Social Sciences

Becoming a Citizen / The Citizenship Project

Becoming a Citizen
The Citizenship Project

Saturday 11th July ? Monday 13th July 2015
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

Call for Presentations:
What does it mean to be a citizen? Ceremonies, traditions, and border crossings are all part of becoming a citizen. But becoming a citizen entails more than just getting a piece of paper. Citizenship is a complex phenomenon that affects everyone in the world. How individuals as citizens relate to the larger, often inhuman-seeming, political structures of the world is of vital importance. This inter-disciplinary conference will explore the origins and complexities of citizenship, its importance in peace and war, in personal identity, in global culture, and in shaping our future.

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference invites clinical/medical practitioners, legal professionals, government representatives, social workers, representatives of NGOs, educators, researchers from across the spectrum of academic disciplines, artists, scientists and others with an interest in issues related to citizenship. Scholars may come from the areas of Anthropology, Sociology, History, Psychology, Refugee Studies, Literature, Economics, and Communication to name just a few. Others interested in citizenship and its global impact may be scientists with an interest in mobilizing global citizens to address issues like climate change. Or they may be artists creating new global cultures different from, but mixed with, old traditions. Others with an interest in citizenship may be refugees, immigrants, border agents, or those who create laws concerning citizenship.

We seek presentations about the nature of citizenship, its complexities, and its meaning. We seek presentations, papers, performances, reports, works-in-progress and workshops which consider citizenship, its philosophical, historical, or psychological meaning, its representation, and its impact upon immigrants, refugees, and others.

Papers, performances, presentations, reports, works-in-progress, and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

1) History / Representation of Citizenship
- Origins of the modern conception of citizenship
- Traditions and ceremonies concerning citizenship
- Cultural expressions of citizenship via Literature, Art, Media, Music, etc.
- Critical approaches to citizenship (Feminist, Marxist, Capitalist, etc.)
- Critiques of the legitimacy / power structure of citizenship

2) What it Means to (not) be a Citizen
- Challenges to / rejection of citizenship
- Paths to citizenship
- Citizenship and personal identity
- Invented citizenships
- Economies of citizenship
- Rights and responsibilities of global citizens
- Asylum seekers, illegal immigrants and others

3) Border Crossings
- Art, literature, media about citizenship
- Citizenship and human rights as it applies to refugees, immigrants, and the stateless
- Digital citizenship
- Global citizenship
- Science and scientific debate as affects / includes / requires citizens

The Steering Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short workshops, practitioner-based activities, performances, and pre-formed panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation styles that encourage engagement.

What to Send:
Proposals will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday 13th March 2015. If a proposal is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 22nd May 2015. Proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; proposals may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract.
E-mails should be entitled: Citizen3 Abstract Submission.

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs:
Jonathan Gourlay: [email protected]
Rob Fisher and Ram Vemuri: [email protected]

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries domain which aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore innovative and challenging routes of intellectual and academic exploration. All proposals accepted for and presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected proposals may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/sacred-journeys/call-for-presentations/

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

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Social Sciences