Focus for the 5th edition of the conference cycle "Aids in Culture: Explorations in the Cultural History of Aids": Imaging and Imagining Aids: The nature and role of images, visual representations, imagination and narrative interpretation in making sense of experiences of health, illness and disease.

Deadline for abstract Submissions: August 15, 2008
Conference Languages: English, Castilian, German, French and Nahuatl
Homepage: http://www.aidsinculture.org

AIDS is not simply an illness or a biomedical phenomenon. The conference cycle "AIDS in Culture" organised by Enkidu Magazine in Mexico City and the International Society for Cultural History and Cultural Studies (CHiCS) in cooperation with CNDH (The National Human Rights Commission in Mexico) seeks to examine cultural responses to AIDS in different cultures and societies across a wide range of perspectives.

The conference will explore the processes by which AIDS is constructed as a cultural phenomenon and how different societies in their encounters with AIDS attempt to create meaning in health, illness and disease. The conference aims at bringing together academics working in all relevant disciplines as well as activists, artists and other professionals, and promoting innovative multidisciplinary and multicultural exchange and dialogue.

AIDS in Culture has already developed into an annual tradition and will be organised for the fifth time in 2007 in Mexico City. In 2004 Aids in Culture took place in the National Center for Human Rights (CNDH) in Mexico City and had artistic and aesthetic responses to AIDS/HIV as a special focus. The Artist of the Conference was Rolando de la Rosa -Mexican sculptor and painter-. In 2005 AIDS in Culture II was held in the Archivo Histórico Santamaría in the city of Papantla in the Mexican Federal State of Veracruz. The second edition of the conference cycle had Indigenous knowledge and conceptions of AIDS in Latin America, Africa and New Guinea as its core theme. The Artist of the Conference was Morgan Alexander -American photo-ethnographer-.

In 2006 AIDS in Culture III returned to Mexico City. The conference was organised in a large number of special thematic sessions covering a diverse series of topics extending from "The History of AIDS Activism", "Representations of Aids in Literature", "Aids in Education" to "The Politics of Aids and Aids in Politics" and "Perceptions of Aids in Lesbian Sub-Cultures in Mexico". The artist of the conference was Arturo Ramirez Juárez, Mexican painter, who died of AIDS in 1987.

In 2007 the conference activities took place both in the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico City and in Hotel del Portal in the city of Puebla. The conference had a special focus on Aids and Otherness and Aids in narratives of identities. Many of the papers presented in 2007 addressed issues related to translations between cultures and re-negotiations and re-constructions of cultural identities in one way or another in relation to AIDS and HIV. In 2007 the conference exhibitions were "Vihda y Draguería – Life & Dragness" by Antonio Marquet from Mexico and "The Experiences of HIV/AIDS for Mothers" by Samia Omar from Kenya.

In 2008, the conference will have the subtitle: Imaging and Imagining Aids: The nature and role of images, visual representations, imagination and narrative interpretation in making sense of experiences of health, illness and disease.

UNESCO has proclaimed 2008 as International Year of Languages and linguistic diversity and coexistence will be a common theme of many academic, cultural and artistic activities organised by Enkidu Magazine throughout the year in Mexico City. Also during Aids in Culture V, there will be a stream of panel sessions addressing the role of local languages in combating AIDS/HIV and other diseases by safeguarding of local and indigenous knowledge and know-how.

However, also in 2008 the conference will follow a similar model as in previous years with a large number of thematic sessions addressing several different issues. Papers are welcomed on virtually all related topics and themes related to the cultural and social construction of Aids, independently of time period and space. Also papers of comparative phenomena will be considered. Interdisciplinary perspectives are encouraged.

Among the themes of interest are the following:

- AIDS and Cultural Texts: Power and Representation.
- Representations of AIDS in art, movies, music, poetry, religion and literature from the 1980s until today.
- Silences and taboos in discourses on HIV/AIDS.
- Aesthetic responses to the challenge. Rituals, customs, and fetishism.
- Cultural practices that influence the spread of HIV/AIDS
- AIDS and collective and individual identities: Race, Class, Gender etc
- AIDS and Politics, Lobbying and Activism: Power, Representation and Activism.
- Constructions and reconstructions of AIDS in political, faith and ideology based discourse, legal issues and policy making throughout the world: Who has the authority to speak and who is silenced?
- AIDS and theory: Cultural Studies, Queer Studies, Religious Studies, History, Anthropology, Sociology, Literary Studies and all related disciplines. How do we theorize and analyse experiences and the meaning of illness?
- The ‚significance’ of AIDS for individuals and communities; the cultural factors influencing our perceptions of health and illness experiences.
- AIDS and psychosocial affects and effects. Cultures of silence.
- Indigenous knowledge and responses to AIDS
- Stories and Histories about AIDS
- AIDS and Oral History

Papers will be considered on related themes and topics from a wide range of perspectives. 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...

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

* DISABLED PARTICIPANTS

We are pleased to announce that printed conference materials that will be distributed during the conference, also will be available in large print or Braille on request. If you require sign language interpretation during your session, or you would like to distribute handouts or other materials in Braille during your presentation, please indicate this in the registration form.

Registration Form for Participants with disabilities: http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture/disca.htm

Participants with disabilities are recommended to fill in this form if they require any special support or assistance during the event or during social and cultural activities before or during the conference.

* PAPER AND PANEL PROPOSALS

500 word abstracts should be submitted to the organising committee in English, Castilian, German or French by 15, August 2008. The conference languages will be English and Castilian. Interpretations of the conference theme ranging from the predictable to the surprising are encouraged.

Papers should be of approximately 20 - 30 minutes duration (circa 8 - 10 pages). Other forms of presentation, for instance workshops, panel debates and poster sessions will be considered on request.

* PROPOSALS FOR PANEL SESSIONS

Typically, a panel of academic papers should include 3 (maximum 4) speakers and 1 moderator (session chair). 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 want 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 a thematic 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 15th of August 2008, along with the presenter’s name, address, telephone, email, and institutional affiliation. It is recommended to use the form here: http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture/registration_en.htm when submitting an abstract. However, abstracts will also be accepted as e-mail attachments to info@aidsinculture.org

All correspondence for this conference will be conducted via email. You will be notified by the 15th of September 2008 whether your proposal has been accepted or rejected. Full conference papers should be submitted by the 1st of November 2008. Abstracts and summaries of the conference papers will be made available at the conference web page from August 2008.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted within few days. 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 resend your abstract and resubmit your registration form, and if possible, suggest an alternative e-mail address. In particular delegates using hotmail or yahoo accounts to receive conference related e-mails often experience problems receiving conference information by e-mail.

E-mails from the conference organisers are often delivered to your spam folder and not to your inbox, unless you remember to add the following e-mail addresses: info@aidsinculture.org and liowlb@aidsinculture.org to your safe-list. The first address is the general e-mail address of AIDSinCULTURE.org and will be used to send conference newsletters and general information. The second, is the e-mail address of the academic coordinator of the conference and will be used for individual communication with delegates.

* EXHIBITORS, PUBLISHERS AND ARTISTS:

Artists are welcome to suggest exhibitions and displays of art during the conference.
Organisations, universities and publishers are welcome to sign up for information stands at the conference center.

The following information is required by artists, publishers and other exhibitors during the conference:

1) Technical Description of the information stand or artwork with indications of technical requirements for their presentation, the size and extension of the individual artworks to be presented.

2) Estimated Insurance value of the artworks

3) One image of a representative sample of artistic work from the exhibitions can be sent by e-mail to the conference organizers in the format tiff or jpg.

4) Curriculum Vitae of artist (or organisation).

5) Description of Exhibition (300 - 500 words).

6) Short bio of artist (or organisation).

* CULTURAL AND SOCIAL PRE-CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

The academic sessions with formal paper presentations will take place between 9 and 13 December, 2008. In the 2 weeks before the conference, we will organise a number of cultural and social activities for conference delegates and we hope that many international delegates will consider arriving in Mexico City some days before the conference and participate in these activities, which will include a guided tour to Teotihuacan, a city walk through colonial and Aztec Mexico City, and an exploration of the floating gardens of Xochimilco.

In addition conference delegates with name badges will be given discounts and sometimes free access to various theatre plays, concerts, film screenings and other events before and during the conference. The final program for the cultural and social pre-conference activities will be published on the conference web site in September 2008 and will be announced also in the conference newsletter, which will be distributed by e-mail in the months before the conference.

* REGISTRATION FEE for "Aids in Culture V":

Payment received via PayPal or bank transfer in advance (Payments completed before 1. September 2008):

- Waged delegates (speakers): 125 USD/1300 MXP
- Students and unwaged delegates (speakers): 80 USD/882 MXP
- Observer Participant (Listener): 70 USD/782 MXP

Payment in cash, payment on location, and payments completed after 1. September 2007:

- Waged delegates (speakers): 175 USD/1750 MXP
- Students and unwaged delegates (speakers): 100 USD/1008 MXP
- Observer Participant (Listener): 70 USD/782 MXP

Enkidu and the participating organisations will not be able to provide travel support for conference delegates. It is therefore strongly recommended to apply for a scholarship or a grant from other sources.

* PAYMENT INFORMATION:

For international participants we recommend using PayPal for the payment. PayPal is an account-based system that lets anyone with an email address securely send and receive online payments using their credit card or bank account. PayPal accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, thus expanding your payment options. First time PayPal users will need to set up a PayPal account. Instructions for paying the registration fee through PayPal are found on the conference web site at: http://www.enkidumagazine.com/eventos/aidsinculture/payment.htm

Upon completion of payment, PayPal will email a receipt to both the conference organisers and yourself. The receipt will state that you have paid "Registration Fee for "AIDS in CULTURE IV" and the amount transferred. If you need any further documentation about the registration fee to attach to grant applications or your visa application, please send an e-mail to the conference organisers indicating the requirements of your institution and which information the receipt should contain.

If you have any questions about using PayPal, or you prefer other forms of payment, please contact José Ivan at jose_ivan@aidsinculture.org. You can also visit the PayPal homepage for more information about this payment system: https://www.paypal.com/