[ecrea] CFP: Popular Culture and World Politics IV (PCWP 4) 23-24.11.2011, Finland

Popular Culture and World Politics IV (PCWP 4)


 23-25 November, 2011
 University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland
 Conference fee: none
 Deadline for abstracts: 31^st July
 http://www.ulapland.fi/pcwp4

Call for Papers:

We study popular culture to understand the representational practices 
through which power relations are constructed worldwide, and grasp the 
aesthetic practices through which the intolerability of power relations 
are given political expression, and out of which new political 
subjectivities and peoples are brought into being. Deconstructing the 
former is integral to the processes of struggle by which we can 
contribute to the composition of the latter.

The Department of Politics and International Relations _(_Faculty of 
Social Sciences 
<http://www.ulapland.fi/InEnglish/Units/Faculty_of_Social_Sciences.iw3>, 
University of Lapland) is pleased to invite you to continue this effort 
at the Popular Culture and World Politics Conference (PCWP 4) to be held 
in Rovaniemi, Finland, 23-25 November 2011. The conference is the fourth 
in a groundbreaking series of annual events that began in the University 
of Bristol in 2008. Since then the series has developed into an exciting 
annual event which attracts scholars, practitioners and artists from 
throughout the world and across the disciplines and fields to debate and 
discuss the world politics of popular culture.

This year, the conference will be held on the ultra-northern verges of 
Europe, in Lapland, which occupies liminal space in-between popular 
imaginaries of Western modernity and Arctic wilderness.

The three-day conference will attract papers and presentations from 
thinkers whose work is inspiring contemporary forays into the relations 
between politics and culture across the humanities, social sciences and 
the arts. Invited keynote speakers include *Michael J. Shapiro* 
(University of Hawai'i, Manoa), *Jeremy Gilbert* (University of East 
London, UK), and *Scott Wilson* (Kingston University, UK).

With this Call for Papers we invite participation in all possible forms. 
In addition to panels and individual papers, we welcome proposals for 
art exhibitions, screenings, performances or other modes of expression. 
In so doing we hope to build the event into a rich experience which 
involves not only talking about popular culture but also experiencing, 
sensing, feeling, producing and, in most cases, enjoying it.

Suggested themes for panels, papers and other presentations include (but 
are not limited to):

   * Challenging the theory/practice divide
   * Aesthetics and the constitution of new subjectivities
   * Decolonizing methodologies
   * Popular culture and climate change
   * The politics of Santa Claus
   * Representation and race
   * Senses, sensibilities and the redistribution of the sensible order
   * Art and political activism
   * Popularization of indigenous cultures
   * Imaginaries of hope in contemporary politics
   * Aesthetics of security
   * War and media
   * The politics of cinema
   * Digital aesthetics
   * The biopolitics of popular culture


All other themes will be entertained too.

If you are interested in attending the conference please visit the 
conference website *http://www.ulapland.fi/pcwp4* to submit a brief 
abstract of your paper, panel proposal (including the names and titles 
of each presentation) or artistic contribution (max. 450 words). *The 
deadline for abstract submissions is July 31st. *

For any queries about the scientific contents of the conference, please 
contact:
Julian Reid 
<http://www.ulapland.fi/julian.reid> (julian.reid(at)ulapland.fi 
<http://ulapland.fi>) and Laura Junka-Aikio 
<http://www.ulapland.fi/?deptid=18276> (laura.junka-aikio(at)ulapland.fi 
<http://ulapland.fi>)

For any queries about practical issues, please contact:
Rovaniemi-Lapland Congresses
University of Lapland
PO Box 122
96101 Rovaniemi, Finland
Tel. +358 40 484 4462 and +358 40 721 8260
Fax +358 16 362 940
Email: (congress /at/ ulapland.fi) <mailto:(congress /at/ ulapland.fi)>