Culture Fix

The conference committee of the annual Australasian Cultural Studies Conference is now calling for offers of papers for consideration for the 'Culture Fix' conference to be held at the University of Technology, Sydney, Friday 25 - Sunday 27 November 2005.

Focus

The themes that the conference particularly aims to address are outlined below. Papers that fall outside these listed themes but still within the broad category of cultural studies will also be considered.

An exhibition featuring the work of Australian artists Fiona Hall and Fiona Macdonald titled Strangely Familiar will be running in the UTS Gallery as a part of this conference. This exhibition, with its suggestions and evocations concerning the relationship between comfort and terror, forms another focus of the conference and papers are also sought that address any part of the exhibition’s ideas or works. Please consult the exhibition page on this site for more information.

Themes

preFIX, sufFIX: what is happening as 'culture', as prefix or suffix multiply its attachments to words such as history, writing, science, Indigeneity, politics, sound, sex, race, class, bodies, ecology, Australia, and education? What are Cultural Histories, Cultural Writing, Cultural Politics, Cultural Pedagogies, Cultural Methodologies, Science Cultures, Film Cultures and Feminist or Indigenous Cultural Studies now?

getting a FIX: staving off a hunger, becoming sensation, feeding a craving by the imbibing of 'cultural product' in the shape of music, sex, sport, passion, the wild, theatre, film, television, celebrities, books, drugs, comics, love, visual arts, new media and other forms of popular and high culture; speaks to the ways in which ideas of addiction, euphoria, ecstasy and more ordinary pleasures are particularly conjured up by culture and the cultural.

the FIX: where culture has been proposed as the solution for business as well as social and political problems. But 'fix the culture' has also opened up ideas of holistic solutions in other arenas via ideas like sustainability, biosociality, bodywork, natural therapies, spirituality and intersexuality - what does the cultural offer here?

in a FIX: and yet for some, Cultural Studies continues to be understood as 'in a fix', a predicament, a dilemma - is it? Should it be?

As part of this conference, the UTS Gallery will be running an exhibition featuring work of the Australian artists Fiona Hall and Fiona MacDonald, titled Strangely Familiar. This exhibition, with its evocations of the relationship between comfort and terror forms another focus of the conference and papers are also sought that address any aspects of the exhibitions ideas and works. The exhibition starts 1 November 2005 and lasts until 2 December 2005. For more information, please click here.

Panels

We particularly welcome proposals for inter-institutional panels addressing these and related topics.

Technical Requirements

If you are already aware that you will require particular technical assistance beyond the usual suspects please let us know immediately. All conference rooms have facilities for data projection, video, cd & dvd playback and overheads. Think carefully about being self sufficient and practised with your equipment. While some technical hands-on help will be available, glitches slow down the program for everyone and it will mean that you will have less time for your presentation as all sessions will be tightly chaired.

Paper Length

The emphasis at this conference will be on discussion and connection. We therefore believe that the body of the paper and the following discussion are of equal importance. Each paper is to go for twenty minutes with ten minutes discussion. The succinctness of your abstract should reflect your awareness of these time limits and the practices of collegiality. If you wish to present in the form of a performance or audio-visual material (and experimental or alternative presentations are most welcome) please remember that you must still adhere to the twenty-minute limit and be aware of that in your abstract. We would like this to be a conference where everyone is heard properly.

Submission of Abstract

In an effort to create lively, connected sessions we would ask that you include the following with your abstract. Abstracts submitted without these details will not be considered.

1. Your full name and full contact details, including postal address, email and telephone and institutional affiliation or independent scholar status.
2. A two-sentence biography.
3. The titles and details of your two most relevant publications and/or in the case of postgraduates, your thesis title and supervisor's name.
4. Abstracts should not exceed 250 words
5. Abstract must be emailed to aas@uts.edu.au with CULTURE FIX as the subject by AUGUST 31st.

We would hope to be able to let you know whether or not your abstract has been accepted by the 1st of October. For general queries (but NOT for abstracts) please email katrina.schlunke@uts.edu.au

And Finally

Thank you for your help in making the conference organisation run as smoothly as possible and we look forward to welcoming you to balmy Sydney in late November.

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