HACETTEPE UNIVERSITY
Centre for British Literary and Cultural Studies
International Graduate Conference
Innovative Representations of ‘Utopias’ in Studies in English
Hacettepe University, Ankara/Turkey 15 March 2016
The Centre for British Literary and Cultural Studies at Hacettepe University is pleased to announce its second graduate conference, “Innovative Representations of ‘Utopias’ in Studies in English”, which this time will be held on an international ground. We welcome academic proposals produced in English on British Literature/Culture, Commonwealth Literature/Culture, Irish Literature/ Culture, American Literature/Culture and comparative studies with Turkish Literature/Culture from MA and PhD students enrolled in graduate programmes all over the world.
The intention of this conference is to provide graduate students a platform on which to discuss the varied portrayals of utopias and dystopias on both human and non-human scales. “Innovative Representations of ‘Utopias’ in Studies in English” proposes to investigate the politics, nature, roles and effects of utopian and dystopian literacy in the cultural, fictional, real and virtual worlds. We are particularly interested in receiving papers from a spectrum of research areas and a broad range of literary and non-literary genres, including cultural studies, which help illustrate these themes. In honour of the 500th anniversary of the publication of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), the title of the conference has been chosen as an umbrella term. Therefore, the conference is inclusive of all the “-topia” subgenres, regardless of the title’s proposal to include solely “utopias”. Papers favouring inter/cross/multi-disciplinary perspectives will be given preference so as to generate fruitful discussion among various disciplines.
Possible topics under ‘Utopias’ include, but are not limited to:
Utopias, Dystopias, Anti-Utopias and Eutopias
Utopias/Dystopias and Ethnic/Racial Politics and Immigration
Utopias/Dystopias and Gender Studies
Utopias/Dystopias and Postcolonial Studies
Utopias/Dystopias with a Political Perspective
Utopias/Dystopias and Environmental Studies
Utopias/Dystopias and Animal and Plant Studies
Utopias/Dystopias of the Space Age
Utopias/Dystopias and Multimedia
Fantastic Literature
Science Fiction
Climate Change Fiction
Games and Digital Artefacts with a Utopian/Dystopian Dimension
Abstract Submission: 300-word abstracts, together with contact information (full name, institutional affiliation, department, email address, brief bio) of participant(s) should be sent as Microsoft Word documents, attached to an email message addressed to [email protected] by 10 January 2016.
The official language of the conference is English. Selected presentations will be organized into panels of 2 or 4 with regard to their themes. All the presentations are limited to 20 minutes which will be followed by a ten-minute discussion. The presenters are strongly advised to make an oral presentation and not a read-out of the complete paper. The conference will take place at conference halls at the Beytepe Campus of Hacettepe University on 15 March 2016.
Key Dates
Deadline for Submission of Abstract Proposals: 10 January 2016 Acceptance Confirmation: 22 January 2016
Submission of PowerPoint Presentations: 01 March 2016 Conference Date: 15 March 2016
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