Culture & Power Seminar
Under the auspices of the Iberian Association for Cultural Studies (IBACS)
The 14th International ‘Culture & Power’ Conference: ‘Identity and Identification’
Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha,
Departamento de Filología Moderna
Facultad de Letras,
Ciudad Real, Spain
22-24 April, 2010
Questions of identity and identification are among the most important evolving concerns of Cultural Studies today. Indeed, many thinkers, theorists and academics working in the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies continue to wrestle with these slippery concepts in their explorations of “the production and inculcation of culture or maps of culture” (Chris Barker). Commonly apprehended as contingent, culturally specific and socially produced, identity is often conceived of as the result of a whole range of different, possible identifications linked to specific modalities of power under specific social and historical conjunctures, hence, the unstable and fluctuating nature of identity and identity formation. The tension between self-description and social ascription is fundamental for individuals and groups to construct, negotiate, defend and resist their self-understanding. Through a process of personal identification with discursively constructed subject positions, identities emerge across a wide range of cultural practices in the course of social interactions involving the use of language and other semiotic systems manifested in cultural artefacts of various kinds.
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IBACS Newsletter. October 2007 |
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Dear all,
Those who attended the general meeting of the Iberian Association for Cultural Studies (IBACS) in Oviedo decided that the association should continue to help sponsor future Culture and Power events. At the moment, our goals are very modest: to keep the spirit of cultural studies on the Iberian Peninsular alive by organizing conferences and to develop our interests through this website.
Having taken this decision we would like to invite all those who have not become members to join us. The fee is 30 euros a year (20? for students, non-permanent teaching staff and unwaged) and should be paid into the following bank account:
Banco Santander 0049 1877 46 2110702222
Once you have paid your fee, please send your name, address and e-mail details to Felicity Hand (who has agreed to be our Treasurer), email.
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Oviedo Conference Postscript |
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Just as the 12th Culture & Power Conference was about to end some friends could see me watching Monty Python?s Flying Circus sketches rather compulsively. It was in fact a sketch from Terry Gilliam?s Personal Best DVD, chapter 16, where a ?dullard? who is sitting in an empty room is offered a chance to escape the ?drab, boring life? he leads. So the dullard is suddenly propelled by a canon, through various surrealistic images including waist-down naked Moulin Rouge dancers and policemen, into another room (or perhaps the same) where he finds portraits which are purchased bits of other people?s far more interesting lives, while the announcer?s voice keeps interpellating him to buy: ?beautifully-framed photographs of other people?s lives. Hang them in your den, stand them on your desk, or next to your bed. Pretend they are pictures from your past.? As the dullard is happily flying around the room full of newly hanged old family pictures, the door opens and uncles, aunts and all his new relatives start arriving, deciding to stay for a couple of nights, a month, or three years, asking for the bathroom, toothpaste ? Until the producer?s voice can be heard shouting ?Shut up! Not good enough.? |
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