2011: Mediating Culture: Experience, Harmony, and Discord

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
March 25-26, 2011

We are happy to announce the 2011 collaborative conference between The Ohio State University Folklore Student Association and the Folklore & Ethnomusicology Student Associations at Indiana University. This conference aims to create a space for graduate and undergraduate students to share their research in folklore, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, material culture, performance studies, and related disciplines connected to the study of academic and vernacular interpretation of everyday life.

Keynote Speaker: Jeff Todd Titon

This year's conference seeks to explore the following questions:

  1. How should we or could we define, describe, and theorize mediation?  
  2. How does mediation alter the experience of culture? How does writing about culture further mediate experience?
  3. What is the role of mediation in the construction of identities?
  4. How do communities negotiate the aesthetics of harmony and discord?
  5. How does mediated culture bring about or inhibit community formation?
  6. Who has the agency in cultural mediation?

*Abstracts exploring other themes will also be accepted.

We are seeking papers and posters that engage the following topics/themes as they relate to "Mediation":

  • Dialogue
  • Fusion
  • Conflict
  • Mobility
  • Translation
  • Exchange
  • Reconciliation
  • Liminality
  • Performance
  • Technology
  • Negotiation
  • Borders/Boundaries

We also welcome submissions of papers and posters on other topics. Students will have four opportunities for participation: two types of paper presentations, poster sessions, and a discussion forum for all attendees. As in past years, we will be accepting 250-word abstracts for 20-minute papers and poster presentations. We will also be testing an experimental panel format with 10-minute papers and longer periods for discussant and audience discussion. We highly encourage poster and 'short paper' submissions, particularly for research projects in progress, as there will be increased opportunities for active dialogue. Please indicate preferred presentation format(s) alongside abstract submissions.

Abstracts must be submitted by January 31, 2011.

Conference Program [pdf]

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