Interdisciplinary conference: Urban Symbolic Landscapes: Power, Language, Memory

[Barbara Johnstone]

*** Please circulate. Apologies for cross-postings. ****

CALL FOR PAPERS
Urban Symbolic Landscapes: Power, Language, Memory
International symposium, University of Helsinki, 3-5 May 2011

The Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies invites the submission of
paper proposals for its cross-disciplinary symposium on urban symbolic
landscapes. The symposium targets, inter alia, scholars in
linguistics, geography, history, political science, anthropology, and
sociology. The event is co-organised with the Department of Politics
and Economic Studies and the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and
Scandinavian Studies at the University of Helsinki.

In recent years, the entanglements of power, language and space have
become increasingly popular topics in the academia. The symposium aims
to contribute to the recently burgeoned cross-disciplinary research on
the symbolic and linguistic aspects of urban spaces and processes. In
particular, institutional strategies, marketing aspirations and
everyday meanings associated with past and contemporary cities will be
addressed at the symposium in ways that are attuned to the operation
of various forms of power.

We invite presentations that deal particularly with the following three foci:

- Spaces of/for Linguistic Identities
- Power, Space and Memory
- Urban Symbols and Marketing

These topics can be approached from a variety of perspectives. The
symposium will host three thematic sessions. In them, attention will
be paid to the above dimensions of power, language and memory in the
symbolic construction of cities and urban places.

If you would like to present a paper at the symposium, please send
your abstract (max. 300 words) to urbanlandscapes-2011 at helsinki.fi by
17 January 2011. Abstracts will be reviewed by the symposium's
scientific committee. You will be notified by 1 February 2011 whether
your paper has been accepted. By March 2011, we will also send you
more detailed information on the symposium's program and practical
arrangements. The conference will begin on 3 May at 2pm with one of
the keynote speeches and end by 1pm on 5 May.

The symposium language is English.

Invited keynote speakers:

- Maoz Azaryahu from the University of Haifa, Israel
- Barbara Johnstone from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, US /
Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies

Prof. Azaryahu's research includes the geographies of national myths
and public memory in different national settings, landscapes of
popular culture, and the cultural history of places and landscapes. In
particular, his studies on street names as political symbols have
played a key role in bringing to the forefront more critical analyses
of naming and language in the disciplines of geography and history.

Prof. Johnstone is a sociolinguist, whose research record covers a
wide-ranging spectrum of topics relevant to the symposium, from the
relationship of language and space, discourse analytic methods and the
role of the individual in language and linguistic theory to the
rhetorical construction of place and local identities through
discourses about local speech.

The symposium fee is 80 euros. It includes a conference lunch, a
banquet reception and refreshments during coffee breaks.

Coordinator and contact person:

- Jani Vuolteenaho, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies,
University of Helsinki, email: jani.vuolteenaho[at]helsinki.fi

Other members of the organising committee:

- Prof. Jan-Ola Östman (Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and
Scandinavian Studies, University of Helsinki)
- Dr. Emilia Palonen (Department of Political and Economic Studies,
University of Helsinki)
- Dr. Johanna Vaattovaara (Language Centre & Department of Finnish,
Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, University of Helsinki)


-- 
Barbara Johnstone
Professor of Rhetoric and Linguistics/Director of Graduate Studies
Department of English
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave.
Baker Hall 259
Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890
bj4 at andrew.cmu.edu
http://works.bepress.com/barbara_johnstone/