“Contesting Canada’s Future” Conference, Trent University, May 21-23, 2015
CONTESTING CANADA’S FUTURE
TRENT UNIVERSITY
MAY 21, 2015 – MAY 23, 2015
CALL FOR PAPERS
Trent University invites academics, activists, and artists to an exploration of Canada in the new century. Examining concerns ranging from the environment and science to Canadian art and music, from multiculturalism and diversity to social inequality and Canada’s changing place in the global order, “Contesting Canada’s Future” will engage scholars, thinkers, cultural producers, and activists in a three-day, multi-site and multi-format event. This interdisciplinary conference, centered at Trent and extending into venues across Peterborough, will include artist exhibitions, screenings, concerts and a host of other community and cultural events, along with panels, roundtables, and keynote speakers.
Since Trent University’s founding half a century ago, the institution has been at the forefront of the study of Canada across all disciplines and research areas. Trent’s first president, Professor T.H.B. Symons, founded the Journal of Canadian Studies and encouraged the establishment of interdisciplinary programs focusing on Canada, its peoples, its culture, and its environment. “Contesting Canada’s Future” showcases the interdisciplinary study and academic strength that have come to shape and define Trent’s identity, and the important work and legacy of Trent’s founding president. On the cusp of Canada’s sesquicentennial, and the 50th Anniversary of the University’s creation, there is no better place to hold an examination of Canadian Studies than at Trent.
The organizing committee seeks panel, paper, and exhibit submissions from all disciplines that deal with aspects of Canada and Canadian Studies. Individual papers are welcome, as are completed panels that may include commentators and/or chairs, in both official languages. We especially encourage panels that present a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, engage explicitly with the conference theme of Contesting Canada’s Future, include scholars at different career stages and different types of institutions (academic and public), and are gender and racially diverse. We also welcome new ways of communicating research findings and alternative formats that involve a more interactive element, along with a higher level of audience involvement, than conventional sessions.
Organizers anticipate a publication based on submissions to the conference. A list of suggested themes is given below. However, we are also interested in a wide range of topics and debates from many perspectives, including reflections on the state of Canadian Studies both at home and abroad, the continued value and purpose of Canadian Studies, and retrospective views of the Symons’ seminal 1975 report, To Know Ourselves.
Suggested Themes:
Why Canada Matters: Assessing the Study of Canada 40 years after To Know Ourselves
Debating History, Heritage, and Commemoration
Canadian Resources: The Future of Water
Canada’s Economic Future: Addressing the Inequality Gap in a Global Context
Democratizing Canada: Institutions, Politics, Processes
Decolonization as History and Contemporary Project
Canadian Cultural Production
Popular Culture
Canada as North: Peoples, Lands, Images
Quebec and Nationalisms in Canada
Diasporic and Global Experiences in English and French Canada
Oppositional Movements and Ideas Across Time and Place
Indigenous Canada
Multiculturalism and Diversity
Regionalism and provincialism
The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2014.
For individual papers or exhibits, please submit a 250-word abstract and 1-page CV. For panels and roundtables, please submit a 250-word abstract for each paper, a 1-page CV for each presenter, and a 250-word panel abstract. Panels and roundtables must consist of 3-4 presenters, a commentator, and a chair.
For more information about the conference, visit the conference website: http://www.trentu.ca/canadaconference2015/.
