[Discussion] BEYOND THE CANON: HISTORY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Conference BEYOND THE CANON: HISTORY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Location:	Netherlands

Final announcement
International Conference - Rotterdam, the Netherlands 16-17 June 2005

BEYOND THE CANON
HISTORY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Organised by the Faculty of History and Arts, Erasmus University 
Rotterdam in
collaboration with Utrecht University (OGC), Netherlands Organisation for
Scientific Research (NWO), and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and
Sciences (KNAW)

CONFERENCE THEME

Although it would be exaggerated to proclaim the end of the nation in 
the near
future, it cannot be denied that nations have become porous and contested.
Consequentially, the practices of cultural transmission and education 
based upon
them have likewise become precarious. After a half-century of 
decolonization,
migration and postcoloniality, feminism and the gendering of historical
discourse, the received canon of national history and political thought no
longer commands the 'natural authority' it once possessed.
Even so, we have to confront the paradox that, despite the vast amount of
criticism leveled at it, the canon is still being recycled over and over 
again
in textbooks and publications aimed at a broader public. Educators and 
public
moralists frequently recommend the canon as the only alternative to the
postmodernist maze of relativism and contingency.

The conference BEYOND THE CANON sets out to discuss various dimensions 
of this
paradox of de-canonization, such as gender, postcoloniality and migration,
equality and the Enlightenment, situating them in the shifting balance of
national, European and World History. It will investigate the feasibility of
revised, multiform and more open 'canons', and the role they might play in
cultural transmission in the twenty-first century.

PROGRAMME

On Thursday June, 16 there will be sessions on :

     * Do We Need a Canon to Frame our Histories ? ;
     * Enlightenment, Equality, and Modernity's Multiple Histories ;
     * Postcolonial History and the Deconstruction of National Narratives ;
     * Multicultural History Teaching

On Friday June, 17 there will be sessions on :

     * Citizenship and Identity: Return of the Canon ? ;
     * Gendering the Canon / Canonizing Gender ? ;
     * Comparing National Canons and the Teaching of History ;
     * Paradoxes of De-Canonization in History: The Nation, Europe and 
the World

Speakers include : Christine Counsell MA, MEd (UK) - prof. dr. Maria 
Grever (the
Netherlands) - dr. Hendrik Henrichs (the Netherlands) - prof. dr. Kirstie
McClure (USA) - dr. Ed Jonker (the Netherlands) - Peter Lee MA (UK) - 
Joke van
der Leeuw-Roord (the Netherlands) - prof. dr. Susan Legêne (the 
Netherlands) -
prof. dr. Uday Singh Mehta (USA) - dr. Karen Offen (USA) - prof. dr. 
Andrea Petö
(Hungary) - dr. Kees Ribbens (the Netherlands) - prof. dr. Peter Seixas 
(Canada)
- prof. dr. Peter Stearns (USA) - prof. dr. Alex van Stipriaan Luïscius (the
Netherlands) - prof. dr. Siep Stuurman (the Netherlands) - dr. Nicole
Tutiaux-Guillon (France) - prof. dr. Berteke Waaldijk (the Netherlands)

A detailed conference programme is available at :
http://www.fhk.eur.nl/onderzoek/paradoxes/beyondthecanon.html

HOW TO REGISTER

The number of tickets available is limited because of size limitations 
of our
venues. Therefore we recommend that you make your registration as early as
possible. If you wish to register for the conference, please download the
registration form from
http://www.fhk.eur.nl/onderzoek/paradoxes/Registration%20form.doc and 
send your
request by e-mail to the e-mail address shown below.
The cost of registration for the full two-day conference [including two 
lunches]
will be €40 euro. Dinners and accommodation are not included. 
Details on
the payment procedure will be posted on our website.

Maria Grever, Kees Ribbens, Siep Stuurman
Conference organisers
Conference Beyond the canon

Dr. K. Ribbens
History Department - FHKW
L 3-18
Erasmus University Rotterdam
PO Box 1738
NL-3000 DR Rotterdam
The Netherlands

Email: beyondthecanon@fhk.eur.nl

Visit the website at
http://www.fhk.eur.nl/onderzoek/paradoxes/beyondthecanon.html