Exploring Identity: Between Being and Belonging

AHRC NWCDTP Postgraduate Conference 2017

Dates: 25-26 October 2017

Venue: The University of Liverpool and FACT

The AHRC North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership is delighted to announce that this year’s postgraduate conference, Exploring Identity: Between Being and Belonging, will be hosted by The University of Liverpool and FACT on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th October 2017. The conference aims to bring together postgraduate researchers and academic staff in the Arts and Humanities to explore the concept of ‘identity’ from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives.

Scholars, performers and creative practitioners are invited to reflect on ‘identity’, as representing a stable condition of being, a collective notion of belonging, and a continual process of becoming, in the light of current, progressively challenging contexts. This interdisciplinary conference seeks to examine the concept of ‘identity’ against this backdrop as it manifests across literature, language, and culture.

We invite proposals for papers/presentations addressing, but not limited to, the following questions/themes:

• In what ways does ‘identity’ operate as a formative concept for academic inquiry? 
• What value does the concept of ‘identity’ possess in the creative arts, in academia and beyond? 
• In what ways do we project our subjective identities and viewpoints onto the world and others? 
• How is language fabricated to create different identities and meanings? 
• How does ‘identity’ relate to concepts such as conflict, citizenship, and politics? 
• To what extent is ‘identity’ shaped by cultural dislocation, or the disruption of sociopolitical identities by others? 
• What is the relationship between activism and ‘identity’? 
• How is technology changing conceptions of ‘identity’? 
• In what ways is our vocabulary of ‘identity’ changing in the light of contemporary events?

We also welcome proposals for presentations and/or performances which demonstrate the ways in which ‘identity’ can be interpreted through the mediums of text, art, photography, and film.

Applicants submitting proposals for an artwork and performance will automatically be considered for a bursary of £500 to support the development of their projects in time for the conference. There will be five bursaries of £500 available for the best proposals in artwork and performances.

Format

Papers/Presentations: 20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion

Performances: 20 minutes with 10 minutes for response

Posters: Size A1

Submissions

Papers/Presentations 

• Abstract (300 words) 
• Biography (150 words), including details of your affiliation, area of study and contact details 
• Summary of technical requirements (including audio-visual and/or display equipment), if applicable 
• Any additional requirements

Performances 

• Abstract (300 words), including details of required performance space, the nature of the performance, the number of participants, 
• Biography (150 words), including details of your affiliation, area of study and contact details 
• Summary of technical requirements (including audio-visual and/or display equipment), if applicable 
• Any additional requirements

Posters 

• Draft poster and/or summary of poster content (300 words) 
• Biography (150 words), including details of your affiliation, area of study and contact details

Deadline for submissions: 30th June 2017