Spaces of Reckoning - symposium on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Conflict and Memory, University of Westminster, London, 3 December 2011‏

Both Conflict and Memory Studies have, in recent years, become of increasing interest across the Humanities and Social Sciences; as they generate compelling dialogues between fields of study and build on the interdisciplinary turn in contemporary academe. This event will create a space that will allow for two things. The first is the development of opportunities for discussion across academic and cultural spheres. This will come about through the analysis and presentation of the representations and conceptualizations of violent conflict and memory addressed by emerging scholars seeking new networks and approaches to research. Secondly, it will include voices from outside academia that can provide new insight and potential empirical challenges to theoretical discussion.

This event will gather together new researchers from the Arts , Humanities and Social Sciences – and is especially designed to bring together individuals from disciplines that do not traditionally intersect (e.g. Visual Culture and Socio-Legal Studies) and also partially encourages those outside academia(especially those in the visual arts) to participate. The conference will allow mutually beneficial input and new ways of addressing the praxis of Conflict and Cultural Memory through the presentation of and analysis of both objects and concepts.

When reflecting on the proposed theme, Post War Reckoning, Memorialisation, Institutions, Artefacts and the Semiotics of Collective Memory, for example, offer a wide territory for investigation, especially when combined with the study of cultural representations of these themes. We are seeking interested participants from across and outside the academic spectrum to contribute to the creation of new and productive dialogues.

Please submit up to 200 Word abstracts for 20 minute papers / presentations by November 10th  2011 to either Marija Katalinic, Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, marijakat@gmail.com or Tallyn Gray, Department of Advanced Legal Studies, tallyn.gray@my.westminster.ac.uk