Essays are now invited for PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication
We would like to invite (post)graduate students and early career researchers to think and write about the constitutive role communication plays in the cultural, technological and political aspects of our lives. Independent in theme, essays should provoke discussion about contemporary issues in communications and media as they are being experienced around the world.
In addition to PLATFORM’s theme-based peer-reviewed articles, the essays aim to help us better understand issues associated with the rising significance of multiple media and communication platforms for societies and individuals across various globalised and localised environments.
The following guidelines apply to all submissions. Deadline: 15 November 2009.
Essay Length: 2000-6000 words including notes and references
For enquiries concerning essay submissions feel free to contact:
PLATFORM is a new international peer-review graduate journal,available online through open-access. PLATFORM is refereed by an international board of established and emerging scholars working across diverse paradigms in Media and Communication. It is edited by graduate students at the University of Melbourne, and published by the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.
DISCUSSION FORUM: Film-making in the Vietnamese Diaspora
Team Vietlish: Joseph Hieu Dinh & Maria Tran presents a night of film screening celebrating the emerging Vietnamese film industry both local and internationally.
Organised by Powerhouse Youth Theatre with the support of Fairfield City Council, Information & Cultural Exchange, Vietlish & Craig Anderson, this is a free event, opening for all members of community, especially those interested in the film industry.
The night begins with the screening of digital storytelling projects made from recent community project, Vietnamese Stories & Vietnamese Storycubes. These are short video clips made by a number of Vietnamese youths living in Western Sydney, focusing on culture and identity.
This will be followed by a discussion forum led by Vietlish regarding the current trends of the Vietnamese diaspora film industry, particularly focusing on recent films, The Rebel (Charlie Nguyen), Passport to Love (Victor Vu) and Footy Legends (Khoa Do).
Special feature for the night is the screening of Journey from the Fall (Vuot Song). This film was directed by Academy Award winning nominee Ham Tran (The Anniversary) and acknowledged with more than 14 awards. Inspired by actual events, this Vietnamese (with English subtitles) film follows one family’s post-Vietnam war struggle for freedom. Stars Long Nguyen, Diem Lien and renowned international actress Kieu Chinh (Joy Luck Club).
Joseph Hieu Dinh said: “This will be a great opportunity to discuss about the current market and how film acts as a medium that empowers storytelling, thereby encapsulating history, cultural and identity issues.”
Maria Tran said: “In the recent years there's been an explosion of independent Vietnamese films around the globe that has received widespread attention and accolades awards. It’s exciting to see such success amongst independent and culturally diverse film makers who went against the grain.”
Bookings essential.
Time: 7pm Date: Saturday 31 October 2009 Location: Fairfield School of Arts, 19 Harris Street, Fairfield NSW 2165 Cost: FREE
International Conference on Migration, Citizenship and Intercultural Relations
Thursday 19 November - Friday 20 November 2009
Venue: LT 3 (B1.2.04) (Melbourne campus at Burwood), Deakin University
The recent transnational turn in the study of migration has signified a shift in conceptual thinking and methodological approaches to researching migration, and post-migration communities. While previous research has focussed on isolated aspects of social networking, cultural adjustment, and economic empowerment, recent studies are beginning to examine the migration settings themselves, where modes of local, national and transnational practices are negotiated in the context of intercultural interactions. This Conference, therefore, proposes to examine outcomes of migration and immigration as essential dimensions for contextualizing discussions about national identity, intercultural relations and citizenship, and the formation and representation of cultural identity.
The Conference will attempt to address the following key questions:
With increasing diversity in a globalised world, what kinds of multicultural societies can we envisage for our increasingly diverse communities?
What kind of cultural and national identities will be formed within these societies and what role will they play in the public sphere?
Do transnational connections translate into weaker notions of local belonging or can they be used as a resource to strengthen local communities?
Do migrant and minority ethnic groups experience a sense of inclusion? How is this sense of inclusion recognised or manifested in a multicultural society?
Does government policy contribute to building a sense of belonging and inclusion among recent migrants and other ethno-cultural groups?
What type of intercultural relations exist in a culturally diverse society?
What is the role of these intercultural relations in fostering inclusive and ethical visions of citizenship?
Organising Committee:
• Prof Fethi Mansouri
• Dr Vince Marotta
• Dr Michele Lobo
• Dr Nicole Oke
• Ms Chippy Sunil
By organising this conference we hope to stimulate interdisciplinary intellectual debate policy/professional discussion and ongoing research collaboration that deals with citizenship, multiculturalism and intercultural relations. Contributors to the conference will be invited to subsequently submit their papers for publication in a special volume of the Journal of Intercultural Studies (JIS) on citizenship, migration and intercultural relations. An edited volume will also be explored as an additional or alternative publication output.
Keynote Speakers:
Emeritus Professor Riaz Hassan AM, FASSA, ARC Australian Professorial Fellow and Emeritus Professor, Flinders University, South Australia
Professor Michael Humphrey The University of Sydney
Professor Stephen Castles University of Oxford
Professor Ruth Fincher The University of Melbourne
UCLA's Asian American Studies Center Amerasia Journal: Call for Abstracts
"Asian Pacific American Folklore: Pluralisms, Passages, and Practices"
Consulting Guest Editors:
Jonathan H. X. Lee, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University, and editor of the Asian American Folklore Encyclopedia
Kathleen Nadeau, Professor, California State University, San Bernardino, and co-editor of the Asian American Folklore Encyclopedia and author of the History of the Philippines (2008) and Liberation Theology in the Philippines (2004)
Amerasia Journal Editor:
Adjunct Professor Russell C. Leong, English and Asian American Studies, project Director http://www.uschinamediabrief.com
Due date, March 1, 2010: 2-page abstracts
Author Notification on abstracts, May 30, 2010
Due date of final papers: January 10, 2011
Publication date of issue: Fall/Winter 2011
Send copies of abstracts to: Dr. Jonathan H. X. Lee jlee@sfus.edu; Dr. Kathleen Nadeau knadeau@csusb.edu; Professor Russell Leong rleong@ucla.edu. Inquiries and abstracts will be reviewed by the editors, and authors notified. Final papers will undergo peer review.
Amerasia Journal now invites contributions for a new special issue on "Asian Pacific American Folklore: Pluralisms, Passages, and Practices." (For past issues or reference, see 50,000 pages of 40
years of Amerasia Journal, the core journal in Asian American Studies, are also now online through your institution or individual subscription: through MetaPress.)
Back in 1996 Amerasia Journal published the first special issue on Asian American Religions. Thirteen years later, the legacy of that first special issue is incontestable as the field of Asian American religious studies has grown as indicated by the permanent status of the Asian North American Religion and Society Group at the American Academy of Religion, and the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative (APARRI). Not to mention the growing single authored and edited volumes dealing with Asian American religiosity. We think Amerasia Journal can have as great an impact on the study of
Asian American folklore. We therefore are bringing together a collective volume of original readings that offer a contextual approach for the study of the diverse landscapes and dimensions of Asian Pacific American folklore. This special issue will be guided by four themes - prospects, patterns, practices, and problems - which will serve to organize the various essays into thematic areas. These four themes will provide the volume thematic cohesion from the very beginning.
The first section of the special issue will explore some of the prospects for positive contributions and negative consequences that folklore can exert on the various and diverse Asian/and Pacific Islander cultural communities in the United States. Relevant questions in this section are (1) how can the re/generation of (new) Asian/Pacific American performance rituals and practices increase the range of choices for individuals in determining ethnic, cultural, national, and civic identities? (2) How can Asian/Pacific American folkloric and performative expressions aid in the promotion of pluralism and tolerance, and (3) how does the use of folklore in dance and musical performance "rites of passage?" by the college youth contribute to stabilizing ethnic communities and, thus, improve inter-racial relations, generational conflicts, and economic production and consumption?
The second section will examine patterns in the sense that the pieces will look specifically at the interplay between folklore and history. Some of the questions that this section will investigate are (1) what is the relationship between folklore, historical experiences, and history. (2) How is folklore 'localized' and used to uncover and recover, at the individual and inter-generational and familial/community levels, from being displaced by war or, to take another scenario, circumstantially, dislocated between two homelands, and (3) what are some of the historical patterns (told and untold histories) that Asian/Pacific American folklore 'unveils' in the context of local cultural productions and community formations?
The third section will look at practices, and practitioners, by identifying some select situations, scenarios, and agents who employ Asian/Pacific American folklore as a potent resource integral to
holistic approaches to health, healing, and recovery. Some of the issues that will be considered are (1) in what ways do those who suffer, and their healers, rely on folklore to fight against, come to
terms with, and/or overcome major illnesses and life threatening situations? (2) How have young adults (i.e., cross-cultural adoptees) relied on folklore to aid in discerning their own individual destinies and cultural moorings, and (3) what is the meaning of 'Asia' in its dialectical relationship to Asian/Pacific American folklore?
The fourth section - problems - will narrow its focus onto the heated and contested terrain of gender, sexuality, and love in Asian/and Pacific Islander America. Some of the relevant questions to be
interpolated and explored are (1) how does Asian/Pacific American Folklore (e.g., Asian mystic) hinder larger efforts at inter-ethnic and community relations? (2) What are some of issues coming out of the "insider-outsider" versus "insider as scholar" debate over the study of Asian/Pacific American folklore, and (3) what are the limits and parameters of "Asian/Pacific American folklore" as a category for
scholarly investigation?
"Asian Pacific American Folklore: Pluralisms, Passages, and Practices" also welcomes international scholars and U.S. scholars who do work on the transnational linkages and connections pertaining to Asian/and Pacific Islander American folklore as a way of life.
We hope that the papers will encourage us not only to contribute to the field of Folklore and Asian American Studies but also open up the conversation across the various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities to new and creatively innovative approaches to the study of culture and social life. If you have other topics not included in the above please direct your inquiries to the editors.
IMAGING IDENTITY: MEDIA, MEMORY AND VISIONS OF HUMANITY IN THE DIGITAL PRESENT
A symposium hosted by the National Portrait Gallery and the Research School of Humanities , Australian National University. To be held at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra 15-17 July 2010.
Keynote speakers
WJT Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor of English and Art History, University of Chicago
David Elliott, Independent curator and Artistic Director of the 2010 Sydney Biennale
David Marr, Journalist, author and commentator
CALL FOR PAPERS
Understandings of self and other occur universally through images. Traversing history and cultures, the production, presentation and apprehension of images has been essential to how we come to know ourselves and make sense of our relations with others. Images reflect different conceptions of what it is to be human and reveal continuities and discontinuities over time. At a moment of deep global uncertainty, images from the past and present provide a vital and potent medium for envisaging our collective future.
This symposium is concerned with the many ways in which humanity images identity. Within this broad frame lies a more particular interest, to understand what images of personhood are and how particular kinds of images operate in diverse social contexts. Can it be said that certain image making practices are associated with particular ways of being human? Do imaging media have different effects cross-culturally? What kinds of pictures of self and other emerge from such understandings of images? Under what conditions can images produce or encourage empathy?
In posing these questions we invoke debates about the efficacy, impact and agency of images. How do images mean? What does an image carry with it? In what ways do context and temporality influence our regard of images? The digital age presents both new possibilities and new challenges to the way we image identity, enabling new kinds of multi-media production and distribution, providing unprecedented access to visual information, but also carrying with it what might be perceived as a new cultural attitude to images, in which the properties of material form and particularities of context can be overlooked.
This symposium seeks to explore this potent and complex set of issues around the relationship between persons and images in the present. We particularly welcome proposals that respond to the theme Imaging Identity in the following areas:
The possibilities of portraiture: what can a portrait reveal about past and present understandings of the human condition?
Relations between images and persons: how are these understood at the interface between the humanities, social and natural sciences?
Persons and place: how is this relationship figured visually across and within cultures, and in the precariousness of the present?
Empathy and conflict: how do images function as sites of contestation or reciprocal understanding between persons?
Art museums and their audiences: how are these relations being reconfigured in the digital era?
Seeing and temporality: does digital mediation influence the way we regard other kinds of images?
If there is such as thing as an image for our times what might it look like?
Transnational Protests and the Media - Call for Chapters
Editors: Simon Cottle, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, and Libby Lester, School of English, Journalism and European Languages, University of Tasmania
Deadline for submission of chapter proposals/abstracts: Monday 2 November 2009
Transnational Protests and the Media will explore and theorize the rise of transnational protests and their transactions within and through today’s fast-changing communications environment. In keeping with the Global Crises and the Media series, published by Peter Lang, this contracted book sets out to examine how different global issues and crises – war and conflict, economy and trade, ecology and climate change, human rights and humanitarian emergencies – become focused and mobilized through mediated protests and demonstrations internationally and transnationally. Providing an up-to-date, theoretically informed and substantively focused collection, Transnational Protests and the Media seeks to address today’s changing communications environment and how this now facilitates, shapes and becomes deployed within diverse areas of global contention and concern.
We seek to include contributions from authors and researchers working on different global issues and protests including war and peace, economy and trade, ecology and climate change, and human rights and humanitarian crises, and how these have variously become enacted in and through today’s complex of communication flows and media formations – and with what possible impacts, variously conceived.
Indicative Topics:
• Protesting war and peace
• Protesting economy and trade
• Protesting ecology and climate change
• Protesting human rights and humanitarian emergency
• The changing repertoires of contention
• The diverse ways in which ICTs and new social media have become infused in the wider enactment and diffusion of mediated protests
• The rise of celebrity and spectacle in demonstrations about global issues
• The performative and dramaturgical staging and media framing of global protest events
• Mediated protests, global citizenship, global civil society and the global public sphere
Submission Details:
The language of the book is English. The book will be part of the Global Crises and the Media series, published by Peter Lang. All submissions should be original, unpublished and not under review for publication elsewhere. Chapter length: 6,000 words.
Key Dates:
Chapter proposals/abstracts: Monday 2 November 2009
Full draft chapters: 18 January 2010
Initial decisions and feedback: 8 February 2010
Final chapter revisions submitted: 8 March 2010
In the first instance please email chapter proposals/abstracts (150-300 words) to:
Libby.Lester@utas.edu.au
4th December 2009 10.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m. University of Technology, Sydney, Building 2, Level 7, Room 110
Post-Racial States is a one-day symposium which seeks to contribute to public discussion about race after Obama and the apology by asking whether a “post-racial” climate produces the tolerance and racial equality it suggests.The symposium takes its name from a term, “post-racial”, used to describe the media and political environment in the United States following the election of Barack Obama. As the first black president of the United States, media commentators suggested Obama’s election created a “post-racial” climate where discussions of race or racial issues are now obsolete. Similar events in Australia, such as the national apology to members of the “stolen generations”, have also contributed to the idea that the work of anti-racism, highlighting discrimination and inequality based on race, ethnicity or nationality, has been significantly advanced.
The symposium asks whether we can say there is such a thing as a “post-racial” state, media or political environment. Does the idea of a “post-racial” state overlook the continuing occurrences of racial discrimination, the negation of Indigenous sovereignties, and the importance of anti-racism projects in exposing and challenging institutional and social racisms?
Confirmed speakers include:
• Professor Chris Cunneen – University of New South Wales
• Dr. Paula Abood – community cultural development worker, writer, editor, activist and filmmaker
• Dr Tanja Dreher – University of Technology, Sydney
• Dr Gillian Vogl – Macquarie University
• Nicole Watson – University of Technology, Sydney
• Rashmi Kumar – Co-President, Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA)
• Maria Giannacopoulos – Macquarie University
• Mehal Krayem – University of Technology, Sydney
• Elaine Laforteza – Macquarie University
• Lara Palombo – Macquarie University
The symposium is hosted by the Trans/forming Cultures research centre at the University of Technology, Sydney and the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association (ACRAWSA).
Admission is free. The symposium is open to all interested parties, both academic and non-academic. Attendees must register their attendance by November 20th with the symposium convenor and postgraduate representative of ACRAWSA, Dr. Holly Randell-Moon: postgraduate@acrawsa.org.au.
Baz Luhrmann's Australia Reviewed: An Interdisciplinary Conference on History, Film and Popular Culture to be held at the National Museum of Australia on the 7 and 8 December 2009, with a film screening and public event on Sunday 6 December.
Conference and registration details are available HERE.
This conference is convened by Dr Shino Konishi from the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, and Dr Maria Nugent from the Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia.
In his fabulous hyperbolic film Australia, Baz Luhrmann has leaped over the ruins of the 'history wars' and given Australians a new past – a myth of national origin that is disturbing, thrilling, heartbreaking, hilarious and touching. - Marcia Langton, 2008.
Arguably Baz Luhrmann's epic film Australia is the most ambitious, creative, and expensive engagement with our nation's past since the opening of the National Museum of Australia in 2001. The film's release met with both praise and sharp criticism from film critics, politicians, and other public commentators.
This conference presents an opportunity for scholars and students to review and extend these initial debates on Luhrmann's re-visioning of Australia's past. Papers and panels will explore the myriad ways in which the film (along with other films, fictional and non-fictional texts, and histories) engages with Australia's national history, self-fashioning, and identity.
Women and Work in the Service Sector in Asia and Oceania
Stream Convenors:
Kaye Broadbent, Griffith University, Australia
Fang Lee Cooke, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK
Glenda Strachan, Griffith University, Australia.
The Asia and Oceania regions are socially, politically and economically dynamic. Countries in the regions have undergone rapid transformation from colonies to economic powerhouses. The regions have produced women presidents and prime ministers. They have also attracted an increasing number of transnational migrants who are contributing to the economic and social development of the regions. The rising significance of the Asia and Oceania regions and their economic role in the global context highlights the need for detailed analysis of the jobs, occupations and work experiences of women in these regions. Women are significant contributors to all facets of development in the regions, yet at the same time face the pressures of combining their economic contributions with their domestic and family responsibilities.
There is diversity and disparity between the experiences of women in each of the countries but while there is difference in the degree, similarity exists as uniformly women are worse off than men on a range of employment measures including access to secure employment, wages, conditions, workplaces free from harassment, safe workplaces and access to training and promotion including overcoming the phenomena of the ‘glass ceiling’ and ‘sticky floor’. There are also disparities between women – some countries in the regions have produced women in senior leadership positions in business and politics, yet these same countries also have a high percentage of women comprising the poorest sections of the community and naturally the demands of these different constituent groups differ.
This stream seeks to explore the nature and diversity of women’s work in a variety of service sector industries and occupations in the Asia and Oceania regions. By exploring the specificities of individual national contexts and of specific industries and occupations, the stream will also examine the similarities in women’s experiences and the barriers women face in their working lives. Experiences such as in Korea and Japan where women are disproportionately represented in casual and temporary employment, in India women are overwhelmingly employed in the ‘informal’ sector of the economy. Yet in countries where the state has taken a positive role in promoting women’s employment, gender inequity and barriers remain. The issue of occupational segregation ensures women in China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are over-represented in education, child care, health care, finance, retail and hospitality.
The experiences of women in the service sector in the Asia and Oceania regions merits more detailed examination. We are seeking papers which address issues which are not readily available or accessible in the English language literature. In addition, because of the limited literature available in this area, we are especially keen to receive contributions examining the Pacific Islands.
Papers in the stream will address women in service sector industries and occupations in countries in the Asia and Oceania regions. Issues might include:
The applicability of western (or Anglophone/European) focused feminist/gender analysis for understanding women and work in the Asia and Oceania regions
The formal or the informal service sector
Public or private service sector experiences
Women in either highly paid or low paid service sector employment
The impact of the global financial crisis, privatisation, marketisation, immigration, deregulation, ethnicity, religion on women working in service sector occupations
Career development of women professionals and managers
Women expatriates working in these regions
The role of unions and union organising in service sector occupations compared with the service sector and female workforce generally
Underemployment of women in the service sector
Contrary to the burgeoning body of studies and debates that gender and employment issues have generated in the European and North American regions over the last two decades, similar issues in the Asia and Oceania regions have not attracted the same attention. As such, the nature and characteristics of women’s experiences of work in these regions remains little understood, as well as the challenges they may face as individuals and occupational and social groups within and across national boundaries. The intention of this stream is therefore to address this gap by generating debates and discussions amongst academics and practitioners who are interested in these regions and issues.
Abstracts of approximately 500 words (ONE page, single spaced, excluding references) are invited by 1st November 2009 with decisions on acceptance to be made by stream leaders within one month. Prospective contributions will be independently refereed. New and young scholars with 'work in progress' papers are welcomed. Please note that due to restrictions of space, multiple submissions by the same author will not be timetabled. EMAIL a copy of your abstract to:k.broadbent@griffith.edu.au Abstracts should include FULL contact details, including your name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address. State the title of the stream to which you are submitting your abstract.
