Wednesday, January 07, 2015

CFP: The Commonwealth and its People: Diasporas, Identities, Memories (DIM'2015)

The Commonwealth and its People: Diasporas, Identities, Memories (DIM'2015)

Conference and Exhibition
Affiliated with the People’s Forum of CHoGM 2015

Valletta, 24-25 June 2015
First Call for Papers

OBJECTIVES

The Commonwealth is one of the most striking examples of extensive relocation and migration on a world-wide scale. This proposal aims to bring together two ways of exploring the topic of Diasporas, Identities and Memories – as a subject for academic study and discussion, and as a theme captured in artistic expression.

The concept behind the conference is to bring for discussion state-of-the-art research related to the theme which will inspire the exhibition taking place during the CHoGM forum.

The conference aims to bring together academics specializing in social history, history, information science, art history as well as curators, archivists and librarians interested in the theme.

TOPICS OF INTEREST:

The conference welcomes contributions that focus on, but are not limited to the following themes:

- What role do researchers have in the capturing and articulation of diasporas, memories and identities?
- How do memory institutions support engagement with researchers and the general public?
- How the artistic expression captures identity and changes and conflicts related to it?
- How to capture and convey trans-generational and community memories?
- How does the right to forget manifest in the diasporas’ memories?
- What are the specific issues around capturing memories and experiences of children and young people?
- What has been the role of Commonwealth institutions or Commonwealth-based supra-national organisations in the formation of memory/identity/diasporas?
- How do memory institutions contribute to the development and management of heritage?
- How memory institutions across the Commonwealth countries could cooperate better to serve diasporas?
- What educational activities targeting memory institutions across the Commonwealth could help cooperation?
- How social media are transforming engagement and participation in archival processes?
- How is transnationalism influencing the transmission of cultural values?
- How much can technologies be of help in capturing memories/nostalgia and in representing identities?

SUBMISSION DETAILS:

Authors are invited to submit original, unpublished research papers related to the aforementioned topics. We invite:

- regular papers (8 to 12 pages)
- short papers (2 to 6 pages)

All submissions are required to be in PDF format. Long and short paper submissions must be formatted according to Springer’s LNCS format (www.springer.com/computer/lncs).

Please submit your manuscript using the EasyChair online submission system

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dim2015. All submissions will be reviewed by three members of the Program Committee. All papers accepted for the conference should be presented during the event.
Papers will be published in open access proceedings, with selected papers will be published as a special issue of a journal (currently negotiated with The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs).

IMPORTANT DATES:

- Deadline for submissions: 15 February 2015
- Acceptance Notification: 20 March 2015
- Camera-ready papers: 30 April 2015
- Conference: 24-25 June 2015

PROGRAM COMMITTEE:

Selenay Aytac (Long Island University, USA)
Nilufer Bharucha (University of Mumbai, India)
Milena Dobreva (University of Malta, Malta)
Joanne Evans (Monash University, Australia)
Neil Forbes (University of Coventry, England)
Lorna Hughes (National Library of Wales, Wales)
Marinos Ioannides (Technical University Cyprus, Cyprus)
Gabriella Ivacs (Open Society Archives, Budapest, Hungary)
Marc Kosciejew (University of Malta, Malta)
Triantafillia Kourtoumi (Archives Thessaloniki, Greece)
Alice Nemcova (OSCE Archives, Czech Republic)
Gillian Oliver (Victoria University, New Zealand)
Seamus Ross (University of Toronto, Canada)
Maria Roussou (Hellenic Diaspora Archive, KCL, UK)
Daniela Sime (University of Strathclyde, Scotland)
Beverley Wood (The University of the West Indies, Barbados)


FURTHER INFORMATION:

For further information please contact Prof. Milena Dobreva, milena.dobreva@um.edu.mt