARLY BIRD – Until 30th July 2010 – 150 Euros
AFTER 30th July 2010 – 250 Euros

ACCOMMODATION, SOCIAL PROGRAMME & FURTHER INFORMATION will be updated

Research Event

The Centre for Narrative Research is organising the ninth annual Research Day
for graduate students on Thursday, April 29nd, 2010 at Docklands Campus,
University of East London. Over the last eight years, this has been an
exciting event with participants from all over the UK and Europe and we look
forward to meeting again for an easy and relaxing day of presentations and
discussions. The programmes and abstracts from previous years and some of the
papers are on the CNR website, accessible via the link below.

http://www.uel.ac.uk/cnr/tothinkistoexperiment.htm
<http://www.uel.ac.uk/cnr/tothinkistoexperiment.htm>

This is a call for papers for all research students. Participants can
contribute with a paper (15-30 minutes long), brief announcements or posters
about their work. Please send an abstract (100-200 words) or just send two or
three lines if you just want to make a brief announcement or poster to Cigdem
Esin, c.esin@uel.ac.uk by April 9th, 2009.