Identity, belonging and citizenship within the nation state are established, contested and legitimized within sites and institutions of public culture, heritage and representation. In Canada, people from diverse cultural backgrounds seek to engage with cultural, historical and social knowledge in these spaces. While public museums have been primary sites of engagement, some people have sought to create alternative opportunities and institutional spaces to express and represent the complexities of their histories, identities, communities and places in both Canadian and global society. We are seeking papers that explore the roles that all types of public spaces play in the expression or contestation of different histories, different identities, and different forms of community, national and transnational citizenship.

Please submit either (a) 250 word abstracts for an individual papers, or (b) proposals for panels including 3 papers by August 31, 2011 to diversespaces@gmail.com. Accepted papers and panels will be announced by the end of January, 2012.

The conference is organized by Julia Harrison, Director, and Susan Ashley, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada.

Susan Ashley, PhD
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow
Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies
Trent University
Peterborough, Canada