Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners

Theme: Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners
Type: 6th Global Conference
Institution: Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Location: Prague (Czech Republic)
Date: 1.–3.11.2014
Deadline: 27.6.2014

__________________________________________________

This multi-disciplinary project seeks to explore the crucial place
that strangers, aliens and foreigners have for the constitution of
self, communities and societies. In particular the project will
assess world transformations, like phenomena we associate with the
term 'globalisation', new forms of migration and the massive
movements of people across the globe, as well as the impact they have
on the conceptions we hold of self and other. Looking to encourage
innovative trans-disciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers
from all disciplines, professions and vocations which struggle to
understand what it means for people, the world over, to forge a sense
of self in rapidly changing contexts where it is no longer possible
to ignore the importance of strangers, aliens and foreigners for our
contemporary nations, societies and cultures.

Presentations, papers, performances, panels and workshops are invited
on any of the following themes:

1. Place / Space and Strangeness
- Impact of place on identity
- Place as stranger / Strange places
- Alien Places/ Spaces
- Managing/ manipulating strange spaces
- Demarcating Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners

2. Virtual Strangers
- Bodies in the virtual space
- Creating virtual identities
- Gender in the Virtual World
- Virtual communities
- Faith / Believers in the virtual world
- Digital depictions of Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners

3. Communicating Strangeness / Otherness
-Narratives of strangeness / otherness
-Recording Strangeness / Discourses of Otherness
-Strange expressions / Emotive others
-Alien discourses / Strange interpretations
-Strange speech / Hearing Others

4. Alien Geographies
- Mapping strangeness
- Strange frontiers
- Other horizons
- Alien landscapes
- Alien markets / Transacting Strangeness
- Strange, Alien and foreign cartographies

5. Cultures of Otherness
- Venues for performing Otherness (Museums, Galleries etc.)
- Acceptance / Rejection of cultural otherness
- Artifacts of Otherness / Strange Ornaments
- Adorning Otherness / Designing Strangers
- Consuming Cultures (food, film, music, art, cuisine)
- Visualizing / Remembering Strangers, Aliens and Foreigners

Presentations will be considered on any related theme.

In order to support and encourage inter-disciplinarity engagement, it
is our intention to create the possibility of starting dialogues
between the parallel events running during this conference. Delegates
are welcome to attend up to two sessions in each of the concurrent
conferences. We also propose to produce cross-over sessions between
these groups – and we welcome proposals which deal with the
relationship between Making Sense of: Dying and Death, Strangers,
Aliens and Foreigners and Making Sense of: Play.

Organising Chairs
Hassan Bashir: [email protected]
Rob Fisher: [email protected]

The conference is part of the Diversity and Recognition research
projects, which in turn belong to the At the Interface programmes of
Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from
different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions
which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and
presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN
eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development
into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and
professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should
attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to
make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for
presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit: