[ecrea] International PhD course ANALYSING THE PRACTICES OF (ORGANISED) CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS

International PhD course and workshop
ANALYSING THE PRACTICES OF (ORGANISED) CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS
November 4-6th 2015
Venue: Roskilde University, Cultural Encounters
Roskilde, Denmark

Contents:
The PhD course will consist of a 2-day research seminar with 
international keynotes and panel sessions and a 1-day interactive PhD 
workshop.

The aim of the seminar is to explore practice-oriented analytical 
frameworks within the field of cultural encounters. How may we 
conceptualise and analyse the practices that constitute social 
interactions associated with cultural encounters? And in particular: how 
may we analyse transformative aspects of these practices?

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Mariana Valverde (University of Toronto)
Dace Dzenovska (Oxford University, COMPAS)
Anne-Line Dalsgård (Århus University)

“Cultural encounters” has become an increasingly popular term, which is 
used in a variety of ways across the humanities and social sciences. In 
this seminar we are in particular interested in formalised encounters 
that are self-consciously organised around notions of cultural 
difference in order to do something to, with or for these differences. 
Formalised encounters of this kind may for instance be related to 
institutional practices/interventions; social work and governance; 
educational settings; religious and spiritual spaces or associations and 
NGOs working to promote cultural dialogue. The transformative ideas 
associated with these encounters may analytically be conceptualised 
through the use of figures/metaphors like the laboratory, the ritual, 
the classroom, the kitchen or the greenhouse.

In the research group, which organises this seminar, we have coined the 
notion organised cultural encounters (OCEs) to explore the kind of 
social spaces, described above. OCEs are scripted spaces, where the 
organisers intend to manage and/or harvest from cultural differences in 
various ways. OCEs are invested with high hopes of a transformation that 
may also have an effect outside (or indeed after) the particular 
encounter. In the research group, we are both interested in the scripts 
governing the set-up of particular encounters, and in the interactions 
that occur because of, despite, or in opposition to the scripts.

The aim of the PhD workshop is to give participants an opportunity to 
work explicitly on their analytical frameworks in dealing with practices 
pertaining to cultural encounters of various kinds. During interactive 
sessions, we will explore the effects and limitations of various 
analytical approaches, for instance:
•	 What might be made (im-)possible or (in-)visible through adopting 
particular analytical strategies, and what are the consequences of these 
choices, as opposed to others?
•	How may one work dialogically, drawing on multiple interpretative 
frameworks and utilizing ambiguities, doubts, confusions and uncertainties?
•	How may one articulate and work analytically with particular elements 
of empirical material, such as researcher’s embodied/sensory impressions 
or histories/spatiotemporalities and materalities of cultural encounters?

Format:
The PhD workshop will be structured around group discussions of 
participant papers with senior researchers and PhD students. The 
discussions will be informed by the preceding seminar sessions, as well 
as perspectives from the course literature. There will also be some time 
for writing and joint discussions in plenum.

Literature:
List of readings (max. 300 pages) will be made available by the end of 
August 2015. Selection of texts will be based on the theme of the 
seminar and abstracts submitted by course participants.

Requirements:
In order to be awarded course credit, the participants are required to 
submit a course paper of 5-6 pages (absolute maximum 10 standard pages, 
2400 characters per page) prior to the course. The paper should consist 
of 1-2 pages of empirical material related to practice of cultural 
encounters (excerpts from field notes, interviews, etc.) and a proposal 
for one or more analytical frameworks or strategies, as well as initial 
considerations regarding the effects of these analytical choices. After 
submission deadline, papers will be circulated. Participants will be 
requested to read the papers of their respective group and to be an 
opponent for one of these.

Participation is free of charge for all PhD students, and we will 
provide seminar materials, as well as beverages and lunch during the 
conference. Participants are responsible for their own travel and 
accommodation costs. Successful participation will be awarded with 4 ECTS.

Organisers:
Lene Bull Christiansen, Lise Paulsen Galal, Kirsten Hvenegård-Lassen, 
Linda Lapina, Astrid Andersen
Deadlines:

Abstract submission: Please send an abstract of 250 words by June 15th 
by e-mail to (llapina /at/ ruc.dk). Applicants will be notified of acceptance 
by July 1st.
Paper submission: October 15th
PhD students are also welcome to submit abstracts for paper 
presentations at the seminar.

BACKGROUND
The international research seminar Analysing the practices of 
(organised) cultural encounters is organised by the research project: 
“The organized cultural encounter: rethinking the conceptual and 
contextual framework of interculturality through the study of practice”. 
It is hosted by Department of Culture and Identity at Roskilde 
University, Denmark, and is funded by The Danish Council for Independent 
Research, Humanities (DFF – 1319-00093).
The project examines how cultural differences are practiced and thus 
produced and reproduced within settings that are organised around the 
attention to cultural diversity considered an obstacle or challenge. 
Five different cases of organised cultural encounters (OCE) (interfaith 
dialogue meetings, volunteer programmes, dance culture, management 
training courses, arts-based method) are examined. Taking a point of 
departure in social practices, the theoretical perspective is 
cross-disciplinary and aims at understanding how processes of cultural 
subjectification, performance, performativity, and reflexivity are 
constitutive of OCEs. See more about the project at the project’s 
website: http://organisedculturalencounter.wordpress.com/

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