borders panel: Homogenization processes in the continual work of nation-building and reaffirmation of national identity are predicated on the establishment of geographical boundaries, accompanied by efforts to bring these boundaries together with political, cultural, linguistic and economic borders. External and internal colonizations are also vitally connected to the expanding movement and consolidation of borders. Such borders are however deeply ambivalent: They symbolically signify a relativization of the unity of the nation state, as they admit to the possibility of the other; they are dissolved and disseminated into uncanny, hybrid border zones; and they reemerge in metropolitan centres, within the heart of national homogeneity. This panel will examine the intersections of cultural, political, gender and other identities in the real and symbolic places constituted by national and other topographical borders as they are experienced, remembered, imagined and narrated in Nordic and related literatures. It will give special emphasis to the interplay between bottom-up, performative formations of identity and the top-down prespectives of national pedagogies. (contact on.tiu|iksnamihcs.nahoj#on.tiu|iksnamihcs.nahoj)

The organizers welcome paper proposals (title and abstract of ca 200 words + ca five keywords) which explore transformations of the present-day literary landscapes of the Nordic countries as they relate to ethnic and linguistic diversity, changing notions of gender and sexuality, migration and diaspora, as well as to histories of colonialism and homogenizing modernity. We particularly welcome contributions which investigate theoretical perspectives and methodologies which may be deployed in the analysis of emerging Nordic literatures which challenge established notions of identity, nationality and/or gender. Intersections of ethnicity/race, linguistic pluralism, senses of place/belonging, border experiences, world views/religions, regionalism, Europeanization and globalization are relevant themes for exploration in workshops. We also welcome analyses of various aspects of diversity in Nordic literatures. The deadline for paper proposals is 1 June, 2010. Please mail proposals with your name and institutional affiliation to: on.tiu|htieh.enna#on.tiu|htieh.enna

Keynote speakers:

Harald Gaski, University of Tromsø
Satu Gröndahl, Uppsala University
Vuokko Hirvonen, the Sámi University College in Guovdageaidnu
Kirsten Thisted, University of Copenhagen
Rita Paqvalén, University of Helsinki

announcement as pdf

this is the first announcement and Call for Papers for an International
"Navigating Cultural Spaces: Images
of Coast and Sea"
Symposium at the English Department at the Christian-Albrechts-University of
Kiel, Germany.
three-day conference Oct. 1-3, 2010

www.coastandsea-kiel.de

http://www.plandevel.auth.gr/

In Ottawa, on January 15-16, 2010, Fulbright Canada and Carleton University will be hosting an international conference entitled “RE-IMAGINING THE CANADA-UNITED STATES BORDER: DESIGNING PUBLIC POLICY FOR AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE”, which will address the future public policy implications of political, economic, and security developments currently affecting the Canada-U.S. border.

http://www.fulbrightcanada.com/activities.php#/17

The University of North Dakota Institute for Borderland Studies Presents-
The Great Plains, the Prairies, and the US/Canadian Border

An international, interdisciplinary conference focused
on the role played by the US-Canadian border in the
American Great Plains and the Canadian Prairies.

http://www.undborderlands.org/page4/page4.html

The Decadence does not respect the decorum of social life, but provokes and challenges the way of life of the bourgeoisie. In the esthetics of Decadence, shocking transgressions play an important role.

Transgression means going beyond established bounds or limits, whether
these are set by law or by religious, ethical or any other authoritative
commandment or convention. We have, of course, special names for
transgressions in different areas: infringing on religious commandments
is called sin; violating laws is crime or, when it is collective and has
political ends, rebellion or revolution; bypassing moral rules is vice,
and so on. The seriousness of the act of transgression is dependent on
the importance of the system of rules violated, but we can speak of
transgression even when we are dealing with literary rules, and, as we
know, the starting-point for speaking of literary decadence in the 19th
century, had to do with transgressing the rules of poetics, the
deliberate emulation of a style of decadence compared to the writing of
Roman decadence.

The conference proposes to examine and interpret the provocative aspects as well as the varieties of transgression in Decadent literature. This means, at the same time, questioning the nature of these transgressions. It is legitimate to ask to what extent the Decadent literature remains a captive of the age and keeps recycling and confirming its prejudices in regard to women, homosexuality and racial issue, for example.

Kindly send your proposals for papers in English or in French before December 15, 2009, to the following addresses:

if.iknisleh.ippam|akityylp#if.iknisleh.ippam|akityylp
on.tiu|datsrab.irug#on.tiu|datsrab.irug

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=171957

This year's over-all theme is "Moving beyond National, Cultural, and Disciplinary Boundaries." I am currently working on a project on the development of a Mexican-American identity during the California agricultural strikes of the 1930s, as portrayed through the media (Daily Worker, La Opinion and LA Times). I suggest a panel might more broadly define "boundaries" as both the imagined constraints and elasticity of identity, as well as geographical boundaries that often influence such efforts. Your own work need not be on Mexican-Americans; indeed, a broader ethnic, "national, racial, gendered, cultural, religious, or social" focus is explicitly in the CFP.

The proposals are due by January 15. To allow time to coordinate efforts, I'd appreciate hearing from anyone interested soon, and we can then refine the panel based on your interests. Please respond off-line to me at ude.oplav|nosnaHrekcalB.ylleN#ude.oplav|nosnaHrekcalB.ylleN.

Within the framework of a research programme entitled "ANR Frontafrique, African boundaries: arbitrary or historically embedded? New approaches on the historicity of African boundaries", a round-table is organised on the theme of the role of boundaries in the processes of decolonisation and of African States gaining Independence. Acting as the locus of political sovereignties, boundaries are important to study. During this period, they constitute both an object to study and an appropriate scale of observation to scrutinize continuities and changes.

Ground breaking work on trade-unions and political fights has contributed to shed light on power transfers. Up to date, academic work has not focused as much on the importance of territorial stakes at the time when formal sovereignty was attained. If the theme was introduced in debates concerning balkanisation, federal organisations or panafricanism, the measure of the role and importance of territorial stakes and boundaries at the time is yet to be conceptualised. The issue of territory was central during the twenty year process of autonomisation, whether debates on the future of colonial territorial configurations during the 1950s or the idea of the intangibility of boundaries in the 1960s are taken into account.

Taking into account the diversity of situations - and sometimes different chronologies - our wish is to examine on the one hand the preparation, the debates and the projects focusing on territory and boundaries and on the other hand shifts introduced on the ground by autonomy and changes in status. Our aim is to discuss the material and symbolic evolutions related to territorial control and boundaries at Independence. We hope to combine different scales of analysis, paying attention to international and national institutions, administrations and political organisations as well as local situations in border areas. Through the observation of rhythms of change occurring at the periphery and of transformations both effective and at the level of discourses introduced locally with autonomy, we intend to determine whether boundaries were - or on the contrary were not - an important stake in the process of decolonisation on the road to Independence. Considering that it is truly the entire and multiple processes and not only the heritage of colonialism which has given shape to postcolonial dynamics (F. Cooper, 2005), we also would like to shed a new light on contemporary issues related to boundaries. Please send a half page abstract in French or in English to the organisers of the round-table, Séverine Awenengo Dalberto (CEMAf-Paris) http://fr.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sawenengo@yahoo.fr and Camille Lefebvre (CEMAf Paris) http://fr.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=camillelefebvre@yahoo.fr by the 4th of January 2010. Proposals on Anglophone and Lusophone Africa are most welcome.
http://www.cemaf.cnrs.fr/
http://www.frontafrique.org/

Journées d'études : Frontières et indépendances en Afrique, Paris 6 - 7 mai 2010

Dans le cadre des recherches menées par l'ANR Frontafrique, Frontières africaines : absurdité ou enracinement ? Nouvelles approches de l'historicité des frontières africaines, ces journées d'études se proposent d'interroger la place qu'ont occupée les frontières au cours des processus de décolonisation et d'indépendance des Etats africains. En tant que lieux d'exercice de la souveraineté politique, les frontières apparaissent, en effet, à la fois comme un objet et comme une échelle d'observation privilégiés pour examiner au plus près les continuités et les transformations de cette période.

Si des travaux fondateurs sur l'influence des luttes syndicales et politiques ont éclairé les transferts de pouvoirs, la réflexion académique s'est peu portée jusqu'à présent sur la place des enjeux territoriaux au moment de l'accession à la souveraineté formelle. Cette question a parfois été soulevée lors des débats sur la balkanisation, les organisations fédérales ou encore le panafricanisme, mais l'évaluation du rôle et de la place des enjeux territoriaux et frontaliers à ce moment est encore largement un impensé. Pourtant la question du territoire s'est posée très fortement pendant les deux décennies du processus d'autonomisation que ce soit autour des débats sur l'avenir des configurations territoriales coloniales dans les années 50 ou de l'intangibilité des frontières dans les années 60.

En tenant compte de la diversité des situations - et de chronologies parfois décalées - il s'agirait d'interroger, d'une part, la préparation, les débats et les projets autour du territoire et des frontières et, d'autre part, les modifications introduites par l'autonomie et le changement de statut sur le terrain. Notre objectif est de questionner les évolutions matérielles et symboliques liées à l'indépendance dans les dispositifs frontaliers. Cette analyse se doit de combiner différentes échelles, celles des institutions internationales ou nationales, des administrations ou des organisations politiques et celle locale des espaces transfrontaliers. En observant les rythmes du changement depuis la périphérie et les transformations effectives et discursives introduites localement par l'autonomie, notre objectif est ainsi de déterminer si les frontières ont été - ou non - un enjeu dans les processus de décolonisation et d'indépendance. En considérant que c'est bien l'ensemble deces processus, et pas seulement l'héritage du colonialisme, qui a pu informer les dynamiques postcoloniales (F. Cooper, 2005), cette rencontre souhaite apporter un éclairage nouveau sur les questionnements plus contemporains liés aux frontières. Les propositions de communication peuvent être envoyées jusqu'au 4 janvier 2010 aux organisatrices : Séverine Awenengo Dalberto (CEMAf-Paris).

http://fr.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sawenengo@yahoo.fr et Camille Lefebvre (CEMAf-Paris) http://fr.mc263.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=camillelefebvre@yahoo.fr, sous la forme d'un résumé d'une demi page, en anglais ou en français. Les propositions sur les espaces anglophones et lusophones sont particulièrement bienvenues.
http://www.cemaf.cnrs.fr/
http://www.frontafrique.org/

The Conference will take place on 9-10 April at the University of Bristol. For details of the Conference: http://www.bris.ac.uk/hispanic/slas2010

Southern Circuits: National Border Crossings and Intellectual Life in Latin America

This panel seeks to explore the relationship between national border crossings and writing within Latin America. From Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Andrés Bello and Juana Manuela Gorriti in the nineteenth century to Rubén Darío, Haya de la Torre, Alfonso Reyes, Gabriela Mistral and Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the twentieth, Latin American men and women of letters have always moved within the South in various capacities: as diplomats, exiles, travelers, journalists, political activists, propagandists or cultural entrepreneurs, among others. In what ways did these movements and displacements within the Latin American periphery differ from journeys to the North Atlantic centres, and how did they shape these intellectuals' perception and understanding of themselves, their respective nations and the continent as a whole? Papers may focus on specific individuals or discuss various trajectories together. Contributions are welcome from all disciplines.

Brief abstracts (250-300 words) in English, Spanish or Portuguese should be sent to the organisers of the panel: Dr. Rosalie Sitman, Tel Aviv University (li.ca.uat.tsop|namtisr#li.ca.uat.tsop|namtisr <mailto:rsitman@post.tau.ac.il> ) or Dr. Ori Preuss, Tel Aviv University (ten.310|ssuerpo#ten.310|ssuerpo <mailto:opreuss@013.net> ). Please note that the deadline for abstract submissions is 15 January 2010.

Moving beyond National, Cultural, and Disciplinary Boundaries

The Program Committee for the 2010 Pacific Coast Branch-American Historical Association (PCB-AHA) annual meeting invites proposals for panels and papers on all historical themes and time periods but with special consideration for those fitting the theme "Moving beyond National, Cultural, and Disciplinary Boundaries." Interdisciplinary panels and presentations in non traditional formats (films, posters, roundtables, workshops) are also welcomed, as are proposals from graduate students.

We encourage proposals that interrogate boundaries in any of their forms: national, racial, gendered, cultural, religious, and social. In addition, we welcome proposals employing interdisciplinary methods and perspectives. Panels that focus on boundary maintenance (rather than transcending boundaries) or analyze construction of boundaries also fit this theme. We encourage presentations comparing regions, nations, eras, and subfields of history, as well as panels on pedagogical issues. The deadline for submissions is Friday, 15 January 2010. Please email submissions to: Kyle Longley
Arizona State University, ude.usa|yelgnol.elyk#ude.usa|yelgnol.elyk <mailto:kyle.longley@asu.edu>
and Thomas Turley, Santa Clara University, ude.ucs|yelrutt#ude.ucs|yelrutt <mailto:tturley@scu.edu>

http://webs.hogent.be/talesoftransit/

Internationale Graduiertenkonferenz, Universität Wien, 24.-26. September 2009

Ein Bericht von Mirjam Bitter

http://kult-online.uni-giessen.de/wps/pgn/home/KULT_online/tagungsbericht4-2009

The 7th Biannual Conference of the Nordic Irish Studies Network (NISN) at the University of Tromsø, Norway, 2-3 December 2010

Patrick Kavanagh once claimed that Ireland could host an army of a thousand
poets at any time. Perhaps that is a small number compared to the island’s
rich heritage of traditional and popular music. Yet poetry, pop and folk are
not its only creative outlets. Irish theatre contributes to cultural
discussions at home and abroad, while in the visual arts it boasts a range
of powerful painters and an ever-increasing production of films.
Furthermore, new media, generic transgressions, translations and border
aesthetics enhance creativity. The island’s nature, its monastic tradition,
contested histories, language diversity, social shifts, diasporic dynamics
and tax legislation – all these likely and unlikely sources of artistic
endeavour keep the cornucopia flowing. Today, as throughout history, the
island holds a remarkable position in the creative arts, and questions
concerning aesthetics and its relations to metaphysical speculation, ethic
significance, historical conditioning, social becoming and identitarian
processes are both more vital and more compelling than ever. The 2010 NISN
conference focuses on the arts of the island and on the conditions and
critical discourses with which they interact. The organisers invite
proposals for both individual 20-minute papers and planned panels on a wide
variety of topics connected to the theme. The call for papers opens on 15
November, with a deadline for the submission of abstracts of 300 words on 15
June 2010. Confirmed keynote speakers include poets Ciaran Carson and Paul
Muldoon, painter Rita Anne Duffy and Professor Michael Parker. The
conference is hosted by the University of Tromsø in cooperation with the
Norwegian Research Council and the Irish Embassy.

Please send abstracts or inquiries to: on.tiu|ioM.nebuR#on.tiu|ioM.nebuR

Papers may address, but are by no means restricted to, the following topics:

• relations between the arts
• ekphrastic poetry and prose
• the future of the arts
• arts and language
• arts and politics
• arts and ethics
• arts and history
• arts and psychology
• arts and the environment
• critical discussions of the works of individual artists (e.g. writers, painters, playwrights, musicians, directors)

University of Macau, Macao, China
11 – 12 March 2010

Organizer: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Macau

Deadline to send paper proposals: 30 November 2009

call for papers

All correspondence and enquiries should be addressed to Dr. Bill Chou (e-mail address: om.camu|uohcpk#om.camu|uohcpk)

Keynote Speakers are Jorge Durand and Kathleen Staudt

Call for papers – abstracts due January 15, 2010
Website: http://clas.arizona.edu/brem

Innleder er Trine Fossland som presenterer Fossland og Aures paper:"Integrasjon av høyt utdannede innvandrere på det norske arbeidsmarkedet".
Kommentator Asle Høgmo.

Interesserte kan henvende seg til Trine for å få tilsendt paper.
(on.tiu|dnalssof.enirt#on.tiu|dnalssof.enirt)

Georges Midré
Professor
Institutt for sosiologi, statsvitenskap og samfunnsplanlegging

International Conference

Organized by the Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS)
Bielefeld University (Germany)
22 - 23 April 2010

The criticism of methodological nationalism has opened up new ways to conduct research on
global and transnational dynamics. Nowadays, the common methodological statement is that
societal spaces cannot be regarded as equal to territorial spaces. Prominent methodological
proposals are suggested by the global ethnography approach, the cosmopolitan theory, and the
transnational approach. While the first combines large-scale ethnography with detailed
examinations of everyday life, the second proposes to conduct research simultaneously on
different spatial scales, such as global, transnational, national, and local dimensions. And the
third, the transnational approach, refers to relational concepts of spatiality. Thus, this
conference will link debates on new methodological approaches with the discussion of
problematic issues within empirical research on global and transnational transformations.

Confirmed keynote speakers include David Fitzgerald, Zsusza Gille, Nina Glick Schiller,
Akhil Gupta, Matthias Middell, Ludger Pries, Aihwa Ong, and Anja Weiß.

The major topics of interest include qualitative methodologies and methods of social research
which refer to:
• Spatiality,
• Scale approach (global, national, transnational, and local scales),
• Reflexivity within the research process,
• International and transnational migration,
• Intercultural encounters,
• Multi-sited ethnography,
• Transnational networks, and
• Transnational historiography.

In particular, we look for papers that address some of the following themes and questions:

Methodological Approaches Focusing on Relations between Territorial and Social Spaces:
How does the distinction between territorial and social space influence the conceptualization
of our research units? In which way do spatiality concepts transform definitions of social
boundaries? In which manner does the distinction between territorial and social dimensions
influence interpretations of temporal societal transformations on macro, meso, and micro
levels?

Methods Concerning Spatial Dimension within Migration Research:
2
Which methodological approaches enable us to consider complex links between mobility,
immobility, and spatiality? Which methods are useful for research on migrants’ perceptions of
geographic spaces and territorial boundaries? Which interconnections between social and
territorial spaces can be analyzed within urban contexts of migration? Which methods (i.e.
multi-sited research) can account for new methodological distinctions?

Appropriate Methods for Research on Transnational Diffusion and Cultural Translation:
Which methodological difficulties arise within the research on cross-border diffusion and
adoption of knowledge, technology, and goods? Which methods allow to analyze the meaning
transformation of the transferred social entities in question? Which methodological
consequences arise from considering the specific role of old and new media in the context of
cross-border exchange? Which modes of research organization (i.e. inclusion of ‘native’ co-
interpreter) are useful for adequate ways of data interpretation?

Methodologies and Methods of Transnational Historiography:
Which methods of balancing different transnational influences within the process of nation-
building are appropriate? Which methods are suitable for identifying selected influences of
border zones on neighboring areas? Which forms of ‘measurement’ of mutual penetration of
different cultural areas are suitable?

The conference has both, a theoretical and empirical focus, whereby the emphasis is on
qualitative methodologies. It is aimed to be a forum for interdisciplinary debate and appeals to
colleagues from a range of disciplines, including sociology, history, anthropology,
international relations, and politics. It also intends to bring together established and junior
researchers working on different methodologies of globalization and transnationalization.

Submissions of Proposed Papers
Submissions of short (250-500 words) abstracts are invited (for eventual presentation of
papers that are no more than 3000 words). Please e-mail your abstract and a short
biographical outline to the conference organizer, Devrimsel D. Nergiz, at methodology-
ed.dlefeleib-inu|ecnerefnoc#ed.dlefeleib-inu|ecnerefnoc, by 30 December 2009. Accepted paper givers will be
informed by 15 January 2010. Fully written papers must be submitted by 1 April 2010. We
are able to pay for accommodation (but not travel expanses) for those participants whose
paper is accepted.

Expected Outcomes
The conference aims to publish the selected papers in a volume at Palgrave Macmillan.

Conference location: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld.

The conveners are Devrimsel D. Nergiz (Bielefeld University, BGHS), Dr. Anna Amelina
(Bielefeld University, Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development, COMCAD),
Gilberto Rescher (Bielefeld University, BGHS), and Nazgul Tajibajeva (Bielefeld University,
BGHS).

This conference is supported by BGHS and DFG (German Research Foundation).

http://www.isa-sociology.org/pdfs/call_bielefeld_2010.pdf

held in conjunction with the Western Social Science Association annual conference

http://www.absborderlands.org/2annualmeetings.html

2nd Conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network

Chiang Mai University (RCSD), Thailand
5 - 7 November 2010

http://asianborderlands.net/asian-borderlands-enclosure-interaction-and-transformation-call-panels-papers

see pdf

Title: Falling Walls, Changing Borders in German and Scandinavian Cultures

12-14 February 2010

This interdisciplinary graduate conference will examine the implications of
creating, crossing and changing borders throughout German and Scandinavian
history. Although inspired by the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin
Wall and the subsequent change of political borders in 1989/1990, this
conference aims to look at walls and borders in a broader cultural and
historical context. Of particular interest are questions of space ˆ
physical, mental, cultural, social, historical, political, economic, as well
as interpersonal ˆ and its effects. For this conference, walls and borders
can be specific, physical manifestations, or they can be imaginary or
presumed. In thinking about borders and the walls that, at times, define
them, some questions that arise include:

• What is the relationship of a political border and a wall that defines it physically?
• What specific events surround the building or destruction of such walls?
• Who is permitted to cross the border and who is not?
• What does the interruption of space mean to the people on either side of it?
• How does identity change with building and collapse of walls, changing political boundaries, or crossing borders?
• How do ideas change, mutually inflect, move and evolve across such boundaries?
• How are national, ethnic, or racial identities shaped or affected by walls and borders?
• How are walls and borders represented in literary and cultural texts? How do walls and borders influence literary and cultural production?

Possible paper topics include but are not limited to the following: the
building and/or collapse of walls and political boundaries, ideology, the
passing of time, identity constructions, public and private memory, gender,
religion, family and relationships, generational conflicts, cultural
production and reception, race, language and communication, and historical,
literary, and cultural narratives.

Deadline for Paper Proposals: Sunday, October 25, 2009. Proposals should be
one page and include a biographical paragraph. Submit to Delene White and
Victoria Lenshyn: ude.ssamu.namreg|etihwmd#ude.ssamu.namreg|etihwmd and ude.ssamu.namreg|nyhsnelv#ude.ssamu.namreg|nyhsnelv

Dear colleagues,

In the perspective of the next AAG Annual Meeting 2010 that will be held in Washington D.C., the 14-18 April 2010, we are looking forward to set up a special session focussing on borders and cities. The idea is to bring together scholars working on international boundaries and border regions from North America and Europe in order to analyse the transformations that affect (trans)border cities in a comparative perspective. Such a session could also be an opportunity to address conceptual issues such as the specificity of binational cities or the ambivalent role of borders (barriers or bridges) in the construction of cross-border city regions.

In order to collect papers from both regions, we believe that the session should be co-organized between North-American and European academics. In doing so, we would optimize the diffusion of the call for papers into different networks. Organizing a session for the AAG Annual Meeting is by no way an exhausting task. So if you are interested, do not hesitate to contact us (christophe.sohn@ceps.lu).

We look forward to hearing from you,

Best regards,

Christophe Sohn, Antoine Decoville & Olivier Walther, Centre for Population, Poverty and Public Policy Studies (CEPS/INSTEAD), Luxembourg

Dr Christophe Sohn
Chargé de recherches
Département Géographie et Développement
Centre de recherche public CEPS/INSTEAD
B.P. 48, L-4501 DIFFERDANGE
Tél : (352) 58 58 55 613
Fax : (352) 58 55 60
http://metrolux.ceps.lu/

• invitation
• programme

(Klagenfurt/Austria, 25 - 26 September 2009)

PROGRAMME (as at September 1st)

Friday, 25 September

09:15 – 09:30 Welcome
Hans-Joachim BODENHÖFER (Dean, AAU School of
Management & Economics)
Božena KRCE MIOČIĆ (University of Zadar, Faculty of
Economics & Business)
Josef LANGER (AAU, Head of Department of Sociology)

09:30 – 10:15 Opening session of the Symposium
Convener: Josef LANGER (AAU)

Józef NIśNIK (Warschau)
Theories of Integration and the Future of the European
Union

10:15 – 10:30 Discussion

10:30 – 11:00 János Zsigmond KENDERNAY (Budapest)
European Union: Inner Dynamics Under the Surface

11:00 – 11:15 Discussion

11:15 – 11:30 Break

11:30 – 12:00 Thomas DÖRING – Birgit AIGNER (Villach)
Is the European Union Doing the Right Things?

12:00 – 12:15 Discussion

12:15 – 14:00 Lunch Break

Afternoon Session
Convener: Barbara HÖNIG

14:00 – 14:30 Vittorio OLGIATI (Macerata)
The Law ‘Revealed’: Socio-legal Pluralism and the
Unsustainable Sociability of Civil Constitutions – Lessons
for Europe

14:30 – 14:45 Discussion

14:45 – 15:15 Lojze SOČAN (Ljubljana)
The Role of Institutional Infrastructure in the Future of
Europe

15:15 – 15:30 Discussion

15:30 – 15:45 Break

15:00 – 16:15 Reis MULITA (Trieste)
Europe: Between Diminishing Political Borders and New
Social Borders

16:15 – 16:30 Discussion

16:45 – 17:15 Milan JAZBEC (Ljubljana)
The EU: An Empire in Search for a Joke

17:15 – 17:30 Discussion

19:00 Informal dinner

Saturday, 26 September

Morning Session
Convener: Josef LANGER (AAU)

09:15 – 9:45 Franck BIANCHERI (Paris)
Laboratoire Europeen d’Anticipation Politique (LEAP) –
The Future Today

9:45 – 10:00 Discussion

10:00 – 10:30 Gertrúd KENDERNAY-NAGYIDAI (Budapest)
Challenges Facing the EU – Enlargement: Déjà vu or
Something Else?

10:30 – 10:45 Discussion

10:45 – 11:15 Laura DIB (Helsinki)
The EU and the Eastern Neighbourhood – Perspectives for
Future Relations

11:15 – 11:30 Discussion

11:30 – 12:00 Nuri Ali TAHIR (Trieste)
After Turkey’s Full Membership – The Role of the EU as an
Actor to Democratize its New Neighbourhood

12:00 – 12:15 Discussion

12:15 – 14:00 Lunch Break

Afternoon Session
Convener: Józef NIśNIK

14:00 – 14:30 Hans-Peter MEIER-DALLACH (Zürich)
Climate Hitting Europe’s Birds: What Will Be?

14:30 – 14:45 Discussion

14:45 – 15:15 Barbara HÖNIG (Feldkirchen)
In Which Way Can we Speak of a Europeanization of
Sociology

15:15 – 15:30 Discussion

15:30 – 15:45 Break

15:45 – 16:15 Manfred RUPRECHTER (Oberpiesting)
European Union Impact on Day to Day Business

16:15 – 16:30 Discussion

16:30 – 17:00 Zlatko TIŠLJAR (Maribor)
Europe 2050 – What Language? (Video)

17:00 – 17:15 Discussion

17:15 – 17:45 Summary/Conclusion/Closing of the Symposium

20:00 Joint Dinner

Karen.Meehan@uni-klu.ac.at

Agenda pdf

1. Border Political and Social Actors
2. Migraton and Movility in Border Zones
3. Border Regional History
4. Border Environmental Issues
5. Border Cities and their Social Issues
6. Gender Studies in Border Cities
7. Border Art, Culture and Discourse
8. Economic Development and Markets
9. Border Violence and Justice Issues
10. Education Issues in Border Cities
11. Economic History and Entrepreneurship
12. Visual Perceptions of Border Cities

The deadline to turn in your abstracts is September 15th, 2009. The abstract review period concludes on 10 October 2009. The conference will take place on the ICSA Campus of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México, on Wednesday 4th November, Thursday 5th November, and Friday 6th November, 2009. More details and information on the page of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, by visiting the following website: http://www.uacj.mx/informacion/ciudadesfronterizas/Paginas/default.aspx or by visiting the University’s page www.uacj.mx and clicking on the link “1er Congreso Internacional de Ciudades Fronterizas.” You may also see the call for papers included as an attachment in this email.

For wide dissemination:
Call for papers for the

Closing ESF EUROCORES Inventing Europe Conference
&
4th Tensions of Europe Plenary Conference

June 17-20, 2010
at Sofia University (Bulgaria)

Technology & East-West relations: Transfers, parallel histories, and the European laboratory

Deadline paper abstracts: December 18, 2009

The European Science Foundation (ESF) and the Foundation for the History of Technology in the Netherlands are jointly organizing the final and closing conference of the ESF EUROCORES program Inventing Europe and the bi-annual conference of the Tensions of Europe network (ToE). Inventing Europe and ToE strive, through collaborative research and coordinating efforts, to promote studies of the interplay between technical change and European history. Instead of focusing on national histories, the emphasis of both initiatives is on transnational technological developments that have shaped and are shaping Europe.

We encourage scholars from all disciplines who study subjects related to the overall conference theme or the Inventing Europe/Tensions of Europe intellectual agenda to submit abstracts for the research sessions, roundtables and research collaboration sessions.

Overall Theme of the Conference
The main theme of the conference applies to papers, which treat processes of circulation and appropriation of technologies between Eastern and Western Europe as an entry point into the contested practice of Europeanization. During the Cold War, for instance, Europe has been one of the central laboratories for the experimentation with ideological and political regimes, which deeply infected traditional paths of knowledge and technology transfer in Europe. While the history of the Cold War has mainly been told as a history of discontinuity and fragmentation, we would especially welcome papers and sections dealing with examples of successful co-operation or “hidden continuities” in inter-European technology transfer during the 20th century..
Despite the fact that the focus of the conference will be on the post-World War II period, we will welcome session proposals and individual papers referring to the practices of appropriation and circulation of ideas, skills and people in Europe from the mid-19th century onwards – thus from the period before the notions of Eastern and
Western Europe were coined. This results from our conviction that one should look for the roots of the European integration and fragmentation in a “longue durée” perspective.
General areas to be explored are:

Changing times: Continuities and discontinuities in the transfers of knowledge and technology between Eastern and Western Europe from the mid-19th century to the present.
Negotiating identities: spaces and places of co-operation or confrontation before, during, and after the Cold War.
Parallel histories: alternative processes of European integration and fragmentation in Eastern and Western Europe.
Blurred boundaries: spill-over effects and holes in the Iron Curtain
Europe as a trading zone, a symbolic battle field, and the diplomatic playground for world hegemony.
Chilling effects: Technologies at war & wartime technology
Contested approaches: the merits and pitfalls of concepts like Americanization, Sovietisation, Westernization for European historiography.

In addition, the program committee welcomes papers that want to contribute to the general Inventing Europe/Tensions of Europe intellectual agenda. This agenda treats technological change as an entry point into the contested practice of Europeanization.

Five general areas to be explored are:
Building Europe through Infrastructures, or, how Europe has been shaped by the material links of transnational infrastructure.
Constructing European Ways of Knowing, or, how Europe became articulated through efforts to unite knowledge and practices on a European scale.
Consuming Europe, or, how actors reworked consumer goods and artefacts for local, regional, national, European, and global use.
Europe in the Global World, or, how Europe has been created through colonial, ex-colonial, trans-Atlantic, and other global exchanges.
Synthetic methodological or historiographical explorations of the role of technology in transnational European history.

Sessions formats
The Program Committee welcomes proposals that address the overall conference themes in the following four formats:

Individual paper proposals

Research sessions with three papers based on original research, and an invited commentator. Because the conference encourages debate, appropriate time for discussion should be allocated to the commentators as well as the members of the audience. The papers will be pre-circulated to all conference participants. Conference participants are expected to have read the papers thus presentations should be brief.

Roundtable sessions with an open agenda or one paper to start-off the discussion. The sessions will host no more than six discussants including the organizer and the chair. The organizer is responsible for preparing a dialogue paper to stimulate debate, and if relevant, supplementary material. Ideally, the dialogue paper will be a brief piece that poses a number of historical problems and/or questions related to the conference theme that will be addressed in the debate. While the organizer should propose discussants, the Program Committee may make additional suggestions. The chair may decide either to limit the conversation to invited roundtable discussants or to allow the audience to ask questions and enter the debate.

Research collaboration sessions which are meant to present results of a specific project to the conference. The session could be paper based, but could also focus on a discussion of the framing and wider implications of the specific project. The Program Committee may make additional suggestions for commentators.

Research sessions and research collaboration session will be allotted a minimum time slot of one and a half hours, and roundtable discussions one hour.

Deadlines and Time-line
The deadline for proposals is DECEMBER 18, 2009. The research session abstracts (maximum 600 words) should be submitted by the organizers together with the abstracts for the individual presentations (maximum 500 words each). To propose a roundtable, please submit a list of invited participants and an abstract (maximum 600 words).

Note: When giving the proposal a digital file name, please include the organizer’s last name, and either RS for research session, RT for round table or RCS for Research Collaboration Session. So Fickers_RS for example.

The abstracts should be sent to the Program Committee by email to ln.eut|EOT#ln.eut|EOT ..
Please direct queries to the Program Committee Chair, Andreas Fickers (ln.ytisrevinuthcirtsaam|srekciF.A#ln.ytisrevinuthcirtsaam|srekciF.A ).

The Program Committee will inform the session organizers about its decisions no later than February 15, 2010. Inventing Europe & Tensions of Europe programs are seeking to provide a contribution towards travel and/or accommodation costs for those who have no opportunity to participate otherwise.

Papers and roundtable discussion texts must be submitted to the Program Committee by May 1, 2010 because they will be distributed to all conference participants before the conference on a CD and made available on the website.

For the Program Committee for the Fourth Plenary Conference of Tensions of Europe,
Andreas Fickers, Chair, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Helena Durnova, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
Valentina Fava, Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland
Ivan Tchalakov, Plovdiv University & Institute of Sociology, BAS, Bulgaria

Sponsors
This conference is made possible by:
European Science Foundation
Foundation for the History of Technology
Technical University Eindhoven
University of Sofia
Bulgarian Academy of Science

The concept of borders has become virtually ubiquitous in current literary criticism and cultural studies. Drawing borders, crossing borders, limiting and delimiting has become a preferred research subject: Philology investigates the borders between different genres, epochs and styles;
Cultural Studies examine the borders between man and animal, the sacred and the profane, or life and death, to name but a few examples. In the course of these developments, the border has become something like a universal metaphor for almost anything which can be split and subsequently be recombined. It is hard to ignore that this academic interest in borders
comes at a time when territorial borders rapidly loose significance, especially in middle Europe.

Yet it is surprising that all this topographical research has rarely considered the concept of border itself, at least not with regard to its most concrete meaning of a localizable borderline separating two distinct spaces — be they those of states, naturally occurring, or constituted in another fashion. There is certainly no lack of texts concerned with this phenomenon: it manifests itself in Goethe's hesitation to cross into Italy, Michael Koohlhaas at the barrier, Eichendorff's Taugenichts as border patrol, Heines harf-girl in "Wintermärchen," the stone wall in Keller's "Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe," the levy in Storm's "Schimmelreiter," Kafka's Chinese wall, Kästner's "kleinem Grenzverkehr," Johnson's "Zwei Ansichten" or Thomas Brussig's phantasies of open borders in Berlin — many others could be added.

Our special issue of the ZfdPh is dedicated to addressing this issue: What happens when the multifarious metaphor of borders is in turn limited and returned to its original or, at least, most common, meaning? How do literary texts thematize the borders of states and other localizable borders ? How are they experienced, what semantics are involved, and what could this contribute to understanding the current fascination with borders in a more general sense? We invite you to submit completed manuscripts (max. 20 pages) or detailed abstracts (min. 4 pages). On the basis of readings of specific texts, we ask you to assess their possible contributions to the current
re-actualization of the concept of borders and, more generally, the prevailing interest in topography today.

Deadline for proposals September 30, 2009.

Please send the proposals to:
Prof. Dr. Eva Geulen
Dr. Stephan Kraft
Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie
Universität Bonn
Institut für Germanistik, Vergleichende Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft
Am Hof 1d
53113 Bonn
Germany

For further questions please contact:
Stephan Kraft: ed.nnob-inu|tfark.ts#ed.nnob-inu|tfark.ts or Eva Geulen: ed.nnob-inu|neluege#ed.nnob-inu|neluege