Call for Papers
E/Im/Migration and Culture
15-17 September 2007
Işık University, Şile (Istanbul, Turkey)
Fourth Cultural Studies Conference
coorganized by the
Cultural Studies Association (Turkey) and the
Department of International Relations of Işık University
The Cultural Studies Association of Turkey and Işık University invite proposals for an international cultural studies conference entitled "E/Im/Migration and Culture" they are coorganizing on 15-17 September 2007 in Şile (Istanbul, Turkey). Seeking to explore the topic from a wide range of scholarly viewpoints by focusing on issues of migration in its multiple relationships with various facets of culture, the inter/multidisciplinary conference aims to interrogate established notions of migration both in Turkey and outside of Turkey. We welcome proposals for papers that break new ground in generating theory, or constitute innovative critical or comparative work that would lead to theoretical formulations and methodology, as well as for papers on specific cases. The conference intends to examine issues of migration in Turkey, among the peoples in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire, among the EuroTurks (and TurkishAmericans, Australasian Turks, etc.), among the Turcophone peoples in countries and regions in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Russian Federation) and those Turcophone minorities in such countries as Iran and China.
The story of migration is as old as the history of humankind. Factors such as geographic conditions, economic necessities, sociopolitical developments and wars have led to population movements for centuries. Whether for refuge or as exile, whether voluntary or forced, migration has always affected both society and the individual? and altered both the land that was left behind and the land that was reached. A phenomenon of modern times, the nationstate as hegemonic entity contributed to these migration flows through bordering and rebordering processes that put visible and invisible boundaries on people's movements. Additional factors leading to current population flows are observed to be primarily the challenge(s) of globalization and transnationalism.
Migration within and out of countries continue in great numbers as more and more people in our global village look to either temporary or permanent migration as a path to freedom, the right to live, security, employment, health and education-while sometimes also encountering drama and tragedy along the way. E/im/migration has generated its own art, fiction and cinema. Thus, it has continued to be a force in culture, demography, economy and politics in the contemporary era, and constitutes, in its various aspects, a matter of paramount importance for the cultures of Turks and Turkey. This reflection has led us to select the topic of migration as the theme of the fourth cultural studies conference to take place in Turkey.
We welcome submissions related to e/im/migration including, but not limited to, the following:
- E/im/migration and culture: Theoretical approaches
- Theoretical approaches to e/im/migration
- Globalization and e/im/migration
- Push and pull factors of e/im/migration
- E/im/migration and memory: Remembering and forgetting
- E/im/migration and effects on language/linguistic alteration
- Psychological dimensions of e/im/migration
- Asylum seeking, refugeeship, immigration, emigration, irregular migration, illegal migration, human trafficking, human trade, etc.
- The history of "diaspora" from its initial designation to its current significance.
- The identity of the "e/im/migrant"
- Deleuze and Guattari's "nomadology" as applied to the cultures of Turks/Turkey
- Art/Literature/ Cinema generated by e/im/migration
- Immigrant music: "arabesk," Kanak , Re(m)betiko, rap in Turkish
- The Epic of Migration (Göç Destanı)" and other e/im/migration epics
- The theme of e/im/migration in Turkish literature
- Exile and literature
- Turkish literature/German TV shows, etc. generated by the migration from Turkey to Germany in the 1960s and onwards
- German-language Turkish authors
- Turkish literature generated by the migration from Turkey to Europe in the 1960s and onwards
- Authors from Turkey writing in the US/Europe
- Authors and film directors from the Ottoman empire and former lands of the Ottoman empire writing/directing in Europe/the US (Elia Kazan, Amin Maalouf, William Saroyan, etc.)
- Turkic authors and poets writing in the US
- Nazım Hikmet's migration to Russia/Sabahattin Ali's failed attempt at emigration
- Cinema and e/im/migration
- E/im/migration and urban space
- Migration from rural to urban areas
- Immigrant groups and the sense of "hemşehrilik"
- Effects of immigration in the urban space
- Immigration and the "gecekondu"
- Immigrant quarters in İstanbul: Tarlabaşı, Zeytinburnu, etc.
- Polonezköy as an area of settlement
- Flight to the sun: The pull of seaside towns and its effects
- E/im/migration among the Roma
- Seasonale/im/migration
- E/im/migration during the Republican era
- Forced migration in the Southeastern region
- Migration to Europe/US/Canada/Australia/Africa and Middle Eastern countries
- Migration from Anatolia to Istanbul from the 1950s onwards
- Migration from Anatolia to Germany/other European countries from the 1960s onwards
- German and Jewish scholars in Turkey during World War II.
- Intellectuals from the VolgaUral region/immigrants from the Balkans during the early years and their contributions
- Assimilation and integration policies of the state
- Turkish citizens and visa regimes
- The effect of Turkey's candidacy to EU on e/im/migration in both directions
- Deportation, termination of citizenship, etc.
- Immigration and asylum seeking to Turkey since the 1980s
- E/im/migration during the Ottoman era
- Forced migration and its aftermath, and current repercussions
- Migration from the Balkans resulting from the 1877-78 Russo-Ottoman war
- Immigration to Ottoman lands: Renowned heroes, European aristocrats, Circassian and other individual/mass migration from Czarist Russia
- Emigration to the US
- Emigration to Europe/the US after the demise of the empire
- Immigration to Turkey from former Ottoman lands after the demise of the empire
- Cultural representation of e/im/migration resulting from political developments: The cases of Western Thrace and the Balkans
- The Turco-Greek population exchange
- (The ongoing) immigration from Western Thrace (since the exchange)
- Migration from/to Bulgaria since the 1980s
- Immigration from (what was) Yugoslavia during the Cold War and after
- Cultural representation of e/im/migration resulting from political developments: The case of Cyprus
- Emigration from Cyprus to Turkey and Greece, and from Turkey and Greece to Cyprus
- Migratory moves between Northern and Southern Cyprus
- Cultural representation of e/im/migration resulting from political developments: The case of Iraq
- Migration from Northern Iraq to Turkey during the I. Gulf War and "Operation Provide Comfort"
- Turkmen migration from Iraq to Turkey
- Migration from Northern Iraq to the US
- Cultural representation of e/im/migration resulting from political developments: The case of Jews and Palestinians
- Jewish migration from Spain to the Ottoman lands
- Migration to Jerusalem from within the Ottoman territory and elsewhere at the beginning of the twentieth-century
- Emigration from Turkey to Israel since 1948
- Emigration from Palestine since 1948
Other
- Migration in Islam: Hejirah as migration, migration as jihad, etc.
- Migration from the Bering Strait to the continent that would be called "America: Mongols or Turks?
- Turkish/ic migration from Central Asia: Truth and myth
- Brain drain
As the conference will take place in Turkey and takes up the cultures of Turks and Turkey, the working language of the conference is first of all Turkish. However, since experience has shown that non-Turkish speaking colleagues doing studies related to the cultures of Turks and Turkey also wish to contribute, there will be English-language sessions as well. Abstracts of 100-200 words, containing five key words, should be sent along a brief curriculum vitae. Panel proposals with three to five papers should include, besides the panel proposal and five key words, abstracts of the papers in the panel, and brief curriculum vitae of the chair, presenters, and discussant(s) if any. Poster presentation proposals containing noteworthy visual material are also welcome.
Send no later than 1 October 2006, by email to programgoc@kulturad.org, by fax to +90 212 292 22 29 (Attn.: IV. Cultural Studies Conference). For more information, write to the same addresses or look at www.kulturad.org.
The results will be announced on 1 February 2007.
The registration fee will be 60 Euro for Cultural Studies Association (Turkey) members and students, and 100 Euro for all other participants until 1 May 2007; and, after that date, 100 Euro for Cultural Studies Association (Turkey) members and students, and 160 Euro for all other participants. The conference organizing committee regrets that it cannot assist in travel or accomodation fares in any way, but will provide lowcost accomodation for all participants on the Işık University campus. Further details will be sent later. For information on Işık University, please look at www.isikun.edu.tr.
Please click for the conference PDF brochure
On behalf of the organizer
Şule Toktaş Gönül Pultar
(sule@isikun.edu.tr) (gpultar@kulturad.org)