CRITICS: Crossroads in Cultural Studies. Call for papers

[Teun A. van Dijk]

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               CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
               Second International Conference
          June 28 - July 1, 1998, Tampere, Finland
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FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

In the midst of all virtual communities and realities with
abstract bodyless persons, we still need to meet each other in
flesh and blood. The great success of the first Crossroads
conference in 1996, with over 500 participants from all
continents, proved that a meeting point like that is greatly
needed in international cultural studies. Let us therefore
invite you to the Second International Crossroads in Cultural
Studies Conference!

The special theme of the conference will be borders and
border-crossings, but we also provide an open forum for all
topics that interest the diverse international cultural
studies community; to make contacts, exchange views and gain
inspiration from each other. This time there will be more
parallel sessions, which allows a little more time for
discussion in the sessions. We encourage international
participation from different countries, disciplines and
cultural backgrounds, and from a wide range of research areas.

We assume that concepts such as

* gender       * power and knowledge
* ethnicity    * traditions today
* identity     * nation-states
* body         * globalization
* otherness    * culture and economy
* age          * centre and periphery
* media        * new information technology

will be tackled in the sessions and plenaries, but again
it is up to you to make this a conference that will show
where cultural studies is going next.

To make sure you'll receive the registration form well on time in
November, you may just fill in the reply form (attatched), perhaps
along with a preliminary paper title, but better still, we hope you
will subscribe to the crossroads MAILING list, where you can find
other people interested in the same topic and maybe organize a session
for yourselves!  Or if you already know others who share your
interests, you may just volunteer to organize a session.

I hope to see you all in Tampere!

Yours sincerely,

Pertti Alasuutari
Chair of the Organizing Committee


SPEAKERS
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In the first Crossroads conference, the plenary speakers
included Ien Ang, Antony Easthope, Jostein Gripsrud, Lawrence
Grossberg, Joke Hermes, Eeva Jokinen, Sonia Livingstone,
George Ritzer, Soile Veijola, Philip Wexler, Paul Willis, and
Handel K. Wright, and a great deal of key figures in the field
of cultural studies gave their papers in the sessions. It is
premature to announce what the names will be in 1998, but we
will again do our best to introduce to you the current and
most interesting people and themes.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE CROSSROADS LIST?
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To subscribe, e-mail the following message to listproc at uta.fi:

subscribe crossroads "firstname" "lastname"

(Please note that the line above must be the
very first line of your message)


HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR OWN SESSION?
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If you would like to organize a session, just send us a title
and an up to 150 words description of the theme (a session
abstract), along with your complete contact information.
Session proposals must be sent to us by September 30. Names of
the sessions that are accepted by the conference organizer
will be listed in the Invitation Programme published in
November 1997. You may also want to look for others sharing
your areas of interest in the crossroads list. The acceptance
of a session in the final programme is provisional until the
session organizer has sent us the abstracts and registration
forms of at least five participants, and made sure that they
have paid their registration fees. In November, the session
organizers will be sent a session organizer's manual to inform
them about the details.

ORGANIZERS
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Like the first time, the conference is organized by the
Department of Sociology and Social Psychology, University of
Tampere, and Network Cultural Studies, supported by a cross-
disciplinary organizing committee. However, after 1998 we will
be happy to send the crossroads conference "on the road".

CONFERENCE TOWN AND VENUE
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Located between two large lakes, Tampere is a beautiful city situated
180 kilometres north of Finland's capital, Helsinki.  Tampere, with
its 190 000 inhabitants, is home to two universities as well as
various branches of industry. In fact, the city is renowned for its
wide variety of educational institutions such as the University of
Tampere, the University of Technology, the University Hospital and the
Technical Research Center of Finland, as well as its versatile
cultural services, sports facilities and other attractions for
visitors. The conference will be held at Tampere Hall, which is
located in the city centre. It is a modern conference centre with
state-of-the-art facilities.  Participants will be accommodated in a
wide range of hotels within walking distance of the conference venue.


At this stage we assume that the conference fee including lunches and
refreshments daily will be about FIM 1000-1200 (approx. $ 200-240) and
hotel accommodation FIM 260-550 (approx. $ 52-110) per person in a
single room, FIM 148-335 (approx. $ 30-67) per person in a double room
(breakfast included).

INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

The Conference Home Page with several useful links to other websites:

http://www.uta.fi/crossroads/


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To receive the Invitation Program, please complete the following form
and return it (preferably by email) to:

Crossroads in Cultural Studies
Tampere Conference Service
P.O.Box 32 (Pyhdjdrvenkatu 1 A)
33201 Tampere
Finland
tel: +358-3-3664400
fax: +358-3-2226440
e-mail: iscsmail at uta.fi


Name:

Organization:

Postal address:

City:

Country:

email:
tel:
fax:
Title of paper:

I am willing to organize a session called (title of the session):
Description of the session (of up to 150 words):

If you would like to receive a provisional letter of acceptance to
help you to get a travel grant from your institution, tick here:

PRE & POST CONGRESS TOURS

Spend some extra days in Finland and enjoy the possibilities
your host country can offer. Or why not visit one of the
neighbouring countries. Pre and post conference tours need
a minimum number of participants. For planning purposes,
please tick if you are interested in any of the tours.

I am interested in a pre- or post conference tour to:

( ) Lapland (artic northern Finland)
( ) Cruise to Stockholm, Sweden
( ) Tallinn, Estonia
( ) St.Petersburg, Russia