Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer
Brussels, Belgium

December 9th-11th
2005

Europe Inside Out

The context

Building on the themes of ‘Politics, Plurilingualism and Linguistic Identity’ explored at the 5th annual conference of IALIC in Dublin, this year’s conference focuses on politics, language and cultural identity within the specific context of Europe. The expansion of the EU to 25 member states, new questions about where the boundaries of Europe lie and what they mean, and new tensions both within Europe and between Europe and the wider world, all give an urgency to our thinking about Europe. Within this broader context, the conference will provide a forum for detailed examination of issues that would typically be addressed by IALIC:

· What are the most pressing issues concerning intercultural relations and intercultural communication in the new Europe?
· How does the recent expansion affect concepts, feelings and discourses of ‘national identity’?
· Is the emergence of a ‘European identity’ fact or fiction? Is it a deliberate political construct? How successful is it?
· How can we address the apparent paradox of globalisation and localisation?
· How does a ‘strong’ EU affect political stability / instability in the wider world? And what does ‘strong’ really mean in this context?
· How does a linguistically and culturally kaleidoscopic EU relate to a politically unified EU, and how unified is Europe?
· What are the relationships between the EU and those who are outside its borders? And what can we learn about Europe through focusing on what happens at its borders?
· How is the rest of the world conceptualising and articulating the meaning of Europe?

The focus

The aim of the 2005 conference is to study Europe from a variety of angles, both from the inside and the outside. We therefore welcome papers which raise critical issues about being in Europe, and papers which concern perceptions of Europe and the European from beyond Europe’s borders.

The underlying scope of the conference is necessarily political. ‘How do (EU) politics influence the (cultural and linguistic) identities of Europeans and non-Europeans alike?’ is one of the key questions we would like to see addressed.

In order to examine how a variety of discursive practices in multiple fields reveal, mask or shape those politics, we propose the following major strands:

Narrative and Image
· What do European stories (novel, theatre, poetry, stories for children) tell us about European identity / identities?
· How has travel writing inflected understandings of Europe and the European?
· What do narratives from elsewhere (e.g. former colonies) teach us about Europe?
· Is there a ‘common’ European literature / literary identity or must we speak of European literatures?
· How different are European literature(s) / cinema(s) or other art forms from those produced outside Europe?
· How are art forms other than literature (film, music, painting, etc.) implicated in the construction / deconstruction of identities in Europe?
· Views of Europe in popular and high culture
· Ethnographic narrative of self and other in contemporary Europe
· Europe in contemporary theory and thought (theoretical developments in narrating self/other relations; postcolonial theory; theories of hospitality, etc.)

Language and Education
· How do we deal with multilingualism and multiculturalism in Europe?
· Can we teach children to become ‘true’ European citizens?
· The (hi)story of ‘European Schools’
· What can we learn about Europe from comparative studies of teaching styles? Are European approaches different from approaches found elsewhere? What is the impact of these differences?
· New turns and new issues in intercultural pedagogy
· The role of translation and translator training programmes, and the future issues for translation in Europe
· The legal status of languages within the EU

Power and Politics
· European expansion: how far can it go?
· Europe and the world: a balance of powers?
· Power and politics in EU internal relations (economic and social issues, gender issues, minority groups, etc.)
· The politics and experiences of immigration and asylum in Europe
· Media representations and news coverage of Europe
· Doing business in Europe: challenges and opportunities
· The workings of EU institutions
· European history: from the conflict model to the stability model
· Borderlines and tensions between Europe’s constituent groups (nation states, regions, etc)

Call for Papers

The conference will have an explicitly interdisciplinary focus. We welcome contributions from any of the following fields: languages, linguistics and discourse analysis, media and communication studies, cultural and area studies, film and theatre studies, literary criticism, anthropology, business studies, political science, psychology, education and pedagogy (research and praxis).

Papers

We invite proposals for papers on the themes outlined above. While it is in the best traditions of the Association to be as inclusive as possible, it may be necessary to select proposals, in which case the criteria to be applied will be relevance to the theme of the conference, and quality. Those wishing to submit a paper should follow the Instructions for Submitting a Proposal.

Language of Presentation

Although papers may theoretically be delivered in any language, the official language of the conference will be English and we would prefer it if this could be your language of presentation, in the interest of reaching the widest possible audience.

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS:30th June 2005

Please refer to the conference website (accessed via the IALIC website <www.ialic.org>) for the following information:

• Instructions on submitting a proposal
• Conference registration form (including fees)
• Information about conference venue and accommodation
• IALIC membership application form (N.B. substantial discounts are available to members)
• Contact details for conference organisers and IALIC

Please refer to the conference website for updates:
www.ialic.org