[ecrea] Conference Call: “Talking about “Arabs”. Echoes from different Europes” 27-28 May 2016, Prague

We warmly invite you to submit your  abstract to the International
Conference: “Talking about “Arabs”. Echoes from different 
/Europes/”.
Conference will be held on 27-28th May at The Czech Academy of Sciences
in Prague. Participants are asked to send an abstract of 500 words and
short bio until 21st February.


/Conference Concept: /

The immigration emergency, the Cologne attacks and other reports on the Arab
populations in Europe continue to generate commentaries across the
continent. The
concentration of generally unwelcoming attitudes towards Middle Eastern
newcomers in
Central and Eastern Europe is seen by some as the evidence of ‘a split
of mentalities’
between the ‘old Europe’ and its ex-communist states.
In the political, media and even academic discourse, these reactions
were attributed to the
Central and Eastern European ignorance of Arab cultures, and
difficulties the region has
in coming to grips with its own multi-ethnic heritage. As a consequence,
some Central
and Eastern European countries were labeled parochial, xenophobic and
not fully
‘European’. Whereas, these countries themselves claimed to act as
barriers of Europe,
protecting its borders and values.
These dichotomies are understood as an expression of contrasting
experiences of
apprehending the Other in different parts of Europe. There is a need,
however, to
complexify these all-too-easy dichotomies by looking into how concretely
knowledge on
the Middle East is produced in different countries. While speaking about
refugees, two
kinds of discourse could be identified across the continent: one that
employs the language
of human rights, and another that rests on the assumption of cultural
specificity, and the
related ‘cultural incompatibility’ between European and Middle Eastern
countries. In this
particular case, it is relevant to ask how the ‘Arab culture’ is defined
and by whom. How,
by contrast, ‘the culture of the majority’ is delineated and argued for?
On what concrete
grounds these two discourses on Arab newcomers to Europe intermingle and
collide? To
provide an answer to these questions, one needs to look into the ways
knowledge on the
Middle East is produced and disseminated in contemporary Europe.
The Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences is organizing a
workshop on
this issue, bringing together researchers and experts from diverse
disciplinary and
national backgrounds. On the basis of concrete empirical studies,
conducted in different
European countries and from diverse disciplinary perspectives, the
workshop seeks to
investigate the nexus between three different fields of knowledge
production and
diffusion in today’s Europe: media, academic/intellectual and
policy-making.

/We are particularly interested in the following dimensions:/

– Cooperation between academic institutions and media (what scientific
disciplines
dominate in the academic inquiry on the region, and how they affect the
construction of
public knowledge on the Middle East? What type of expertise is sought
after by media
outlets in news commentaries? What is the role of academic and
intellectuals when
participating in the public debate on the Middle East?)
- Autonomy of academic research with regard to other fields (economic,
political and
journalistic). In the light of important debates on Orientalism, one
could ask how Middle
Eastern studies operated in the absence of a clear political interest in
the region.
– Differences and similarities of journalism cultures across different
European countries
and their role in reporting on Middle Eastern countries and issues (What
are the networks
of information diffusion on the issues related to the Middle East? What
foreign sources,
experts, blogs or social media posts are regarded as reliable?).
-The main stakeholders determining in what light the region and its
people will be
portrayed: tourism agencies, ministries, security experts, NGOs,
businessmen, etc.
– The ways knowledge in the form of lay theories and “common sense”
travels across
European countries.
– The relation between academic research and civic engagement


There is a limited budget for covering the costs of travel and/or
accommodation for
selected participants. Participants will be asked to send the text of
their presentation to
organizers and discussants prior to the workshop. The papers will be
proposed for a
publication in a journal yet to be identified for a collective volume.

Guidelines for application:
- Abstract of approx. 500 words
- Short bio, including the list of publications
Deadline for abstract submission: February 21, 2016

/For further information and to send abstracts please contact:/

Giedre Sabaseviciute
(saba /at/ orient.cas.cz) <mailto:(saba /at/ orient.cas.cz)>
Oriental Institute, the Czech Academy of Sciences,
Prague,

and

Ieva Zakareviciute
(ieva.zakareviciute /at/ ifkw.lmu.de) <mailto:(ieva.zakareviciute /at/ ifkw.lmu.de)>
Ludwig Maximilian University,
Munich.





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