Conferences & Calls for Papers
We would appreciate it if you could inform us of any conferences you organize yourself, which you hear about, or that could be of interest to our group. Also, editors of special issues or edited volumes who are searching for contributors are welcome to 'advertise' through e-Extreme. Lastly, when you cross upon useful websites with information on conferences and calls for papers, please contact the editor responsible for this section: William M. Downs.
“EUROSCEPTICISM AND POPULISM :
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EXTREMIST POLITICS”
28-29 June 2007, Université
Paris 10 Nanterre, France
The conference aims to investigate the rise of extremism in Western Europe since the late 1980s, and in Central Europe since 1989, through a reflection on the Europeanisation of political competition. It brings together two approaches to political extremism that have developed simultaneously but in an isolated way from one another, i.e. populism and Euroscepticism. Regardless of their different terminologies, both perspectives rely on the implicit or explicit assumption that political games have become “Europeanised”. In order to understand the causal relations between the rise of populism and European integration, the conference explores the articulation between the European political space and the national political fields, focusing on extremist actors’ strategies.
Be they positive, negative or neutral, views on the EU are crucial in defining a party’s position in European domestic political fields. Thanks to its normative dimension as a symbol of democratic and liberal values, European integration helps distinguish democratic political actors from populist politicians. Parties with governmental ambitions have to tone down their criticisms of European integration, and Eurosceptic political organisations are stigmatised as « populist ». Positions on European issues are thus a major tool in political games to classify, exclude or disqualify political opponents. To what extent is the distinction between populist and democratic parties the result of the emerging European political field in the late 1980s, at a moment in time when these so-called populist parties got their first electoral successes ? By focusing on this largely unexplored phenomenon of structuring of national political competitions by European issues, this conference aims at shedding new light on the rise of political extremism.
The conference organisers are looking for either theoretical and empirical papers – or combinations thereof. Particularly encouraged are the papers which propose a comparative outlook, either between extremist parties in several countries, or between several parties in the same country. Paper proposals should be sent by April 10th, 2007. Authors will be notified if their paper proposal was accepted by the end of April 2007. Complete papers will be due on June, 10th, 2007. For more information, contact Laure Neumayer at laure.neumayer@univ-paris1.fr.
ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops - Rennes 2008
Workshop Proposal Is Populism a Side-Effect of the Europeanization of Political Competition?
The workshop aims to investigate the rise of extremism since the late 1980s in Western Europe through a reflexion on the Europeanization of political competition. It will also take into consideration Central Europe, where comparable processes took place between the fall of communism in 1989 and the accession to the European Union in 2004.
Two series of explanations have been used to explain the success of extremist parties in the scientific literature. The first one analyzes the rise of far right political actors in a context of decline of traditional political affiliations (i.e. communist, social-democratic and christian-democratic parties), transformation of the welfare state and opening of national political fields. The phenomenon is labelled populism or radical politics and studied through an analysis of electoral behaviour and/or strategies of the leaders of these extremist groups.
The second perspective, focusing on the European dimension of this phenomenon, links the rise of extremist parties to a broader reflexion on the constitution of a multi-level European political system (composed of a subnational, a national and a supranational level of political representation). Under the generic term Euroscepticism, it deals with the attitude of political actors regarding European integration. For more information, contact Laure Neumayer at laure.neumayer@univ-paris1.fr.
"Extremism and xenophobia among youth through the prism
of transnational studies"
16-18 February, 2007
Centre for German and European Studies, St.
Petersburg, Russia
We are seeking empirical or theoretical papers on the growth of xenophobia among
youth in the postsoviet space. However comparative papers or papers discussing
theoretical/methodological principles of transnational studies of extremism
among youth in Russia and Europe are welcome, as are manuscripts analyzing
reasons for the growth of fears of strangers (global migration, new forms of
social exclusion and inequality, specific types of participation and solidarity
etc.) or papers on particular extremist groups among youth.
On the base of abstracts the organizing committee will form the final list of
participants and inform them till the 1st of February. These participants are
expected to submit presentation-length drafts (2500-3000 words) by 10 February,
so that all participants will have the opportunity to read the papers of other
participants before the workshop begins. Given the short notice of this call for
papers, we do not expect publication-length texts by the time of the workshop,
but afterwards for publication. Workshop languages are Russian and
English. The language choice is voluntarily.
For further information, please contact: Sabirova Guzel <gsabirova@yahoo.com
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Chicago, March 5 – 8, 2008
http://www.councilforeuropeanstudies.org/conf/conf.html
The Council’s International Conference brings together scholars and experts for debate, discussion, and interdisciplinary exchange. At the 2008 conference, the Council welcomes panels, roundtables, workshops, book discussions, and individual papers, on the study of Europe at its most broadly defined, and encourages proposals on the widest range of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. Proposal forms may be found at the conference website and must be received electronically at ces@columbia.edu by June 1, 2007. Participants will be notified of the Committee's decisions by November 5, 2007. Please note: The Committee will accept only 2 submissions per person. Members may also participate in a maximum of two sessions, and no exceptions will be made. For further information regarding the 2008 conference, please see Conference FAQs at the conference website.
Immigration, Minorities and Multiculturalism in
Democracies
Montréal, October 25 - 27, 2007
http://www.edg-gde.ca/cfp.html
The EDG committee welcomes the submission of paper and panel proposals related to the conference theme. For paper proposals, please submit a 300-word (max.) abstract and a 75-word (max.) vitae paragraph. For panel proposals, an abstract of the overall Panel Topic should be provided. Please submit a 200-word (max.) panel description summarizing the panel's rationale, a 300-word (max.) abstract for each paper, and a 75-word (max.) vitae paragraph for each speaker. Panels will be accepted or rejected as a whole. Proposals for linked panels are welcome.
Panels will be 90 – 120 minutes in length and may consist of either 3 to 4 papers or 2 to 3 papers and a respondent. Presentations should be no longer than twenty minutes and panel chairs are responsible for ensuring there is adequate time for discussion. Panels may be chaired by one of the presenters, but no individual may present more than one paper or organize more than one panel. Overhead projectors will be provided. If applicable, please indicate alternate form(s) of audio-visual equipment required (supplied at the presenters’ expense). Please submit abstracts to cfp@edg-gde.com by March 31st, 2007. Please clearly label which of the four thematic areas your proposal falls under. Acknowledgment of receipt of the abstract will be sent by email as soon as possible after receipt. You will receive notification of acceptance no later than June 15th, 2007.
Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, September 20-22, 2007
The 5th Annual ESPAnet Conference 2007 focuses on changing paradigms in European social policy and in European social policy analysis. The conference provides a forum to address theoretical and methodological questions, to reflect on inter- and multi-disciplinarity in social policy research and to discuss novel analytical trends. It will also deal with changing paradigms in the concept, and in the actual configuration, of social policies in Europe. It will ask whether there are shifts in underlying basic principles, ideas or objectives, which factors might drive such changes and what directions this might indicate for the future of social policies in Europe. The conference is open to those active in social policy research and welcomes contributions from all relevant disciplines.
Anarchist Theory Conference
Chicago, April 27-29, 2007
http://mayfirst.wordpress.com/
This conference is the first in a series and focuses on anarchist theory. Conference will include: Workshops that address historical aspects of anarchy (Emma Goldman, Spanish Civil War, Paris Commune); workshops that address recent or developing theories of anarchism (anarcha-feminism, anarchy and race, green anarchy, indigenous movements); workshops about the basics of anarchist theory; workshops presented by women, people of color, disabled, genderqueer, and other marginalized or underrepresented groups; workshops that involve direct participation by attendees; workshops that foster long-term strategy building and future action; workshops that help to build respect, solidarity, and communication among activists and groups of activists.
17th Annual Association for Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism Conference: "The Dark Face of Nationalism: Violence, Extremism and the Nation"
London, April 17-19, 2007
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/ASEN/conference2007.htm
This conference will explore those aspects of nationalism that most often make headlines, generating a popular impression of nationalism as an overwhelmingly negative force in world history. The conference will include keynote addresses from leading scholars in the field, along with opportunities for scholars from various disciplines to examine the violent aspects of nationalism in a series of panel sessions.
Antisemitism and English Culture
London, July 9-11, 2007
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/eh/conf/antisemitism/
A major international interdisciplinary conference on the histories and cultures of antisemitism in England, from the Middle Ages to the present day. To be held at Birkbeck College, University of London. Key questions to be addressed include: Can we talk of a distinctly English kind of antisemitism? Is antisemitism inherent in Englishness? What is, or has been, the relationship between 'high' or intellectual English culture and antisemitism? How far can specific English contexts be seen to have engendered antisemitism? Is there a meaningful history of English philosemitism, and what is its relationship to antisemitism? In what ways is England's antisemitic past reflected in the present? What is the relationship between English antisemitism and communism, socialism, fascism, Zionism, Islamism, secularism, liberalism, and other ideologies?
How is antisemitism mediated in English art, literature and other cultural forms? What are the contours of continuity and transformation in English antisemitism? To what extent have the terms 'antisemitism' and 'Englishness' become redundant? How much use do they retain? The Conference is organized in association with the Jewish Museum, Camden Town, London.
Revolutions and Independences in Atlantic Perspective: Actors and Dynamics
Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina, September 19-22, 2007
http://www.filo.unt.edu.ar/jornadas_historia.htm
Is it possible to speak of an Atlantic space during times of independence and revolutions?
The object of this panel is to debate on Atlantic revolutions and the crisis of the link between two of the modern empires, English and Spanish, and their transoceanic extensions. The aim is to raise the question about the limits and possibilities of the Atlantic scale when studying these related processes. We call for papers that reflect on the particular elements of revolutionary experience and highlight the local dimensions of Atlantic independence dynamics, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When not understood as a unifying space, the Atlantic reveals its contradictions and complexities. Proposals that explore the historical multiplicity of subjectivities and perspectives within the Atlantic World are welcome. In particular, those that revert the original understanding of unidirectional movements of exchanges between and within these empires, conveying an image of the centrality of negotiation for the multiple cultural and political positions that configured this “space.” Please send abstracts of 200 words to Marcela Echeverri me391@nyu.edu by March 31, 2007.
Spatial Justice
Paris, March 12-14, 2008
http://www.justice-spatiale-2008.org/
This international interdisciplinary conference will take place on March 12, 13 and 14, 2008, at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, France, on the initiative of the Gecko Laboratory. This three-day conference will address the issue of Spatial Justice. Please send abstracts of no more than one page (in French or in English) to the following e-mail address: Philippe.Gervais-Lambony@u-paris10.fr. The deadline for proposals is April 30, 2007. Abstracts from a wide range of disciplines and professional affiliations are welcomed and contributions will be accepted in the form of presentations, round tables and posters. Collective contributions will also be considered. The international scientific committee of the conference will examine all proposals in May 2007.
The debate on justice is crucial to democratic societies, at all scales. The context of academic rejection of metanarrative theories and the relativism associated with postmodern deconstruction has, however, undermined a rich engagement with this topic for some time. This process has been reinforced by the rise of various social movements (feminist, ecologist or anti-racist…) as well as the development of multiculturalism which has meant that a range of key political players have been confronted with differing concepts of what is “just” and “unjust”. At the same time, in a rather vexing development, some ultra-liberal discourses are increasingly ignoring the issue of social justice. Paradoxically, social protest movements, deconstructivist intellectual movements and neo-liberal economics discourses have converged to contest the idea of a universal justice. This context forms the basis of our exploration of the notion of spatial justice.
The “Establishment” Responds - The Institutional and Social Impact of Protest Movements During and After the Cold War
University of Heidelberg, Germany, November 22-24, 2007
Whereas protest movements themselves are gradually entering the realms of scholarly analysis in Europe and U.S., the larger repercussions they caused with respect to the various institutions of society have largely been neglected. When thinking of 1953 in East Germany, 1956 in Hungary, 1968 in all of Europe, the terrorism of the 1970s, as well as 1989 in Eastern Europe, it was, however, the perception of the “establishment” which frequently posed as the embodiment of things to overcome and the major target of criticism. It is therefore rather surprising that the manifold institutional and social reactions to these protest phenomena, both in Eastern and Western Europe as well as in the U.S., have not yet been sufficiently and comparatively explored. An examination of the various ways in which political parties, the business world, the military, trade unions, churches or other segments of society experienced, confronted or even actively contributed to protest movements is, however, essential for assessing the historical significance of these movements and their role in long-term societal changes. The overall relationship between protest movements and their interaction in a larger social and cultural context, the influence of other historical trajectories, the various segments of society, political and legal institutions, as well as the mutual conceptions underlying these communications on a national and international level deserve to be examined more thoroughly than has hitherto been the case. The geopolitical situation in Europe during as well as after the bloc confrontations of the Cold War will form the framework of our analysis during this international and interdisciplinary conference. Applications from postgraduate students, early stage researchers (PhD-students), postdocs and young scholars from all disciplinary and national backgrounds are strongly encouraged and form the main target group for this event. All travel and accommodation costs within reasonable boundaries will be covered by the European Union. Although the conference language will mainly be English, we also invite proposals in French, Spanish, Dutch, German and Polish, if a short summary in English is provided.
THE FAR RIGHT IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPE: A special issue of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies
The rise of far right parties in Western and, more recently, Central and Eastern Europe has received widespread attention in the media and has been the subject of much academic debate, especially among political scientists. Emmanuel Godin (University of Portsmouth), Brian Jenkins (University of Leeds) and Andrea Mammone (University of Leeds) will be guest co-editors of a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies (JCES) on the ‘Far Right in Contemporary Europe’ to be published in December 2008. The JCES (previously Journal of European Area Studies) seeks to provide a forum for interdisciplinary debate about the theory and practice of area studies as well as for empirical studies of European societies, politics and cultures. Its coverage and readership extend broadly across the humanities and social sciences, and the journal is therefore well-placed to bring a range of different disciplinary perspectives to bear on this subject. The editors welcome contributions from political scientists, sociologists, historians and all scholars of European studies broadly defined. Papers from postgraduates working in the above-mentioned areas are also welcomed. The editors are interested in both comparative/transnational analyses and national-based contributions that seek to break away from the exceptionalist parochialism which so often characterises the focus on individual ountries. Articles will mainly cover contemporary examples, concerning all geographical areas of relevance in the development of the far right. Topics may include but are not limited to: cross-border interactions and influences, historical/historiographical perspectives on the far right, contemporary debates over the representation(s) of the far right, and case studies of parties in local areas.
Please send short proposals for papers by e-mail to the addresses below before 1 July 2007
Articles should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words in length, and may also be submitted as e-mail attachments to the addresses below. Only original works not published elsewhere will be considered, and all contributions will be peer-reviewed. Proposals to Brian Jenkins (b.j.jenkins@leeds.ac.uk), Andrea Mammone (andreamammone@libero.it) or Emmanuel Godin (emmanuel.godin@port.ac.uk), or write to Brian Jenkins at the address below:
Department of French
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds LS2 9JT
Tel: 0113 233 3476
To find out more about the JCES, please visit the journal website at: http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk
Special Issue of European Forum – NARRATORS AND NARRATIONS OF EUROPE
European Forum – a peer reviewed periodical published by the Institute for European Studies, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland – is seeking contributors for its forthcoming edition.
The special issue will be dedicated to different perspectives of constructing Europe both by European and the outer narrators. Editors are particularly interested in juxtaposing European discourses (represented by e.g. European constitutionalists, political scientists, sociologists, media and communication researchers) with non-European points of view on one of the following topics:
• Politicians, media, elites and civil society – the narrators of Europe;
• Europeanization as political and social process;
• The discourse of Europeanization as seen from inside and outside Europe;
• Representations of European identities; symbolic conflicts between identities;
• Transformation and social change in Europe;
• Political discourses of civil society and about civil society;
• Media discourses of European transformation and social change;
• Constitution for Europe – the project in the making;
• European leadership and its representations;
• Constitutionalization of European public sphere;
• Axiology of public communication in Europe and America – European values,
American values, democratic values;
• The democratic deficit in the context of Europe;
• Reassessing political legitimacy in Europe.
Manuscripts should be sent by e-mail attachment to Jacek H. Kolodziej before March 31, 2007 on at least two of the following addresses:
forum_europejskie@yahoogroups.com
uwkolodz@cyf-kr.edu.pl
proscenium1@o2.pl
Aesthetic Violence in the 20th C. and Beyond
How does art respond to the tremendous pace of the world’s violence? More than merely sublimating or ameliorating trauma, art documents the physical and psychological damage wreaked by social, political, cultural or personal violence. Damaged life yields a damaged art, the distortions of which are crucial in capturing the specific ramifications of violence. Art in the face of war must suffer this distortion; consider the writings of Levi, Antelme, Celan, Beckett, and O’Brien, among many others. The documentary of aesthetic violence runs through work as various as art on feminism, racism, and ranges from group to personal violence.
Yet there also has been a subgroup of artists that integrate aspects of violence into their own oeuvre, sometimes to unearth or expose its taboo and other times to dissipate it or to direct it to various ends. In this trend consider Pound, Bataille, Artaud, Jünger, Celine, Gide, Genet through to Viennese Actionism, performance artist Bob Flanagan, writer Kathy Acker, punk and heavy metal music, and violent cinema. Critics have generally placed the former group of writers as ethical exemplars while the latter are known for crossing or destroying ethical boundaries. But what is the assumed status of the ethical exemplar, and does it leave the condition of aesthetic violence still uncritically suspended despite its evocation?
Other Voices (www.othervoices.org), an online journal of cultural criticism published at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, seeks essays that address the invocation of aesthetic violence of the past century. Some overall questions we wish to address include: How does aesthetic violence relate to ethics? How is aesthetic violence experienced? At what point does violence inhibit any aesthetic experience? How might aesthetic violence relate to a confrontation with political violence? How does aesthetic violence operate as a critique of violence? Editors are also interested specifically in contributions that articulate a sense of the effect of violent assault upon the art object or viewer/reader. Too often critical discourses on violence adopt a moralizing tone, dismissing violence without close examination of its specific physical, psychological and aesthetic effects. More detailed inquiry may allow us to ask, for instance, on what possible grounds could one establish a phenomenology of aesthetic violence? What would be its terms and conditions, its ethical position? To what degree is violence inherent in our categories of knowledge, aesthetic techniques or modes of representation?
Some general topics might include:
- war aesthetics
- art and racist violence
- art and feminism
- art and rituals involving violence
- art and violence of political resistance
- music and violence
- the beautiful and the ugly
- ethics of violent art from the position of the artist or the viewer
- violence and technique: as a way of directing, focusing, or de-focusing attention on specific forms or instances of historic or personal violence
- violence and pleasure in art
- philosophies of modernity and violence (Nietzsche, Sorel, Benjamin, Adorno, Lenin, Marxism, Mao, Colonialism, Fanon, Situationism, Black liberation movements, third world/global struggles)
Editors invite papers from all theoretical perspective and disciplines, including, but not limited to: theoretical and philosophical essays, comparative case studies, historical and cultural interpretations, and psychological and psychoanalytical investigations.
Editors are interested in articles (4000-9000 words), intellectual commentaries (3000-5000 words), review essays (2000-4000 words) and scholarly book reviews (1500-2500 words). Non-traditional submissions, such as lecture transcriptions, hypermedia projects, translations, art work, interviews and other materials, will also be considered.
Please send completed submissions by email attachment to submissions@othervoices.org no later than June 15, 2007.
Please direct general inquires to both:
Vance Bell,
editor-in-chief (vbell@othervoices.org)
Joshua Schuster, editor (jnschust@english.upenn.edu).