[ecrea] cfp Re-Imagining Cultural Histories of The Middle East and North Africa

*Re-Imagining Cultural Histories of The Middle East and North Africa*

**

*Call for Papers*

*A conference organised by:*

* Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster*

*The Centre for Global Media and Communications, SOAS*

*Goldsmiths College, University of London*

*Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House*

**

*To celebrate 10 years of the Middle East Journal of Culture and 
Communication, see www.mjcc.brill/nl*

*Date: 28 June 2018*

*Venue: SOAS, University of London*

**

**

*Confirmed keynote: Professor Ella Shohat, New York University*

The Arab uprisings of 2011 have awakened interest in studies of cultural 
creativity and transformations across different historical epochs in the 
Middle East and North Africa region. However, despite the expanding 
scholarship, there is a significant gap in knowledge about the diverse 
cultural histories of the region. The little work there is remains 
trapped within the narrow Western-centric premise of liberal and 
modernisation theories that presuppose linear models of cultural, 
creative and political innovation.

          This conference begins with the premise that understanding 
cultural histories of the region needs to begin with contextualized 
analysis of cultural and political practices within their local 
contexts, while not disregarding or ignoring the encounters with the 
global and international. It also begins with the proposition that a 
historical analysis of culture and cultural practices needs to consider 
the relationship between structure and agency as well as lived 
experiences in order to provide a more critical and 
historically-contextualized theorisation of cultural histories of the 
region.

We ask key questions about why we need to address the writing of 
cultural histories now and why it matters. Who are the key writers of 
MENA’s cultural histories? In which languages and under what social 
conditions were these histories written? How have these writers 
responded to socio-cultural, political and technological transformations 
in the region? Through which conceptual frameworks have they understood 
the region? Why have they focused on some countries and ignored others? 
What type of epistemologies and theorisations of 'culture' and 'history' 
still dominate the writing of cultural history of this region? What role 
have Middle Eastern and North African cultural historians played in 
cultural translation and subsequently in reimagining the cultural 
history of their region? What elements of their legacies need to be 
challenged; who is challenging them today, and how?

We invite cultural and art historians, anthropologists, political 
scientists as well as media and cultural studies scholars to contribute 
papers engaging with, but not limited to, the following themes in the 
context of the MENA region:

**

**

Rural/urban cultural histories

Intellectual histories/genealogies

Histories of trade Unionism and the Left

Migratory and minority cultural histories

Comparative cultural histories of the MENA region

Subcultural histories and transgression

Modernist art and artistic expression in the late 20^th  century

Questioning methods and epistemologies of cultural history

Media history and the archive

Digital histories, the internet and the future of cultural history

Doing cultural history in the age of media virality

Memory, remembering and war

Gender, race and sexuality

A cultural history of entertainment

Comics, music, photography, murals and street art as cultural history

*Deadlines for abstracts: *29 January 2018

*Abstract Selection: *Tuesday 20 February 2018.

NB: There is no attendance fee

For correspondence, please email your abstract to

(Culturalhistory18 /at/ hotmail.com) <mailto:(Culturalhistory18 /at/ hotmail.com)>



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