Call for Papers
PERSPECTIVES IN THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES: HINTING AT INTERDISCIPLINARITY

3rd Edition: Figures of Migration

Iași, Romania, 19-20 May 2016


COORDINATOR:
Department of Interdisciplinary Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, Romania


FRAMEWORK AND AIMS:

Migration has become lately one of the most debated themes, both in mass media, film, literature, and in international institutions and policy-making associations. Yet, the challenges determined by this phenomenon are not brand new; migration is a trans-historical process, with tremendous political, economic, social, religious, and cultural implications. Thus the intensification of these movements in the contemporary world, especially in Europe, puts migration under an even stronger emphasis.
This new analytical interest does not derive only from the amplification and diversification of human migration on objective grounds such as globalization, labor free circulation, mobility and offshoring, which have led to the massive desertion of underdeveloped regions and conflict areas. The present-day nomadism, either collective or individual, should be included within a broader, post-nationalist paradigm, developed in the aftermath of macro-states and enhanced acculturation. Humanist and social researchers have already pointed out that the modern world is “fluid”, being devised as such by an unprecedented circulation of persons, goods, capital, ideas, information and so forth. If one endorses this perspective, then definitely migration must be looked at as an epitome of our time. Beyond its downside political, economic or social effects, migration is also considered as a creative tool for cultural production.
Once with the boosting of phenomena ensued by globalization (mentioning de-teritorialization and re-teritorialization is to name but a small few), culture unclutches from national territories and disengages from all political borders; neither ethnical homogeneity nor homogeneous collective imaginary is still conceivable. In other words, the “territories” do not contain culture, as culture is created and put into motion not only by state institutions, but also by groups, civil persons, and media endowed with a certain mobility. The actualization and circulation of cultural meaning, the knowledge transfer, as well as tradition and memory transmission are achieved in changing spatial-temporal contexts and within memory communities and social groups.
Taking into consideration their complexity, we propose a debate on the migration phenomena from the perspectives opened by interdisciplinary methodologies. Hence, the conference theme invites approaches from various research areas: cultural theory, history, geography and geo-criticism, sociology, communication sciences, linguistics, literature, and arts. As a point of departure, we advance several guiding ideas. The papers can work on these suggestions, but new ideas are also welcome:


MIGRATION IN SPACE AND TIME
• Migration routes from East to West, West to East, North-South, South-North: real and fictional spaces
• Exile and migration from Ancient times to late Modernity: political, economic, social, cultural and religious aspects
• Migration of elites and the national mission: politic and cultural activism
• Migratory flows in the 20th century. Cultural congruence and integration policies
• New European diasporas: the dynamics of migration values in the 21st century
• Neutralizing frontiers? Political, linguistic, social, and cultural borders
• Cutting roots and nomadism: individual and collective traumas


MIGRATING BELIEFS
• Gender mobility: identity, alterity, stereotypes, and paradigms of change
• Religion and territory: from early missionaries to present-day religious wars
• Doctrinarian migration: political identity vs political volatility
• Leadership and public policies: education, public acknowledgment, charisma, and power
• Devising public opinion through social media networks
• From slogan to electoral program: the circulation of tropes in the political discourse
• The prestige of diaspora: symbolic authority and representation


MIGRATION IN CULTURE
• Circulation and actualization of cultural meaning: institutions, policies, media
• Global culture vs local cultures: acculturation phenomena
• De-teritorialization and re-teritorialization: post-colonialism, multiculturalism, globalization, planetarity
• Global languages and national languages: linguistic influence and cultural anxiety, creolization phenomena
• Idiolect, dialect, and sociolect within migrant communities: linguistic mechanisms and behaviors
• The role of L2 in the social integration of migrants: linguistic obstacles in the L2 acquisition
• Nomad texts: translation, adaptation, and other instances of transcultural circulation of texts
• The circulation of narratives and oral arts: epos, poetry, and music

AESTHETICS OF MIGRATION
• Cultural imaginary of migration: representations and stereotypes in mass-media, cinema, and other arts
• World literature and literary systems: dependence, inter-dependence, parallelism
• Transnational literary movements: synchronism, poli-genesis, influence, epigonism
• Transgression of frontiers: authors in exile, emigrant literature, traveling narratives, “exported” literature, translations
• Migrant literature, migrant écriture: transgressive identities
• The return of the repressed: ethnic memory in literature, and other arts
• Literature and transgression: canon/ establishment, the anxiety of influence, rule-breaking, taboo, and challenge
• The migration of artistic forms through intertext, inter-genre, inter-mediality, bricolage, and recycling


MIGRATION OF INFORMATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED SOCIETY
• Migration of knowledge and world representations from Ancient times to present day
• „Migration” of cultural contents from and to various formats and media: mediation, hyper-mediation, re-mediation
• From original to copies and simulacra
• The exodus toward the digital sphere. A utopia?
• Digital narratives and collaborative writing
• New media and knowledge transfer within the virtual communities
• The role of new media in the contemporary migration phenomena


LANGUAGES OF THE CONFERENCE: Romanian, English or French.

ABSTRACTS will be written in English and will not exceed 250 words (see the conference site).

IMPORTANT DEADLINES:
Online registration and abstract submission: 17 March 2016
Notification of Abstract Acceptance/Rejection: 31 March 2016
Fee Payment Deadline: 18 April 2016
Final Paper Submission: 15 May 2016

THE PAPERS WILL BE SELECTED AFTER A PEER-REVIEW PROCESS. The book of proceedings will be published by an accredited publisher.

Conference fee: 150 RON (delegates from Romania and the Republic of Moldova)
40 EUR (other delegates)

For registration or other details concerning the selection of proposals, please visit our site: https://conferencephss.wordpress.com/ .