Workshop : “Currents and Currency: Cultural Circulations in the Mediterranean and Beyond” (Turquie)

“Currents and Currency: Cultural Circulations in the Mediterranean and Beyond”

3 day Workshop

Koç University Suna & İnan Kıraç Center for Mediterranean Civilizations  

Antalya, Turkey  - June 13-15, 2019 

Convened by C. Ceyhun Arslan and Megan C. MacDonald  

Deadline for abstracts: January 15, 2019 

CONTRIBUTIONS

We invite abstract submissions for the 3-day workshop Currents and Currency: Cultural Circulations in the Mediterranean and Beyond, to be held in Antalya, Turkey, at the Koç University Suna & İnan Kıraç Center for Mediterranean Civilizations (AKMED) on June 13-15, 2019. Antalya is a Mediterranean inlet, an overlapping archive of historical legacies, and Turkey’s gateway to its southern Mediterranean shores.

The current emphasis on migrations and cultural circulations in humanities corresponds to a re-turn to the Mediterranean in literary and cultural studies. Currents and Currency: Cultural Circulations in the Mediterranean and Beyond aims to bring together cultural works that constitute alternative archives of the Mediterranean in order to reassess the current geographical divides that shape typical understandings of the Mediterranean and beyond. It thus opens up comparative paradigms that suggest new perspectives on translation, circulation, migration, art, and literature. What can circulation and currency tell us about current Mediterranean cultural productions? How do they travel? Do they leave traces? 

We encourage submissions engaging with diverse Mediterranean cultural and artistic productions from the 19th to the 21st century, including, but not limited to: literature, photography, artistic productions, travel narratives, cinema and documentaries, as well as TV series.  

All workshop participants will be eligible for travel assistance/funding (details below). 

AXIS

 We are particularly interested in the following topics: 

       Cultural circulations in the Mediterranean ambient 

       “Mediterranean literatures” and/or “Mediterranean art” as categories of analysis 

       Colonialism and imperialism in the modern Mediterranean 

       Migration and the Mediterranean 

       Mediterranean Archives 

       The Black Mediterranean 

       A “Mediterranean Turn” in literary studies 

       Mediterranean Literature as World Literature 

       Gender and sexuality in the Mediterranean basin 

       Conceptual, temporal, and geographical bridges of/in the Mediterranean 

       “Non-Mediterranean” works on the Mediterranean  

       Connecting/Comparative Seas (Black Sea, Marmara Sea, and Red Sea in particular) 

       Mediterranean “Blind spots” or “neglected” Mediterraneans (Literary traditions,  

      productions, and/or time periods that do not receive adequate attention in a

       Mediterranean framework) 

Application procedure

300 word abstracts and abbreviated CVs are to be sent to C. Ceyhun Arslan and Megan C. MacDonald (cceyhunarslan@ku.edu.tr and mgn.macdonald@gmail.com) by January 15, 2019.   

We are attentive to the diversity of participants in terms of career stage and geographical base, and particularly encourage ABDs, early-career, and mid-career researchers to apply.  

Workshop format

Workshop papers will be pre-circulated among participants, and participants will be expected send a short draft of their paper (8-10 pages) by May 15, 2019.  

The workshop will be conducted in English. 

We plan to follow the workshop with a special journal issue based on the workshop theme.  

Funding

“Currents and Currency: Cultural Circulations in the Mediterranean and Beyond” is funded by Marie-Sklodowska Curie Actions (Grant No 795465) under the Horizon 2020 Framework of the European Commission.  

The following expenses will be covered for all participants: 

         Accommodation for up to three nights  

         Breakfast and lunch during the workshop days, and group dinners (two nights) 

         On-site trips in Antalya  

         One round-way economy ticket to Antalya (tickets reimbursed up to 500 Euros).  

 https://akmed.ku.edu.tr/en/

C. Ceyhun Arslan

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Fellow (2018-2020)

Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Koç University, Istanbul

Megan C. MacDonald

EURIAS fellow (2018-2019) 

Fondation IMéRA, Université Aix-Marseille

(Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions - COFUND Programme - FP7)

Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Koç University, Istanbul