Call for
Papers:
Aids in Cultre IV:
Explorations in the
Cultural History of AIDS
International
Conference
México City, 9
- 13 December 2008
Focus
for the 5th edition of the conference cycle "Aids in Culture:
Explorations in the Cultural History of Aids:
Imaging
and Imagining Aids:
The
nature and role of images, visual representations, imagination and
narrative interpretation in making sense of experiences of health,
illness and disease
Deadline
for abstract Submissions: 15 August, 2007
Conference
Languages: English, Castilian, German, French and Nahuatl
versión en
castellano
AIDS is not simply an illness or a
biomedical phenomenon. The conference cycle "AIDS in Culture"
organised by Enkidu Magazine in Mexico City and the International Society
for Cultural History and Cultural Studies (CHiCS) in cooperation with CNDH
(The National Human Rights Commission in Mexico) 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 fifth time in 2007 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 returned to
Mexico City. The conference was organised in a large number of special
thematic sessions covering a diverse series of topics extending from
"The History of AIDS Activism", "Representations of Aids in
Literature", "Aids in Education" to "The Politics of
Aids and Aids in Politics" and "Perceptions of Aids in Lesbian
Sub-Cultures in Mexico". The artist of the conference was Arturo
Ramirez Juárez, Mexican painter, who died of AIDS in 1987.
In 2007 the conference activities took
place both in the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico City and in
Hotel del Portal in the city of Puebla. The conference had a special focus
on Aids and Otherness and Aids in narratives of identities. Many of the
papers presented in 2007 addressed issues related to translations between
cultures and re-negotiations and re-constructions of cultural identities
in one way or another in relation to AIDS and HIV. In 2007 the conference
exhibitions were "Vihda y Draguería – Life & Dragness" by
Antonio Marquet from Mexico and "The Experiences of HIV/AIDS for
Mothers" by Samia Omar from Kenya.
In 2008, the conference will have the
subtitle: Imaging and Imagining Aids: The nature and role of images,
visual representations, imagination and narrative interpretation in making
sense of experiences of health, illness and disease.
UNESCO has proclaimed 2008 as International
Year of Languages and linguistic diversity and coexistence will be a
common theme of many academic, cultural and artistic activities organised
by Enkidu Magazine throughout the year in Mexico City. Also during Aids in
Culture V, there will be a stream of panel sessions addressing the role of
local languages in combating AIDS/HIV and other diseases by safeguarding
of local and indigenous knowledge and know-how.
However, also in 2008 the conference will
follow a similar model as in previous years with a large number of
thematic sessions addressing several different issues. Papers are welcomed
on virtually all related topics and themes related to the cultural and
social construction of Aids, independently of time period and space. Also
papers of comparative phenomena will be considered. Interdisciplinary
perspectives are encouraged.
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, 2008. 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@enkidumagazine.com
PROPOSALS FOR
INDIVIDUAL PAPERS
Abstracts are to be
submitted by 15 August 2008, 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@enkidumagazine.com.
All correspondence
for this conference will be conducted via email. You will be notified by
the 1. September 2008 whether your proposal has been accepted or
rejected. Full conference papers should be submitted by the 1st of
November 2007. Abstracts and summaries of the conference papers will be
made available at the conference web page from August 2007.
|
Conference
Overview
|
A tentative
Conference Program will be posted here:
25. August, 2008
Final Conference
Program with abstracts of the papers will be posted here:
2 October, 2008
On-site registration on December 9, 2008: 09:00 - 11:00
Conference Opens on December 9, 2008 at 10:00
Welcome Dinner on December 8, 2008 at 20:00
Conference Events (to be announced later)
Conference Closes on December 13, 2008 at 17:00
Conference
Deadlines:
Submission of abstracts: August 15, 2008
Submission of complete papers for consideration for
publication: November 15, 2007
Conference
Languages: English, Castilian and Nahuatl
Abstracts
will be accepted in: English, French, German, Castilian
and Nahuatl
|
|
Registration and Payment of registration fee: more
information here
|
|
Information for participants needing visa to enter Mexico:
Citizens
from a number of countries need a special approval from the
Mexican Immigration Authority (Instituto Nacional de Migración),
in order to be able to enter Mexico and participate in the
conference. Things do take time in Mexico sometimes, and we
recommend all participants who need visa to start the
process as early as possible... [more
information here]
|
|
|
 |
For further
information, please contact the organizing committee at:
|
|
Coordinador
de Sida y Cultura III/
Conference
Coordinator for Aids in Culture III:
Dr.
Lars Ivar Owesen-Lein Borge
Email:
liowlb@enkidumagazine.com
Johann
Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main
Enkidu
Magazine, Mexico City
|
|
Aids
in Culture IV (Mexico City & Puebla, 9 - 13 December 2007)
Aids
in Culture III (Mexico City, 8 - 13 December 2006)
Aids
in Culture II (Papantla, 9 - 12 December 2005)
Aids
in Culture I (Mexico City, 9 - 12 December 2004)
|
