Hosted by the Department of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, Franklin College Switzerland. September 23-25, 2011 in Lugano, Switzerland.
Keynote speakers
Sidonie Smith
Martha Guernsey Colby Collegiate Professor of Women's Studies and English,
University of Michigan
Peter Rosenblum
Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein Clinical Professor in Human Rights,
Columbia University
Call for Papers
Intersections of Law and Culture aims to investigate law's place in culture
and culture's place in law. This focus proceeds from the twin premise that
law, itself a cultural form, reacts to and is shaped by the cultural context
in which it operates and that culture in turn is shaped by the regulative
forces of law. Moreover, the operations of law-its processes and
decisions-have entered the realm of popular culture, media and the arts as
plot devices and narratives used in sit-coms, films and pulp fiction. These
in turn have begun to change the way law operates. Together law and culture
help to determine the ways in which we inhabit both our local contexts and
the global stage.
The focus of this second Intersections of Law and Culture conference is on
human rights. What are the philosophical, literary and cultural points of
references for the management of human rights? How have current notions and
framings developed historically? What are the mechanisms by which cultural
narratives and popular representations of human rights find their way into
legal processes? How does law in turn bleed into and influence cultural
practices and conceptions of human rights? What is the relationship between
international efforts and framings of human rights and their local
implementations?
Clearly there are no simple, monolithic answers to these complex questions: a
dialogue concerning the effects of the interplay between law and other forms
of knowledge in the area of human rights can only proceed from a genuinely
interdisciplinary point of departure. We welcome papers and panels from all
cultural contexts and disciplinary perspectives, as well as from music and
the arts. We envision the groupings of the papers not so much as distinct
streams but as an interconnected matrix that acknowledges the overlap and
mutual influence of modes of knowledge. That said, we welcome contributions
that critically engage a number of core areas in the study human rights and
law including, but not limited to:
* Narrative
* Migration
* Medicine
* Women's Rights
* Children's Rights
* Distribution of Natural Resources
* Relative and Absolute Poverty
* Education
* Housing
* Social Sustainability
We welcome single contributions (30 minutes), panel submissions (90 minutes,
up to 3 panelists) and workshop sessions (180 minutes, up to 6 participants).
Suggestions of ways to break with the traditional academic models for panels
and sessions in the visual and performing arts are warmly encouraged.
The registration fees are as follows:
* participants with full institutional backing:SFr. 300;
* participants with partial institutional backing:SFr. 250;
* participants with no financial backing:SFr. 75
The fee includes a reception, 2 lunches, 4 coffee breaks and conference
documentation. The fee for the conference dinner (SFr. 75.-) is not included
in the registration fee.
Submissions
Deadline for submission: March 31, 2011.
Submission site http://www.fc.edu/ilc
Questions:
Caroline Wiedmer; cwiedmer@fc.edu
Please include a short bio with each abstract.
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