[Bilimsel Haber] Explorations in the Cultural History of AIDS

[gonul at pultar.org]

AIDS in Culture III: Explorations in the Cultural History of AIDS
Location: Mexico

Call for Papers
AIDS in Culture III:
Explorations in the Cultural History of AIDS

Location: Centro Cultural José Martí, Mexico City
Deadline: 15 August 2006

AIDS is not simply an illness or a biomedical phenomenon. The  
conference cycle ?AIDS in Culture? organised by Enkidu Magazine in  
Mexico City in cooperation with CENSIDA (The National Mexican AIDS  
Council), ?Foro de Hombres Gay? (Gay Men?s Forum) and ?La Red  
Iberoamericana de Entidades de Personas con Discapacidad Física (La  
RED)? (The Iberoamerican Network of Persons with physical  
disabilities) seeks to examine cultural responses to AIDS in different  
cultures and societies across a wide range of perspectives. The  
conference will explore the processes by which AIDS is constructed as  
a cultural phenomenon and how different societies in their encounters  
with AIDS attempt to create meaning in health, illness and disease.  
The conference aims at bringing together academics working in all  
relevant disciplines as well as activists, artists and other  
professionals, and promoting innovative multidisciplinary and  
multicultural exchange and dialogue.

AIDS in Culture has already developed into an annual tradition and  
will be organised for the third time in 2006 in Mexico City. In 2004  
Aids in Culture took place in the National Center for Human Rights  
(CNDH) in Mexico City and had artistic and aesthetic responses to  
AIDS/HIV as a special focus. The Artist of the Conference was Rolando  
de la Rosa -Mexican sculptor and painter-. In 2005 AIDS in Culture II  
was held in the Archivo Histórico Santamaría in the city of Papantla  
in the Mexican Federal State of Veracruz. The second edition of the  
conference cycle had Indigenous knowledge and conceptions of AIDS in  
Latin America, Africa and New Guinea as its core theme. The Artist of  
the Conference was Morgan Alexander -American photo-ethnographer-. In  
2006 AIDS in Culture III will return to Mexico City and the program  
will be organised in a number of special thematic sessions covering a  
diverse series of topics extending from a special session on  
?Disabilities and HIV/AIDS? to ?AIDS in Education?, ?The History of  
AIDS Activism? and ?AIDS and Otherness?. Papers are welcomed on  
virtually all related topics and themes, independently of time, period  
and space, as well as interdisciplinary perspectives. Also papers of  
comparative phenomena will be considered.

Among the themes of interest are the following:

- AIDS and Cultural Texts: Power and Representation.
- Representations of AIDS in art, movies, music, poetry, religion and  
literature from the 1980s until today.
- Silences and taboos in discourses on HIV/AIDS.
- Aesthetic responses to the challenge. Rituals, customs, and fetishism.
- Cultural practices that influence the spread of HIV/AIDS
- AIDS and collective and individual identities: Race, Class, Gender etc
- AIDS and Politics, Lobbying and Activism: Power, Representation and  
Activism.
- Constructions and reconstructions of AIDS in political, faith and  
ideology based discourse, legal issues and policy making throughout  
the world: Who has the authority to speak and who is silenced?
- AIDS and theory: Cultural Studies, Queer Studies, Religious Studies,  
History, Anthropology, Sociology, Literary Studies and all related  
disciplines. How do we theorize and analyse experiences and the  
meaning of illness?
- The ?significance? of AIDS for individuals and communities; the  
cultural factors influencing our perceptions of health and illness  
experiences.
- AIDS and psychosocial affects and effects. Cultures of silence.
- Indigenous knowledge and responses to AIDS
- Stories and Histories about AIDS
- AIDS and Oral History

Papers will be considered on related themes and topics from a wide  
range of perspectives. Interdisciplinary perspectives are especially  
welcome since all these topics in themselves stretch across several  
disciplines: history, literary studies, linguistics, psychology,  
political sciences, pedagogy, ethnology, anthropology, sociology...

Graduate and postgraduate students are encouraged to attend and  
present papers. Selected papers from the conference will also this  
year be published in book form.

DISABLED PARTICIPANTS

We are pleased to announce that printed conference materials that will  
be distributed during the conference, also will be available in large  
print or Braille on request. If you require sign language  
interpretation during your session, or you would like to distribute  
handouts or other materials in Braille during your presentation,  
please indicate this in the registration form.

Registration Form for Participants with disabilities:
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/chimalpahin/reg_form_disca.htm  
Participants with disabilities are recommended to fill in this form if  
they require any special support or assistance during the event or  
during social and cultural activities before or during the conference.

PAPER AND PANEL PROPOSALS

500 word abstracts should be submitted to the organising committee in  
English, Castilian, German or French by 15, August 2006. The  
conference languages will be English and Castilian. Interpretations of  
the conference theme ranging from the predictable to the surprising  
are encouraged.
Papers should be of approximately 20 - 30 minutes duration (circa 8 -  
10 pages). Other forms of presentation, for instance workshops, panel  
debates and poster sessions will be considered on request.

PROPOSALS FOR PANEL SESSIONS

Typically, a panel of academic papers should include 3 (maximum 4)  
speakers and 1 moderator (session chair). Each session will last for 2  
hours allowing for 30 minutes for each speaker and a further 30  
minutes for questions and discussion.
Proposers should submit:

(1) Session title and a session intro (ca 100 words),
(2) Paper titles,
(3) Abstracts for each paper (500 words),
(4) Short biography for each participant and the panel chair (ca  
100-150 words),
(5) Institutional affiliation and address for each participant,
(6) Audio-visual and other technical requirements.

If you would like to propose a panel session, and want assistance in  
finding speakers and/or a session chair, we can publish a call for  
papers for your panel session on the conference web site and  
distribute it in our newsletter. If you have an idea for a thematic  
panel session and would like us to publish a call for papers on the  
conference website, please send us a proposal by e-mail to  
info at enkidumagazine.com

PROPOSALS FOR INDIVIDUAL PAPERS

Abstracts are to be submitted by 15th of August 2006, along with the  
presenter?s name, address, telephone, email, and institutional  
affiliation. It is recommended to use the form here:  
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture/registration_en.htm when  
submitting an abstract. However, abstracts will also be accepted as  
e-mail attachments to info at enkidumagazine.com.

All correspondence for this conference will be conducted via email.  
You will be notified by the 15th of September 2006 whether your  
proposal has been accepted or rejected. Full conference papers should  
be submitted by the 1st of November 2006. Abstracts and summaries of  
the conference papers will be made available at the conference web  
page from August 2006.

VISA

Participants from the countries listed on this page, need an  
invitation letter from us, and a special authorisation from the  
Department of Migration before their local embassies or consulates can  
issue a visa for them:
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/visa_en.htm

If your country is listed on this page, please send us an e-mail with  
the following information:

Name:
Address in Home Country:
Institution:
Passport Number:
Issue date for passport:
Date of birth:

Please, attach a scanned copy of your passport to your e-mail. We will  
need to attach a copy of this passport to the invitation letter that  
we must hand in at the Department of Migration. For citizens of a  
number of countries, special restrictions apply and additional  
information may be necessary. Information regarding the requirements  
for different categories is available in Spanish and English in the  
web site of the Mexican Institute of Migration.
http://www.inami.gob.mx/

If any special restrictions or requirements apply in your case, please  
inform us about it as soon as possible, otherwise we will issue a  
personalized standard letter of invitation and fill in a standard  
application form at the Department of Migration. For citizens of most  
countries on the list this will be sufficient. However, if further  
documentation is needed in your particular case, the Department will  
after some weeks or even longer, eventually inform us about it,  
requesting that the documents are being handed in, but it will delay  
the process considerably. We therefore recommend that you try to find  
out which information is required from you yourself and then inform us  
to ensure that we can complete the visa application process as  
efficient as possible.

ACCOMMODATION DURING THE CONFERENCE:

For a number of conference delegates, we can provide private  
accommodation in host families through our ?Adopt a conference  
delegate? program. We are also negotiating with a number of local  
hotels about special rates for conference delegates. More information  
on accommodation during the conference will be provided in our  
biweekly newsletter for the conference delegates that we will  
distribute via e-mail to all registered participants between June and  
December 2006.

Conference information: info at enkidumagazine.com
Conference website:
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture.htm

Dr. Lars Ivar Owesen-Lein Borge
liowlb at enkidumagazine.com
Enkidu Centro Cultural
Galeana 434
Barrio Xaltocan, Xochimilco
Distrito Federal
C.P. 16090 Mexico

Email: info at enkidumagazine.com

Visit the website at  
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture/intro_en.htm