CFP: From Discrimination to Empowerment

Theoretically informed and empirically grounded (qualitative or quantitative empirical research) contributions in English from scholars in the social sciences and humanities are invited, as well as presentations of best practices and projects from community activists and practitioners.

The conference will address issues relevant to the main themes of the conference, Discrimination and Empowerment, and allow quality exchange on themes such as:

• positive and negative (multiple) discrimination, social exclusion/inclusion, xenophobia
• nationality, ethnicity, citizenship, cultural and state membership, gender, sexuality, religion, age and other categories of social divisions and belonging, identity ‘intersectionality’
• majority-minority relations, hostility among groups, migrants, national and ethnic minorities
• structural and cultural violence, psychological trauma
• effects of discrimination/empowerment on economic and psychological well being and health, school and career achievement
• human/minority rights, recognition, equality
• cultural diversity, integration processes, peace education, intercultural education, human rights education
• democracy, civil society, mass media, new platforms and innovative strategies for social change
• best practices of personal and community empowerment

Submitting a proposal

We invite papers for presentation in 15 minutes (symposia), 12 minutes (individual talks) and 5 minutes (brief papers - works in progress and posters), as well as workshop proposals of 90 minutes. Papers with a focus on Central Europe are particularly appreciated, but contributions discussing other geographical contexts are also welcome.

All paper/poster and workshop presenters should submit an application consisting of the following four items:

1. Name of Author(s), affiliation(s), contact e-mail and phone/mobilenumber;
2. Proposed format type (Symposium, Individual Paper, Poster, Workshop);
3. A short abstract (maximum 500 words);
4. A short bio of the author(s) (maximum 500 words) with a photo in jpg format.

Please upload your proposal via the website - online form, or send it as a Word (2003) attachment to: [email protected]. The last deadline for submission: 15 March 2012.

Participants will be informed about the acceptance of their papers within 7 days of receiving the paper proposal.

Symposia

Symposium sessions will collect four talks, or three talks and a discussant, on a similar theme. Symposia sessions will last 75 minutes, so plan on 15 minutes for each talk and about 3 minutes for questions. Please fill in the symposium form through the conference website or e-mail it, together with individual talk forms that you have collected from each of your symposium presenters, as attachment to [email protected].

Individual talks

Individual talks will last 12 minutes with 3 minutes for questions and will be organized in thematic sessions.

Posters

Poster presenters will be asked to give a shorter version of the talk in the brief (5-minute) format.

Workshops

Workshops are meant to be interactive and experiential in order to delve into a topic more deeply. 90 minutes are allocated to workshops. Workshop proposal should include an outline of the specific planned activities and a detailed time schedule for each segment of the workshop, together with aim, objectives, expected outcomes and minimum/maximum number of participants.

Registration and fees

Confirmation of participation and payment of the conference fee will be due at latest on March 21, 2012.

The conference fee of 60 Euros for Members and 100 Euros for Non-members (before March 15th, 2012) will cover refreshments, lunches (Thursday, Friday) and conference materials. Membership contribution to the organizing association is 25 Euros per year.

If you wish to attend as auditor only, kindly contact the organizers, sending a short bio and a motivation letter.

Expected outcomes

The conference organizers would like to publish a selection of articles in form of an edited book or a special issue to be submitted to a cross-disciplinary international journal.

The conference also aims to consolidate the collaboration among the participants and their organizations in form of a cross-disciplinary network, which might lead to joint projects.

Further information

Accomodation in Trieste is available at several hotels in the city centre (e.g. 30-60 Euros/night a single room, 50-100 Euros/night a double room).

Trieste can be reached, inter alia, by train (http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en, www.trenitalia.it) and air (Trieste airport in Ronchi del Legionari: http://www.aeroporto.fvg.it).

Participants may also consider Venice airport, which is connected to Trieste by train (travelling time about 2 hours).

Contact information

If you have any queries about the conference, please email the conference organizers at: [email protected].

For updated programmes, registration details, announcements, useful information about travel and accomodation check the conference website: