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This conference will bring together academics, advocates, artists, and other cultural workers to examine the intersecting fields of archive and everyday life theory. From Simmel through Mass Observation to contemporary Cultural Studies theorists, the objective of everyday life theory has been, as Ben Highmore writes, to “rescue the everyday from conventional habits of the mind…to attempt to register the everyday in all its complexities and contradictions.” Archive theory provides a means to explore these structures by “making the unfamiliar familiar,” hence opening the possibility of generating “new forms of critical practice.” The question of a politics of the archive is critical to the burgeoning field of archive theory. How do we begin to theorize the archive as a political apparatus? Can its effective democratization be measured by the participation of those who engage with both its constitution and its interpretation? Details
The Diversity Conference has a history of bringing together scholarly, government and practice-based participants with an interest in the issues of diversity and community. The Conference examines the concept of diversity as a positive aspect of a global world and globalised society. Diversity is in many ways reflective of our present world order, but there are ways of taking this further without necessary engendering its alternatives: racism, conflict, discrimination and inequity. Diversity as a mode of social existence can be projected in ways that deepen the range of human experience. The Conference will seek to explore the full range of what diversity means and explore modes of diversity in real-life situations of living together in community. The Conference supports a move away from simple affirmations that ‘diversity is good’ to a much more nuanced account of the effects and uses of diversity on differently situated communities in the context of our current epoch of globalisation. Details
The research group “Red-Letter Days in Transition” invites proposals for papers on topics relevant to the research project “Red-Letter Days in Transition. Calendric Public Rituals and the Articulation of Identities: Central Europe and the Balkans 1985 to the Present”. Preferred topics will include national days, commemorative holidays and politically significant red-letter days; however, the scope need not be restricted to these specific days.
Papers should focus on public discourse relating to these red-letter days and their role in the transition period, rather than on their ethnographic content, and should preferably be based on primary sources from the region. We particularly encourage text-oriented approaches. We are also interested in the theoretical underpinnings of studying red-letter days in the transition period.
During her time at The Graduate Center, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick taught three incarnations of How to Do Things with Words and Other Materials— “an experimental seminar/studio workshop,” as she put it, “in which participants will think about and practice a variety of ways of combining written text with other visual media.” Through a series of weekly assignments, Sedgwick and her students played with the materiality of the codex and the written word, showcasing their efforts in a public show-and-tell at semester’s end. In hopes of extending Sedgwick’s interest in words and textiles, and as part of “Spanking and Poetry: A Conference on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick,” this show-and-tell will bring together a variety of artist books produced by Sedgwick, her students, and those inspired by her work. This call-for-art invites submissions that explore in some way the relations among language, materiality, and visuality. We welcome art by former participants in Sedgwick’s courses on the topic as well as those whose work draws on or intersects with hers.Details
While the experience of uncertainty is common in the modern world, the first decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed events that have contributed to a growing sense of crisis: 9/11 and the ensuing “global war on terror”; the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing phenomenon of climate change; and, most recently the collapse of global economic markets. In this context it is useful to critically reflect on the social, political, and cultural implications of “crisis” and “catastrophe.” We invite proposals from undergraduate and graduate students in any discipline in the humanities and qualitative social sciences for papers addressing the theme or problem of crisis in historical and/or contemporary contexts. Details
The American Indians Today Area is seeking papers, presentations and panels on topics related to American Indians Today that examine the influence that American pop culture has on aspects of contemporary American Indian life ways and vice versa. American Indian culture is diverse and an examination of the culture, influences, adaptation, and cultural syncretism as it is presented in contemporary America is welcome. Details
Call for Papers from an Area of the Popular Culture Association & American Culture Association National Conference: Fashion, Appearance, & Consumer Identity is concerned with all areas of clothing, apparel and fashion that include: historical methods, design, manufacturing, aesthetics, marketing, branding, merchandising, retailing, psychological/ sociological aspects of dress, body image, and cultural identities, in addition to any areas relating to consumption, purchasing, shopping, and the methods consumers construct identity. Papers from all disciplines are welcome! Innovative and new research, scholarship and creative works in the areas of fashion, the body and consumerism are encouraged! Details
Popular music might be narrated as a story of sounds and the machines that make them. From the talking drum and parlor room piano to the Gibson Les Paul, from the Edison phonograph to Roland 808 beatbox and Antares Autotune software, how have pop’s contraptions reflected, inflected, and mediated musical history? What changes when we start with the technology that makes the ineffable material, and its shaping of modes of production and consumption? As we close out a decade of momentous change at all levels of popular music, this is a salient moment for rethinking the continual dialogue in pop between the new and the traditional. Note: this call is not aimed only at gearheads. What counts as human is produced in and through the use of technologies. We need to hear the voices that wrap flesh around the wiring. Details
The Virginia Humanities Conference invites proposals for individual papers or complete panel sessions, electronic/multimedia presentations or performances related to humanities disciplines that address the theme “Women and Humanities”. (Humanities disciplines include, but are not limited to: art, art history, cultural studies, communication, history, literature, music, performing arts, visual arts, philosophy and religion.) Women have participated in the humanities for centuries. Whether scholarship was produced by women or by men about women, women continue to play an integral role in our understanding of the human condition. This conference hopes to promote intellectual exchange between scholars, educators, museum curators, librarians and all of those interested in women and the humanities.Details
The Department of English at the University of Victoria invites applications for an Assistant Professor position in the area of Digital Humanities and Renaissance Studies (mailing deadline: 30 November 2009). The appointment will be effective 1 July 2010. The successful candidate will be expected to take a leading role in the teaching of Digital Humanities within the Department at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, while also contributing to a strong Renaissance team, the largest in the UVic English Department. Details
The Humanities Research Center at Rice University will award up to three Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships for two-year appointments beginning July 1, 2010. The second year’s appointment is contingent on successful review of first year’s performance. Fellows will receive a stipend of $40,000 per year, plus benefits eligibility, as well as an allowance for research and relocation. Fellows will teach two courses per academic year within a humanities department, and will be expected to make significant progress in their research. Details
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar’s Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) is pleased to announce an opening for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship. The fellowship will support a recent PhD recipient in any discipline working on the area of the Middle East with priority to those working on the Gulf. The Fellowship is for a period of one academic year starting in the Fall 2010 semester. The Fellow is expected to devote this time to turning his/her dissertation into a book manuscript for publication. Details
The Medieval Institute offers a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship for a junior scholar in Medieval Studies, made possible through the generous response of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to a challenge grant awarded to Notre Dame by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The fellowship will permit an outstanding young scholar in any field of medieval studies to continue his or her research while in residence at Notre Dame’s Medieval Institute during the academic year 2010-2011. Details
The Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria provides an ideal environment for discussing and learning about new computing technologies and how they are influencing the work of those in the Arts, Humanities and Library communities. The institute takes place across a week of intensive coursework, seminar participation, and lectures. It brings together faculty, staff, and graduate students from different areas of the Arts, Humanities, Library and Archives communities and beyond.
The DHSI will be sponsoring its second annual graduate student colloquium in June 2010. Graduate students attending the Institute are invited to participate in the 2010 colloquium entitled “Making Connections: Emerging Scholars in the Digital Humanities.”
Abstracts are now being accepted for presentations focusing on all aspects of graduate student research in the digital humanities, including, but not limited to, the graduate student’s role in personal and institutional research projects, tool application and development, perspectives on digital humanities implications for their own research and pedagogy, etc. Details
The Graduate School Fund for Excellence and Innovation (GSFEI) and Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (IAS) at the University of Washington Bothell are collaborating to offer a teaching fellowship for 4-6 doctoral students who have been advanced to candidacy and are interested in the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary pedagogy. Fellows in the Project of Interdisciplinary Pedagogy (PIP) work closely with faculty mentors in IAS, participate in a day-long workshop focused on interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary course design and pedagogy, teach one interdisciplinary course each quarter on the Bothell campus in an area related to their teaching and research interests, and engage in quarterly workshops with the other graduate students and faculty mentors in the cohort. Further teaching opportunities during the 2011-2012 academic year may also become available. Details
Undergraduate Courses