6th Annual Association of Adaptation Studies Conference,
Yeni Yüzyil University, Istanbul, Turkey,
29-30 September 2011
Title: The Intellectual Silk Road: Adaptation as Cultural Exchange
In recent years there have been movements to
establish what might be described as ?the new
Silk Road,? which will help improve trade routes
between countries in Africa, the Middle East,
Latin America and Asia. In October 2010 the
Turkish and Chinese governments signed a new
accord, establishing a framework for this new
?Silk Road? to be established. The significance
of the Silk Road also extends to the cultural
sphere: since 2007 the Turkish city of Bursa has
hosted the Silk Road film festival, dedicated to
showing short films and documentaries as well as
feature films from countries once involved in trade on the Silk Road.
The topic of this year's Association of
Adaptation Studies conference will focus on
adaptation as a site for cultural exchange,
reflecting the importance of trading activities
along the Silk Road as sites for the
transmission not just of goods but of ideas and
cultures. Possible issues to be addressed in this conference might include:
? Cross Cultural Theories of Adaptation:
does the term 'adaptation' have different significances in different cultures?
? Filming Shakespeare or other western
canonical authors in nonwestern cultures
? Adaptation as Transmission Between
Cultures and Forms (e.g. print, radio, theatre,
television, films, and video games, as well as
cross-cultural stage and film adaptations)
? The Pedagogy of Cultural Exchange:
Interdisciplinary or Cross-disciplinary approaches to teaching adaptation
? Occident and Orient: Adaptations across 'east' and 'west'
? Travel Adaptations, both fictional and
nonfictional (documentaries, feature films as well as shorts)
? Adaptation as a form of cultural (re-)negotiation
? The Mass Media and Cultural Exchange: globalization vs. localization
? Autobiography and Cross-Cultural Adaptation
It is hoped that this conference might underline
the potential of adaptation studies to create
new intellectual Silk Roads across cultures as
well as across disciplines. However, we also
welcome more general papers on the subject of
adaptation studies, focusing on any kind of
adaptation film, television, video game, as well as other media.
Venue
Yeni Yüzyil University is a new university
(opened in February 2009), established on the
European side of Istanbul. It currently boasts
ten faculties and two vocational schools. Its
location seems especially suitable to the
subject of the conference; the city of Istanbul
has always been and continues to be a site for
cultural, commercial and social exchange. In
2010 it was nominated as European City of Culture.
Proposals
Proposals for presentations (20 minutes max,
plus Q & A) are invited to address the issues
outlined above, either through individual
case-studies or through more general theoretical approaches.
Please send proposals BY APRIL 30, 2011 at the latest to both addresses below:
Prof. Dr. Günseli Sönmez Isçi,
Dean, Faculty of Science and Letters
E-Mail (gunseli.isci /at/ yeniyuzyil.edu.tr)
Laurence Raw
Baskent University, Ankara
E-Mail (l_rawjalaurence /at/ yahoo.com)
