Centre for Canadian Studies
Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

International Conference on Canadian Studies February 1-3, 2012

"Demystifying the Urban: Borderlands of Canada and India"

With the various advances of new urban sociologies, the inadequacies of already existing models to track the production of the urban space have been felt all across the globe. This approach of redefining or demystifying the urban ‘space’ as a social category comes from the inherent inadequacies of already existing economic, political, sociological and semiotic models. More empirical work is required to understand the production of the urban space and other forms of spatial negotiations associated with it. We have to remember that this urban space is also the ‘settlement’ space/zone. It is an important territory of emerging social movements, community relations/liaisons. The ‘Urban’ cannot be studied as a single discreet metropolitan development in a particular national setting. We have to look at it from a larger global setting in order to identify the ideologies of Colonialism to late Liberalism behind the social production of this urban space. Thus the study of this ‘urban space’ has to be multidisciplinary. We need a comparative methodology to understand the complexity of the space. It is important to remember that the ‘urban’ is continuously being defined in relation to what is ‘not’ urban.
Over a few decades, Canada and India, as geo-political identities experienced the growth and development of urban spaces and the discontent associated with it. Be it Ontario or Gujarat, the Aboriginal people in both the countries have raised their voice against illegal, illicit development projects and land acquisitions. Both Canada and India has experienced record migration to these urban spaces on an international and national level. The complex issues of labour mobilization and manhandling of human resource is closely associated with urbanization. Various groups (indigenous, immigrants, migrants, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, religious minorities,) in both the countries have performed their discontent to reclaim their identities which have been thwarted in these promised lands. If we consider these urban spaces as negotiations of neocolonial paradigms, then one cannot ignore the various forms of ‘performing discontent’ from several communities in these emerging territories.
The conference will try to map these ‘performing discontents’ as pedagogic shifts, to be more specific, paradigmatic shifts in the global context. The idea is to relocate pedagogy outside the imperial framework of pedagogic models. In the Global context, the situation of the Aboriginal People in Canada and India (how it was and how it is perceived today within the academia and other social institutions ) can serve as an example in both Canada and India to substantiate the claim of spatial negotiation in the context of increasing visibility of various minority groups in the urban space. Immigration and International Labour mobilization/politics can be cited as another example in this context. Papers are invited in all areas relating to the general theme of the conference. We have identified certain areas and some of them are listed below:
Urban Sociology :Metropolis, Cities, Towns and Ruralis, Architecture The Urban Space and Indigenous Alterities
Multiculturalism, citizenship, Identity and Nation
Community , the Individual, Alternative sexualities
International Laws, Labour Mobilisation and policy management
Constitution, Policies and Human rights
Politics of integration/disintegration, inclusion/exclusion Diversity, ethnicity, tolerance
Literature, Films, Cultural Texts
Performance Studies
The New Media (Blog/Online journals/ Online networks/ Advertisements)
Science and Technology, Environmental Issues

The title and a brief abstract (200-300 words) of the proposed paper may be sent as an email attachment (only Microsoft Word Document, saved in a compatible mode) by 31st October, 2011 to
canadacentreju@gmail.com
Contact Persons:
Conference Coordinator: Professor Suchorita Chattopadhyay,
Coordinator, Centre for Canadian Studies, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University.
Organizing Committee:
Dr. Debashree Dattaray (Assistant Professor)
debashreedattaray@gmail.com
Sm. Swagata Bhattacharya (Senior Research Fellow)
sbhat_22@yahoo.co.in
Sri Dheeman Bhattacharyya (Senior Research Fellow)
dheemanbhattacharyya@gmail.com

Mailing Address: Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata-700032, India.
Telephone: 033-2414-6690 (2152 Extn.)