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<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Call for Papers</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Rhetoric of the Image: Visual Culture in
Political Islam</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Conference to be held at Copenhagen University,
Denmark </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Saturday and Sunday, March 21-22,
2009.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>While narrative sources and oral communication
were key in the formation and transmission of Islamic culture in the pre-modern
period, an increasing use of visual media in the cultural production of modern
Islamic societies has effectively placed the image alongside-- if not<SPAN
class=812371214-22082008> </SPAN>above-- text-based rhetorical models. Over the
course of the twentieth century, visual media such as film, television, the
graphic arts, illustrated books, and pamphlets were mobilized in the drive to
modernize and to define a role for Islam in the public domain of everyday
politics. In more recent years, new media forms like satellite television and
the internet have offered further possibilities to use visual rhetoric for the
public representation of Islamic subjectivities. The use of image-based
narratives in modern Islamic culture generates an increasingly visualized public
sphere that enables states, political groups, and individuals to construct and
deploy ideological messages through culturally recognizable
symbols.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>We invite proposals for papers that deal with
the power and role of the image in creating a rhetorical lexicon for political
Islam in the modern period in national, nationalist, and trans-national cultural
production. Topics should deal with aspects of the visual in any region of the
Islamic world, from the emergence of visual media in the early modern period to
the production and reception of the latest interactive media, including the
presentation of Islam on television (talk shows, Qur'an classes, films); the
internet and other digital media; banners, posters, murals and graffiti; and
illustrated pamphlets, cartoons, graphic novels, and children's books. We also
invite presenters to assist in developing a conceptual and theoretical framework
to investigate more broadly the role of visual culture in modern Islamic
societies.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>The conference will take place under the
auspices of the research unit "The New Islamic Public Sphere" at the University
of Copenhagen, March 21-22, 2009. The host institution will cover transport,
accommodation, and meals.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond size=4>Please send a 200-word abstract by October 15,
2008 to Sune Haugbolle<SPAN class=812371214-22082008> </SPAN>(</FONT><A
href="mailto:suha@hum.ku.dk"><FONT face=Garamond
size=4>suha@hum.ku.dk</FONT></A><FONT face=Garamond size=4>) and Christiane
Gruber (</FONT><A href="mailto:chgruber@indiana.edu"><FONT face=Garamond
size=4>chgruber@indiana.edu</FONT></A><FONT face=Garamond
size=4>).<BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>