New Perspectives on Cultural Contact and Exchange, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, March 29–31, 2019
Abstract submissions are invited for New Perspectives on Cultural Contact and Exchange, a colloquium to be held at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
The colloquium is the culmination of a year-long interdisciplinary faculty-graduate student research cluster sponsored by IPRH: the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities. Participants in “Transmission, Translation, and Directionality in Cultural Exchange” have been exploring the problematics and methodologies of researching cultural contact and exchange across time and space and at multiple scales. The colloquium is intended to foster spirited conversation among graduate students and faculty who can bring their current research projects, share and receive feedback from participants and faculty respondents across a variety of fields.
We are interested in 20-minute presentations that address key questions: How can we define “cultural contact and exchange?” What forces are at work in the transmission and reception of “cultural artifacts”? How have geopolitics and economics influenced the movement of stories, music, sports, and myriad other forms of cultural production over time? How do the conflicting influences of nationalism, global networks, and changing technologies act to impede and/or facilitate cultural exchange? What kinds of institutions (formal and informal) have had the most impact in fostering cultural exchange? What kinds of evidence can we use to prove that cultural transmission has occurred?
We especially encourage abstracts from scholars working on cultural contact and exchange in premodern eras, as well as non-humanities fields.
SUGGESTED TOPICS INCLUDE
- Cultural contact and exchange via text, orality, music, dance, art, sport, digital media, and beyond
- Geopolitics and the economics of cultural exchange
- Historical perspectives on dynamics of cultural exchange
- Legal perspectives (copyright, ownership of cultural artifacts, etc.)
- Media of transmission
- Memory and myth-making
- Regional and global networks of cultural transmission
- Technological modes (textual, material, digital, oral, etc.) of cultural exchange
- Translation, migration, and/or nationalism in cultural contact and exchange
The colloquium will be free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided and the organizers will assist in finding affordable lodging for out-of-town presenters.