8th Global Conference: Interculturalism, Meaning and Identity

8th Global Conference: Interculturalism, Meaning and Identity Saturday 14th March – Monday 16th March 2015, Lisbon, Portugal Call for Presentations: Interculturalism stands at the interface between the individual, local groups, societies and cultures. These compete, conflict, co-exist and trigger reactions and responses on a number of levels including the social, the economic, the political and the personal. These are reinforced through language, the media, cultural events, social institutions and migration policies. Amidst all these dynamic and static forms of interaction, identities are built and consolidated. The previous meeting of this project recognised that identity is not something which is fixed and predetermined but rather is continuously created and recreated from the day-to-day flow of living in communities. With mobility not simply a commonplace factor in society but continuing to rapidly expand, people are faced with challenges to and changes in their own identity as a result of encounters with new cultures, new ways of living and new ways of thinking. People find themselves forging and reforming their identities through integration, assimilation, disintegration, reintegration... and so the pattern continues. A very important topic to be discussed in the 2015 conference is the use of interculturalism models in daily life. The previous conference, the one of March 2014, exhibits the need of discussions about how to create working platforms within varied professions such as medical professions: nurses, doctors etc. or social workers, teachers, local administrative and so on. The 2015 conference will build on the work of previous meetings in this series and examine the meaning and parameters of Interculturalism, how it is studied and what it means. How can we talk meaningfully of interculturalism? What role does hybridity play in understanding the way cultures morph, adapt and become suited to their context? The 2015 conference encourages people, not necessarily academics, working in multicultural environments, to describe their experiences in the field. The first interests would be theories of cultural sensibility and its practical aspects. The focus of the 2015 Interculturalism conference will be on meeting between cultures and identities: -Cultural sensibility? What is it in practice? -How does understanding of cultural signifiers assist in studying intercultrualism? -Recent criticism of literature has emphasized the problematics of identity and meaning associated with globalisation; how so and why? -What are the implications of processes adopted to consider the centre-periphery? -How do the immersion, absorption and the intersection of cultures promote a better understanding of individual and group identities? -Is "Transculturalism" possible in disputes over resource use? -How can "Transculturalism" be taught more effectively to professional field workers, such asas nurses, teachers, aid workers, psychologists etc? -What can one learn from and about significance of Cross Cultural Psychology and Interculturalism, as well as Autism and Interculturalism and cultural manifestations of identity, Citizenship and Diaspora? -Are patterns of cognition governed by acculturalisation? -Is intercultural experience therapeutic or problematic in respect of mental health? Presentations will also be considered which deal with related themes. What to Send: 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 31st October 2014. All submissions are minimally double blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 23rd January 2015. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract E-mails should be titled: Interculturalism 8 Abstract Submission Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend. Joint Organising Chairs: Efrat Tzadik: efrat@inter-disciplinary.net Ram Vemuri and Rob Fisher: ic8@inter-disciplinary.net The conference is part of the 'Diversity and Recognition' research projects, which in turn belong to the 'At the Interface' programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference. Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. For further details of the conference, please visit: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/diversity-recognition/interculturalism/call-for-papers/ Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.