Accented Cultures (Netherlands) (10/1/02; 6/18/03-6/20/03)
Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis
University of Amsterdam
CALL FOR PAPERS
Accented Cultures
Deterritorialization and Transnationality in the Arts and Media
Amsterdam, 18-20 June 2003
Conference Directors:
Inge Boer, Patricia Pisters, Ieme van der Poel, Ginette Verstraete
Accents are distinctive modes of expression. The strong or subtle
modulations of the voice mark characteristics of a region, a class or other
locations. While it is impossible to speak without an accent, not all
accents are standardized or of equal value socially and politically. In
general accents are only noticed once one leaves the home territory; and
this is a reality of many people in today's globalized world. Hamid Naficy
discusses the emergent transnational film movement and film style of exilic
and diasporic filmmakers, which he calls an accented cinema. Accented cinema
is 'simultaneously global and local, and it exists in chaotic semiautonomous
pockets in symbiosis with the dominant and other alternative cinemas.'
(Naficy, 2001: 19)
Inspired by Naficy's work, this conference will extend his understanding of
accented cinema to other media: how do, among others, literature, music,
film and new media bear marks of transnationality and migration? What does
it mean to 'speak' with an accent? How does it relate to the official,
'neutral' accent (be it in language, art, literary traditions, the media or
in certain societies)? How does the accent relate to both home and 'host'
country? What histories and politics are implied by an accent? How is the
double articulation of (non)belonging to two or more different cultures
translated in an accented artistic style? Whose voices are heard and to whom
are they addressed? What are the themes, feelings, memories and places that
are embodied in accented cultural expressions?
By addressing these questions from different disciplines and from different
experiences of (de)territorialization and transnationality, the conference
wants to challenge and contribute to the ongoing debates on multiple
cultural identities in a globalizing society.
Keynote speakers, among others, are Hamid Naficy, Irit Rogoff, Françoise
Lionnet, Rasheed Araeen and Georges van den Abbeele.
Scholars are invited to write a one page proposal about the following
interdisciplinary and 'accented' themes:
1. Places of Transition
2. Longing and Belonging: Home and Exile
3. Adaptation, Appropriation and Resistance
4. Media Strategies
5. Thinking the Interstice
6. The Power of Language
7. Memories of the Future
Two workshops are open for proposals; workshop proposals are also welcome.
Deadline for proposal october 1st, 2002. Final versions of accepted papers
will be due by april 1st, 2003.
Please note that these deadlines will be strictly adhered to as all of the
papers from each workshop will be circulated before the conference in the
form of a reader. Participants are then asked to read the papers from their
workshop ahead of time and to be prepared to actively take part in the
discussion following the papers. During the conference participants will
have 15 minutes to sum up their work in order to allow for more and livelier
discussion following the presentations. Participants should use at least
part of their allotted 15 minutes to make connections between their work and
that of other presenters from the same workshop. In short, participants are
asked to present ideas and connections, rather than to 'read a paper'.
Please send your proposal to the ASCA office: asca@hum.uva.nl
Dr Eloe Kingma
Managing Director ASCA
Spuistraat 210
1012 VT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel. +31 20 525 3874
Fax: +31 20 525 3731
http://www.hum.uva.nl/asca
asca@hum.uva.nl
