The Oral, the Written, and Other Verbal Media (OWOVM)
Conference on Poetics and Discourse: 12-14 December, 2011
Hosted by Victoria University (Melbourne, Australia) at its City Campus
Second call for proposals: due 28 February 2011
OWOVM is a conference about language-based arts 
and related media of expression.  It focuses on 
the relationship between medium, mode, and 
meaning.  From ethnic cosmologies and narratives 
of survival to the lyricism of love and loss  
cultures are built on verbal reproductions of 
experience, on their dissemination through 
arrays of oral, written, and other verbal media, 
and on the complex relations between participants in these discourses.
Building on the previous OWOVM at the University 
of Saskatchewan in 2008, this conference is for 
both practitioners and researchers in discourse 
and the language arts and in related fields.  It 
expressly provides a forum for explorations of 
Indigeneity and autochthony, orality and 
literacy, and ideologies around cultural 
reproduction.  It brings together composers and 
performers across creative fields including 
language, voice, and text, as well as scholars 
from a range of fields in the creative arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Confirmed keynote presenters:
Gorkem Acaroglu (Melbourne Workers Theatre)
Molly Andrews (University of East London)
Larissa Behrendt (University of Technology, Sydney)
Alex Kelly (Ngapartji Ngapartji, Alice Springs)
Chris Meade (Institute for the Book, London/Brisbane)
John Milloy (Trent University, Ontario)
Conference website: www.owovm.com
Conference email: (owovm /at/ vu.edu.au)
The fields covered at OWOVM will include, but 
not be limited to: Acoustics; Communications and 
Media; Cultural Anthropology; Folklore; Gender 
Studies; History; Indigenous Studies; 
Linguistics; Literary Studies; Music; Narrative 
approaches to social research; Oral-traditional 
poetics and narrative; Performance Studies; 
Philosophy; Qualitative approaches to law and 
criminology; Rhetoric; Visual Arts.
Conference venue, accommodation
The 2011 OWOVM conference will take place at the 
Flinders St Campus of Victoria University, 
located in downtown Melbourne.  Details about 
the venue and accommodation options will be 
posted shortly on the conference website: www.owovm.com.
Conference program
A first draft of the conference program will be 
posted during April 2011, after the organising 
committee has received and considered 
proposals.  The program will be posted and 
periodically updated on the conference website: www.owovm.com.
Details for proposals
The Programming Committee welcomes your 
proposals and any preliminary queries.  Please 
refer to the detailed Call for Proposals on the 
Conference website: www.ovovm.com.  The 
Committee will begin reviewing second-round proposals on 1 March 2011.
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