[ecrea] Symposium on Everyday Nationhood

Everyday Nationhood: A One-Day Symposium to Examine the Contribution of 
Michael Billig’s Study of Banal Nationalism



Monday 8th September 2014, London, UK



Organised by the Association for the Study of Ethnicity & Nationalism 
(ASEN), the School of Political, Social & International Studies, 
University of East Anglia and the Department of Politics, Bikbeck, 
University of London



Published in 1995, Michael Billig’s Banal Nationalism is the fourth most 
cited text on nationalism and arguably the most influential book on the 
topic in the last two decades. Focusing on contemporary and everyday 
expressions of nationhood, the study marked a profound shift away from 
previous attempts to map the transformation to an era of nations and the 
association of nationalism with political violence, civil conflict and 
extremist movements.



Billig’s arguments have been picked up by scholars working in an 
impressive range of disciplines as part of the recent turn to the 
‘everyday’, and the term ‘banal’ has come to form a short hand for the 
study of the ways in which particular representations, forms of social 
organisation and cultural practice become normalised and taken-for-granted.



This one-day symposium will look to assess the contribution of the Banal 
Nationalism thesis, examine its application across disciplines and 
settings, and ask where studies of nations, social identities and 
everyday life might be headed over the next two decades. The event will 
feature a keynote address by Professor Craig Calhoun (Director of the 
LSE) one of the leading theorists of nationalism, cosmopolitanism and 
social identity in the contemporary era.



We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers from both established scholars 
and PGR students, in any discipline, addressing: theoretical and 
methodological approaches to the study of everyday nationhood / social 
identities, empirical studies of the phenomenon, the application of 
Billig’s arguments to non-national frameworks as well as critiques of 
the Banal Nationalism thesis.



Please send a 250-300 words proposal to Michael Skey ((m.skey /at/ uea.ac.uk)) 
by Friday 13th June 2014.



Those applying can expect written confirmation by Friday 4th July 2014. 
It is anticipated that a selection of papers relating to the symposium 
will form part of a special edition of a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.



The cost of attending the symposium, which will cover lunch and 
refreshments on the day, will be £15.


Dr Michael Skey
Lecturer in Media & Culture
School of Political, Social and International Studies
University of East Anglia

New Book: National Belonging & Everyday Life (Joint Winner of the 2012 
BSA/Philip Abrams Memorial Award)
http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=395807

Just published: ‘What does it mean to be cosmopolitan?’: An examination 
of the meaningfulness and commensurability of everyday engagements with 
‘otherness'
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1070289X.2013.799476#preview

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