Call for papers
The Tenth Conference of
3-6 June 2015 - UNIVERSITY OF PALERMO
BEYOND IRELAND: Boundaries, Passages, Transitions
We welcome submissions by the newly extended and FINAL deadline of
1 February 2015.
As the deadline for abstract submission has now passed, we are no longer accepting proposals
Confirmed plenary Speakers:
Prof. Declan Kiberd
Prof. John Mc Court
Prof. Francesca Romana Paci
Confirmed Participant artists:
Poet and short story author Harry Clifton
Poet and Professor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
The position of Ireland– historical, as well as geographical and cultural – and the moments of change through which Ireland has passed and is passing have made it a liminal space. The legacy of the past is intersecting with the present. Traditions are questioned and future outcomes are thrown into doubt. Furthermore, physical and social mobility – the phenomena of the new rich and the new poor and of economic migration into Ireland rather than out of Ireland – confirms the state of Ireland as a stepping stone, a land ‘betwixt and between’, which implies such concepts as identity and difference and conveys feelings of separation, marginality and (re)assimilation. As Irish culture and identity were and are being shapedby the diaspora and other forms of expatriation, in our days vicinity with new migrants is contributing to the construction of a modern country.
This conference will probe into the diverse dimensions of liminality as they manifest themselves in Irish culture giving particular importance in this context to processes of cultural inclusion and exclusion which are often the prerogative of mobility experiences.
The insularity of Ireland and the fact that it is at the far end of Europe makes it similar to Sicily where, appropriately, this conference takes place. Both are transitional spaces marked by mobility and the crossing of thresholds where new definitions of selfhood take place.
Boundaries, passages, transitions will also celebrate the work of Nobel laureate WB Yeats on the 150th anniversary of his birth. The poet spent some time in Sicily; his figures constantly cross and re-cross boundaries between the material and the immaterial, the historical and the transhistorical, the national and transnational world.
Papers, panels and workshops on the theme of liminality and travel are welcome. We are seeking papers in the areas of languages and literature, history, cultural studies, film, art history, folklore, politics, economy and other areas of humanities and liberal arts that would offer an original angle, approach or application to the study of Irish culture.
Possible topics may include but are not limited to:
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Representations through different media of Mobility: Tourism, Migration, Expatriation, Diaspora, Exile. Rootedness: Homecomings, Cosmopolitanism, Globalization; town and country, centre and periphery, economic and cultural exchanges and developments.
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Digital Mobility.
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Cultural/social/linguistic borderlands of liminal/hybridized groups including but not limited to issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, and politics; interdisciplinary, hybridized or/and liminal texts and theories of hybridization and liminality; multimodal, transformative, or genre-crossing works.
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Legacies of the past: Gaelic, Ascendancy, Postcolonial.
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Adaptations, rewritings, translations. Cultural transfers.
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Representations of the Irish in international film and literature; representations of otherness in Irish film and literature.
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Ireland and Sicily
- Yeats and Sicily: art, Italy, history, forms of liminality in his work.
Abstracts:If you would like to propose a paper (in English, not exceeding 20 minutes), please submit your title and an abstract of 250 words accompanied by a short biographical sketch by 1st of November 2014 to the following email address: efacis10@gmail.com
Include your name, university affiliation and tech equipment needs. Full panel proposals are also welcome. If submitting an individual proposal, please include a brief list of relevant keywords, key texts, and/or key theories you are employing, so that we may organize panels in a more effective and coherent manner.
Deadline for submission of proposals and abstracts: 1st November 2014 to the following email address: efacis10@gmail.com
For further information please contact:
Dr. Chiara Sciarrino
Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche
Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia
Università di Palermo
90128 Palermo, Italy
chiara.sciarrino@unipa.it
tel. +3909123899230
Scientific Committee: Patrizia Ardizzone, Donatella Badin, Melita Cataldi, Seán Crosson, Fiorenzo Fantaccini, Giuseppe Leone, Hedwig Schwall, Chiara Sciarrino, Giuseppe Serpillo, Marianna Lya Zummo e Cinzia Giacinta Spinzi.
Organizing committee: Antonietta Salvia, Vincenzo Lo Grasso, Antonio Sardino, Vincenzo Rizzo.
NB: Only paid-up members of EFACIS are eligible to read papers at this conference. Membership subscriptions for EFACIS may be taken out or renewed with conference registration. Membership of EFACIS is €30 for individuals, €15 for graduate/postgraduate students and membership through institutional affiliation (institutes and research centres). To join EFACIS beforehand, please contact the EFACIS Treasurer, Malachy Vallely at mvallely@leuveninstitute.eu
Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche