Category — Conferences

AoIR 2005:
Call for papers: AoIR 2005 (Chicago): “Internet Generations”

yep…. it is that time.

UNESCO conference on freedom of ….:
UNESCO conference on freedom of.

I really have to go to this UNESCO conference on Freedom of Speech in Cyberspace which will be held in UNESCO headquarters in Paris, on 3-4 February.

At least to embarrass the Iranian delegation which will be arrogant enough to take part in such conference, even with its horrible record of freedom of speech in Cyberspace, and also to inform the UN and its members about the vast and heavy Net censorship in Iran. (I’m even prepared to do this trip on my own expense, if no other funding can I find.)

Since my Canadian citizenship is still in the process, I have to use my invaluable Iranian passport — again — and to apply for a Type C Scheme Visa. But I worry issuing the VIsa takes longer than February 2nd and I miss the whole thing.

So does anyone know someone who might be of help, especially in the French councilor in Toronto or in the Embassy in Ottawa?

[Editor: Myself (English)]

this seems like it could be interesting… of course the problem is that because of the means of access to cyberspace, namely implicit or explicit contract, and that usually in those contracts there are limits to the freedom, because you can contract away your ‘freedom of expression and/or speech”.

Conference: “Heteronormativity – A fruitful concept? June 2. – 4. 2005 Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway You can also find the program on the conference web site, but it’s still mostly lunches, breaks and other leisure things which…”

(Via GENDER & COMPUTING.)

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this could be fun.

The Two Cultures:

Reconsidering the division between the Sciences and Humanities

http://nchsr.arts.unsw.edu.au/twocultures.html

21 and 22 July 2005 Venue: Lecture Room A, Webster Building, the University

of NSW

The Two Cultures: Reconsidering the division between the Sciences and

Humanities, will bring scholars together from the sciences (physics,

molecular biology, computation, evolutionary systems) and the humanities,

social sciences and cultural theory whose work has philosophical resonance.

The purpose will be an interrogation and

reassessment of current understandings of the fact/value,

real/representation, nature/culture split. One of thecasualties of “the

linguistic turn” which displaced “natural facts” with “cultural

constructs” is that scientific research that purports to explain natural

facts (without inverted commas) has been difficult to engage. Despite the

rapid changes in technological, medical, and scientific innovation that

demand a serious reconsideration of human identity – what it is and what we

want it to be – intellectual cooperation between the humanities and sciences

over such questions remains desultory. This conference hopes to broaden the

terms of understanding and critical exchange between these research

communities.

Themes

· Biosemiosis: living systems as language systems

· Feminism and Science: a forbidden intimacy?

· Re-Figuring the Representation Question: mathematics, data

and prediction

· Biotechnology and Ethical Futures: where to from here?

Participants include:

· Professor Karen Barad: Women’s Studies and Philosophy, Mount Holyoke

College (theoretical particle physicist, research expertise on Niels Bohr

and

quantum mechanics)

· Professor Jesper Hoffmeyer: Institute of Molecular Biology, University of

Copenhagen (molecular biologist, biosemiotician)

· Associate Professor Thomas Lamarre: East Asian Studies, McGill University,

Montreal (marine biologist, biophilosopher, research expertise on

archaeology of inscription)

· Dr Philippa Uwins: Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Microscopy and

Microanalysis, The University of Queensland (research expertise on

nanobes, origin of life)

· Dr Sha Xin Wei History of Science, Harvard University (mathematics,

cultural theory, art practice)

· Dr. Melinda Cooper: Sociology, Macquarie University (biophilosophy)

· Dr. Vicki Kirby: Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW (semiology,

biophilosophy)

· Dr Catherine Mills: Philosophy, UNSW (biopolitics, biotechnology, ethics)

· Dr Catherine Waldby: Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW (feminism,

biomedicine)

· Dr Elizabeth Wilson: University of Sydney (cognitive psychology and

biophilosophy)

· Dr Heather Worth: Deputy Director, National Centre in HIV Research,

UNSW

Cost: $150/$75 students

Registrations: Email Rodney McDonald at rodney.mcdonald@unsw.edu.au;

include: Name; email address;

organisation; postal address and contact phone number

Proudly Supported by: The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; UNSW

More information can be found at the website:

http://nchsr.arts.unsw.edu.au/twocultures.html

Subtle submissions:
The Subtle Technologies Festival will take place May 26-May 29, 2005, in Toronto Canada. Symposium submissions are due January 15th, 2005. This year, in addition to the usual diverse program, there is a special session celebrating the “World Year in Physics”; artists and scientists who investigate physics in their work …

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sounds cool…

CFP: “Contact, Contagion, and Containment”
Cornell University, March 4-5, 2005
Keynote speaker: Cesare Casarino, University of Minnesota

Cornell English Department’s Graduate Student Annual Spring Conference is currently accepting abstracts for its fourth annual conference on literary, cultural, and theoretical notions of contagion and containment.  To us, these terms suggest different attitudes toward bringing disparate or divergent things together, the putting-into-contact of the dissimilar.  We seek submissions for papers of no more than 15-20 mins duration which will engage with some aspect of these themes, figuratively or literally, positively or negatively construed..

Panels might include, but are by no means limited to:
 
-communication of bodies
-sites of intertextuality, communication of texts
-the anxiety of influence
-cross-period fertilization
-dissemination, iterability
-interfacing disparate media
-disciplinary boundaries
-adaptation, translation; literary allusion
-spaces of quarantine; containing populations
-migration, border-crossing, exile
-contact zones
-the effects of globalization
-collective formations; the multitude, the swarm
-assemblages of desire
-desecration of the sacred; impure mixtures
-rhetoric of disease, metaphors of infection and contamination

Deadline for Abstracts: Dec 1, 2004

We are committed to encompassing a spectrum of methodologies and mediums, and are seeking not only scholarly papers, but also original fiction and poetry, multimedia installations, art work, or performance pieces.  Abstracts or extracts should be no more than 300 words and must be received no later than December 1, 2004.  Please e-mail submissions to: ascgrad@cornell.edu or send by regular mail to: Theo Hummer, Department of English, 250 Goldwin Smith, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, 14850.

Internet Research call for papers. One of the new graduate students noted that it was hard to know what conferences were out there and when the deadlines are if you are new to academia. I'm thinking I'll probably set up a blog dedicated just to announcements and calls for papers, but for now, here's one … [Alex Halavais]

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yep, it is that time.

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS

Deadline is extended to 20 January 2003

International Conference

Building the Information Commonwealth:

Information Technologies and Building Prospects for the Development

of Civil Society Institutions in the CIS Countries

St. Petersburg, Russia, April 22-24, 2003

http://www.communities.org.ru/conference

The disintegration of the USSR is still resonating within the world

community.

The formation of an effective civil society sector will hopefully work to

overcome

the economical, social and cultural effects of a totalitarian government

which are

the common heritage of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

countries.

This remains one of the most immediate and significant tasks for all the

ex-USSR

states.

The decade since 1991 has shown that the path to stable democratic societies

in the

CIS region is a very difficult one. The negative factors common to all the

CIS countries,

unstable economic growth, traditions of state paternalism, low living

standards, a

hazardous investment climate, the “soviet mentality” are still even now

determining the

everyday lives of the majority of the population of our countries.

It is thus crucial to make effective use of available “global resources”

such as information

and communication technologies (ICTs) to support a radical improvement in

the quality of

life of ordinary people, of women, youth, the elderly, the disabled and

indigenous peoples.

Currently, information technologies in the countries of the CIS region it

would be generally

agreed are primarily used as tools for private gain and are accessible only

to the relatively

small numbers who can afford individual access. Developing strategies for

enabling

information technologies to serve the broader needs of society, to support

the development

of democratic institutions, and to strengthen the struggle against poverty

is a challenge that

presents itself to civil society and public authorities?

These questions are becoming more and more critical for the peoples in our

countries where

rapid technological development presents possibilities (and risks) of

radical change in economic

and social circumstances and for responding to growing social injustice.

Critical analysis of the

Information Society in the CIS region as it is evolving, the influence of

new technical (and following

these social and cultural) factors within our societies and their impacts on

the development of the

civil society institutions, the analysis of the applicability of modern

inter-disciplinary approaches

(e.g. Community Networking/Community Informatics) to support the realization

of community-based

IT projects will be the main goals of the conference. We'll focus on several

key problems of the civil

society development in CIS countries looked at through the prism of the use

of ICTs.

Participants in the Conference:

Leaders of the non-profit and civil society organizations performing

projects in the area of ICTs in

the CIS countries; deputies of national Parliaments; representatives of the

executive structures

of the countries of the region; specialists from governmental agencies and

programs; representatives

of international charitable organizations, NGO's and foundations; experts

from International

Organizations, academicians and practitioners from the different countries

who are interested in

discussing the Conference issues.

Among those who have to date indicated an interest in participating

are:

Eli Cohen, Wysza SzkoBa Przedsibiorczoci, Poland

Peter Day, University of Brighton, UK

Karin Delgadillo, Somos@Telecentres, Equador

Eugeny Drobkov, Information Society Foundation, Ukraine

Vassily Efrosinin, Development through Education Fund, Russia

Susana Finquelevich, Global Community Networking Partnership, Argentina

Bertram Gebauer , Buerger Nets Union , Germany

Michael Gurstein, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA-Canada

Grant Hearn, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Meelis Kaldalu, Tartu Science Park, Estonia

Ninelle Kobaliani, Project Harmony, Georgia

Peter Levesque, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Anna Malina, e-Society Research, UK

Michel Menou, City University of London, UK-France

Abdumavlon Rashidov, Central Asia Development Agency, Tadjikistan

Scott Robinson, Mexico DF , Mexico

Lev Ryabchikov, Academy of Alternative Technologies, Russia

Basheerhamad Shadrach, Transparency International, Germany

Oleg Shapirkov, Svetoch Assotiation, Russia

Viktoria Sukovata, Kharkov National University, Ukraine

Wal Taylor, Rockhampston University, Australia

Maiya Tsyganenko, eRiders, Kazakhstan

Peter van den Besselaar, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Organizers of the Conference:

The Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Member Nations of the Commonwealth of

Independent States (IPA)

Institute of Research on Problems of Nonprofits in the Newly Independent

States (IRPN)

Centre of Community Networking and Informational Policy Studies (CCNS)

The Conference Venue:

St. Petersburg, which is Russia's Northern capital, preparing for its 300

anniversary is a

very appropriate and natural place for this event.

The Conference will take place of the main building of the IPA – Tavrichesky

Palace, one

of the most magnificent palaces in St. Petersburg (XVIII century).

More information about the Palace and the Conference facilities at

http://www.iacis.ru/kongr_en.htm

Languages of the Conference

The working languages of the Conference will be Russian and English

Themes of the Conference

The Conference will be organized with an alternation of plenary sessions and

panels

following 12 main directions:

+ civil society and information society in the CIS countries:identifying the

problem area

+ e-governance and participation of local citizens in the decision-making at

the local,

regional and national levels

+ local communities in the CIS countries: typology, myths and realities

+ new information infrastructure at local level: creation and ownership of

Community

Information

+ participation of the countries of the region in international projects and

programs directed

towards ICT usage for the development of the civil sector

+ using ICTs for not-for-profit and civil society purposes in the CIS

countries

+ connectivity and software

+ civil society/communities and digital economies

+ Social, Psychological and Cultural Barriers to access.

+ model legislation concerning information policy for the CIS countries and

national programs.

+ formation of the information society in the CIS and problems of Global

Security

+ how do ICTs influence local, national, and regional development?

Submission of papers

Proposals for papers should be submitted as abstracts of no more than 500

words,

and should include details of the proposer's name, position, affiliation,

and contact details.

The abstracts will be reviewed by the Program Committee which consist of CIS

and

international members.

?riteria for selection for Proposals:

- relevance to the Themes of the Conference

- relevance to the development of Civil Society in the CIS

- papers can address either the theoretical or the practical aspects of the

issues

Proposals should be submitted electronically:

- in English to Michael Gurstein, Conference Co-Chair

- in Russian to Organizing Committee to

in RTF, Word or PDF format.

Deadline for abstracts: 20 January 20032

Authors of accepted papers notified by: 26th February 2003

For further information and submission details, please, contact Organizing

Committee:

27, Mayakovskogo str., St. Petersburg, Russia 191123

Fax: +7 812 2726547

e-mail: irpnnis@mail.ru

well i just got an email from the organizers of this conference saying that i could still submit a proposal, so I am working on that now.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF THE BOOK

Cairns, Australia, 22-24 April 2003

http://www.Book-Conference.com

the questions surrounding the book are somewhat central to some of the questions surrounding the future of academia in general. I'm interested in all of these questions, and I've proposed some ways of dealing with it before. Hopefully, I'll head off to OZ, and see what others have to say.