Testimonial Texts, Stories, Lives and Memories

Universidad Pedagógica Nacional (UPN),
Mexico City, 1 – 5 June 2006

Deadline: Wednesday, 1. March 2006
(Note: The submission deadline for abstracts has been extended)

The primary focus of this inclusive and interdisciplinary conference organized by Enkidu Magazine in Mexico City in cooperation with Mexico's National University of Pedagogy (UPN) is to explore the power of storytelling in the construction of memories, collective identity formations, and oral traditions.

The conference will interrogate storytelling, memories and identity constructions from a wide range of perspectives, definitions and in their manifold cultural and social manifestations. The program is organised in a large number of special thematic sessions and subconferences covering a large and diverse series of topics extending from indigenous oral traditions in Mexico, the “Urban Space as Text” to “Disabilities and Visibilities through the ages”. The conference promises to be an unprecedented event in Mexico bringing together participants from all over the world to share and exchange their research, experiences and ideas in a truly multicultural and interdisciplinary academic environment. We welcome submissions from all branches of the social sciences, humanities, as well as the arts. Graduate students are encouraged to participate.

Papers will be considered on related themes and topics from a wide range of perspectives. 500 word abstracts should be submitted to the organising committee in English, Castilian, German or French by 25th of February 2006. The conference languages will be English and Castilian.

Interpretations of the conference theme ranging from the predictable to the surprising are encouraged.

Among the themes of interest are the following:

- Narrative and Linguistics
- Narrative and Myth
- Storytelling in rituals, customs, and fetishism.
- Storytelling and Visual/Performing Arts and Music
- Oral Tradition and Contemporary Chronicle
- Postmodernity and its narratives
- Voice and reflexivity in oral and written texts
- Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives
- Story, Dialogue and Discourse
- Testimonial Narratives
- Memory and Written Record
- Text, Context and Intertext in Storytelling and Performance
- Children’s Stories
- Language, Authority and Silence

Interdisciplinary perspectives are especially welcome since all these topics in themselves stretch across several disciplines: history, literary studies, linguistics, psychology, political sciences, pedagogy, ethnology, anthropology, sociology...

Subconferences in "Testimonial Texts, Stories, Lives and Memories":

» Subconference:
We are here! Disabilities and Visibilities through the ages

» Subconference:
Textos Testimoniales sobre Discriminación, Uso & Abuso de Poder en el Ambito Laboral

» Subconference:
Pachecas a Belen: Una Tradición Mexicana

» Subconference:
The Past and Future of Totonac Studies

Special thematic sessions:

» Special session:
The Urban Space as Text

» Special session (3. June):
Aids and Oral History

» Subconference:
(Trans)-gendered realities

» Special session (3. June):
New Directions in Microhistory

» Special session (4. June):
Dear Diary: Memories and words never spoken

» Special session (4. June):
Passionate Research: Voice, Subjectivity and Reflexivity

Papers should be of approximately 30 minutes duration (circa 8 - 10 pages). Other forms of presentation, for instance workshops, panel debates and poster sessions will be considered on request.

Graduate and postgraduate students are encouraged to attend and present papers. Selected papers from the conference will be published in book form.

- Proposals for Panel Sessions:

Typically, a panel of academic papers should include 3 (maximum 4) speakers and 1 moderator. Each session will last for 2 hours allowing for 30 minutes for each speaker and a further 30 minutes for questions and discussion.

Proposers should submit:

(1) session title and a session intro (ca 100 words),
(2) paper titles,
(3) abstracts for each paper (500 words),
(4) short biography for each participant and the panel chair (ca 100-150 words),
(5) institutional affiliation and address for each participant,
(6) audio-visual and other technical requirements.

If you would like to propose a panel session, and need assistance in finding speakers and/or a session chair, we can publish a call for papers for your panel session on the conference web site and distribute it in our newsletter. If you have an idea for panel session and would like us to publish a call for papers on the conference website, please send us a proposal by e-mail to info@enkidumagazine.com

- Proposals for individual papers

Abstracts are to be submitted by 25 February 2006, along with the presenter’s name, address, telephone, email, and institutional affiliation. All correspondence for this conference will be conducted via email. You will be notified by the 25th of April 2006 whether your proposal has been accepted or rejected. Full conference papers should be submitted by the 1st of May 2006.

Abstracts and summaries of the conference papers will be made available on the conference web site from the 1st of May 2006

For further information, please contact the organising comitee at:

info@enkidumagazine.com

The conference web page:
http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/texts/intro_en.htm