[Bilimsel Haber] CFP: The Contentious Question of Culture(s) (12/15/06; 3/1/07-3/3/07)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Department of Germanic & Romance Studies
University of Delhi, Delhi - 110007
E-mail: grs.du.in at gmail.com

CALL FOR PAPERS

SEMINAR:

The Contentious Question of Culture(s) in Contemporary Societies
1-3 March 2007
http://www.du.ac.in/conf.html

Culture emerged as a keyword at the turn of the eighteenth to the
nineteenth centuries, as a term imbued with changing meanings and
questions in reaction to the experience of modernization. Its
inflationary use in more recent times draws attention to the experience
of more recent changes, from decolonisation to the contemporary process
of globalisation and the increasing migration of people both within and
across national borders. International migrants according to estimates
today account for the world's fifth most populous "country". Dramatic
changes in demographic composition are being further fuelled by ongoing
forms of political integration such as the process of Europeanisation.
In this context, the multiple meanings invested in the word culture are
markers of real, often violent contemporary conflicts as well as of
their frequent mythification. From multiculturalism to wars in the name
of culture, from disputes on history to debates on state policy, the
question of culture(s) has evidently become a central concern in
responses to the nature of contemporary society and its future, even as
it stands in apparent contradiction to the decidedly economic forces
driving the processes of change.

Not surprisingly, the use of the word culture, and its often-unstated
assumptions, has given rise to considerable theoretical controversy.
What exactly do we mean when we talk of culture? Is it associated with
language, ethnicity, religion, nationality, a civilization, a way of
life or everyday social practices? Is it conceived as relatively
unchanging, as something that is threatened by the impact with other
'cultures' or as a set of ideas and practices that is subject to
historical and social change? How are these notions of culture affected
by the changing forms of political, economic and military domination and
the vicissitudes of the postcolonial world? Questions of representation
and interpretation of cultures have greatly impacted on these
theoretical debates, both in the field of the social sciences and in the
study of literature, film and the arts. Curiously, the debates have even
entered the field of the natural sciences as seen in the coining of the
word 'meme' as a unit of cultural information in analogy to the word
gene.

The seminar will bring together scholars from different disciplines to
address these questions. It will explore the various notions of culture
underlying contemporary debates, the artistic forms with which writers
and other artists have reflected on these notions and their social and
political implications.

[Submission of abstracts (200-300 words): 15 December 2006]

Additional Information:

Each paper will be allotted 20-30 minutes for presentation. Given the
shortage of resources, the Department is unable to offer travel fare.
However, local hospitality will be provided in the University Guest
House for outstation participants. A selection of papers of the seminar
will be published.

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