Mapping Identities in the Modern World, 1830-present

Keynote: Marius Kociejowski, ‘Forager’s Harvest: A Writer’s Travels through People.’

Taking place on 2nd June 2015 at the University of York, this interdisciplinary one-day symposium aims to give postgraduate students across the arts and humanities the opportunity to develop interdisciplinary debates and ideas around the concept of identity, questioning the way in which identities are (re)formed, constructed and explored psychically and spatially in the modern world.

The modern world has been continuously characterised by identity crises, from the shifting borders and boundaries of Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the experimental approach to selfhood of modernism in the world of literature and art. This event seeks to explore and challenge the associations and assumptions that have come to coalesce around questions of identity and space, facilitating a broad approach to issues of self-identity, ‘otherness’ and spatial identity.

Potential topics might include, but are certainly not limited to:
− Cartography and the shaping of geographical boundaries;
− The construction of selfhood and the ‘other’;
− Contested identities, spaces and territories;
− Nationalism and racism 1830-present;
− Travel-writing/travelogues, voyages of self-discovery;
− The overlap of identity and culture;
− Spaces and places of identity in literature;
− Artistic representations of the self;
− Cultural identities;
− (De)constructing identity in the humanities;
− Philosophies of self;
− Alienation and/or isolationism.

Abstracts of 250-300 words should be sent to cmods-pgforum@york.ac.uk by 5pm on 29th March 2015. Successful applicants will be informed in early April, and the conference will be free to attend with lunch and refreshments provided. More info: http://www.york.ac.uk/…/summer-2015/pg-forum-symposium-2015/