[Discussion] 5th International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference

[gonul@bilkent.edu.tr]

*** First Announcement: General Call for Papers ***
*** 5th International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference ***

We are pleased to announce our open call for papers for the Fifth
International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, to be held at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, from June 25-28, 2004. The mandate
of the 2004 conference is to connect critical cultural analyses to progressive
political action in an age of violence and global uncertainty.

The deadline for paper proposals to be accepted for consideration is February
1, 2004. Papers that privilege the mandate of the conference will be given
the highest consideration. We anticipate notification of acceptance/rejection
of submission by February 15, 2004.

Guidelines for submitting a paper can be found by visiting our official
website, http://www.crossroads2004.org. There you will find further
information on conference program areas, plenary/keynote speakers, timetable
of events, hotel accommodation, registration, and local activities in
Champaign-Urbana.


*** KEYNOTE & PLENARY ADDRESSESS ***

We are pleased to announce that Lawrence Grossberg (University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Meaghan Morris (Lingnan University, Hong Kong) will
each give a keynote address. Further, plenary speakers confirmed at this time
are: Bryant K. Alexander (California State University, Los Angeles), CL Cole
(University of Illinois), Lauren Berlant (University of Chicago), Christopher
Dunbar (Michigan State University), Henry Giroux (Pennsylvania State
University), Peter McLaren (University of California, Los Angeles), Toby
Miller (New York University), Paula Saukko (University of Exeter, United
Kingdom), Keyan G. Tomaselli (University of Natal, Durban, South Africa), and
Mary E. Weems (Cleveland State University). We anticipate announcing
additional plenary speakers early next year.


*** 2004 CONFERENCE MISSION STATEMENT ***

We are living in a time of global uncertainty. What is happening in the world
today lies outside “the realm of human understanding” (Roy, 2001, p. 32).
Whether in foreign policy, education, the environment, or the economy, an
Orwellian regime of misrepresentation and propaganda operates. The George W.
Bush foreign policy tears at the conscience of concerned citizens everywhere.
A politics of fear has offset a politics of hope.

In light of these uncertain and violent times, cultural studies scholars have
a moral obligation to police this crisis, to speak to the death of lives,
culture and truth, and to undo the official pedagogies that circulate in the
media. We must seek non-violent regimes of truth that honor culture, universal
human rights, and the sacred. And we must seek critical methodologies that
protest, resist and help us represent and imagine radically free utopian
spaces.

And so, too, must this Crossroads Conference—this international gathering of
voices—seek a new politics of resistance and truth, a politics of opposition,
a world-wide joining of hands in the "globalization of dissent" (Roy, 2001,
p.33). “A new day has dawned, to be met by a humankind’s refusal to allow men
to any longer make and wage war in the name of vainglory, profit and corrupt
political ideologies” (Sontag, 2003, p. 3).

It is up to the poets, writers, artists, and scholars in cultural studies to
make sense of what is happening.

To remain silent is to be in collusion with this immoral political regime.


*** CROSSROADS CONFERENCE HISTORY ***

The mission of the Crossroads conference is to provide an open forum for all
topics that interest the diverse international cultural studies community;
generate lively, critical debate about contemporary society; foster contacts
and the exchange ideas; and, ultimately, draw inspiration from each other. We
encourage international participation from different countries, disciplines
and cultural backgrounds, as well as from a wide range of research areas. In
that way, the conference will also show where Cultural Studies is going next.
For information about the history of the Crossroads conferences visit
http://www.cultstud.org. /> 
For more information on the 2004 Crossroads conference, please visit our
website at http://www.crossroads2004.org /> 
If you have any further questions, contact us at info@crossroads2004.org.

Yours most sincerely,

Norman K. Denzin, Professor, Institute of Communications Research, U. of
Illinois.
Director, Fifth International Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference

Michael D. Giardina,
Associate Director