Cultural Typhoon 2004

Okinawa, Japan, July 9-11, 2004

We are pleased to announce the second meeting of Cultural Typhoon which
will be held at University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, in July 2004.

Cultural Typhoon is an annual conference on cultural studies and practices
in Japan.

Typhoon 2004

Date: 9-11 July 2004

Location: University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa

Cultural Typhoon is a Japan-based loose network of those who are
interested in cultural studies and/or in various issues related to
alternative cultural practices.The image that we wish to convey through "typhoon" is its exercise of
overwhelming impacts in unpredictable manners. It moves around and passes
by across broad areas and inhabitants while absorbing and sending out
energies.
In so doing, its impact is not just destructive but it leaves more
constructive traces, encounters and alliances, which urge us to reimagine
and restructure the existing situations.
Drawing on such productive images of typhoon, an annual international
conference is held in Japan from 2003 in order to stimulate exchange of
ideas, dialogue, and discussion among researchers, students and people
practicing various kinds of cultural expressions.

To activate thought-provoking intellectual exchange in unconventional
ways, particular agendas and session themes are not set in advance. We are
particularly interested in organizing the sessions of the conference in a
way in which existing boundaries of discipline, the fixity of
categorization of research areas, and the hierarchical relationship
between professors and students and between ivory tower and the street are
productively blurred, crossed and intersected.

We'd thus like to invite expressions of interest in presenting individual
papers and organizing sessions from various disciplines (sociology,
anthropology, economy, politics, history, literature criticism, geology,
media and communication studies, cultural studies and those who have a
feeling of wrongness towards "cultural studies"); of a wide spectrum of
issues and areas (such as gender, sexuality, class, citizenship, diaspora,
race, ethnicity, subculture, media, nationalism, transnationalism,
multiculturalism, post/colonialism, globalization and so on); and about
various locations not confined to Japan.

The presentation styles are not restricted to conventional academic style
of paper reading but we also welcome innovative ways of performances and
visual presentations. Also strongly expected is the active participation
of younger people who have not been able to find an opportunity to express
their ideas and practices in the conventional academic conferences in
which established professors dominate and organize the academic language
and intellectual exchange.

DEADLINE for Proposals: March 31, 2004

To have productive intellectual exchange among those who have shared
interests yet have hitherto not occupied the same table, the presentation
of work-in-progress research and the sharing of problems and difficulties
of cultural research and practice being encountering is all too welcome.

Abstracts for individual papers should be no more than 300 words long;
abstracts for sessions are limited to a total of 500 words. There will
also be spaces available for those who are willing to publicize books,
magazines, CD, DVD or to do various kinds of performance presentation,
please provide a detail of your intended activity. As an organizing
principle, we will try to be as inclusive as possible. However, in case of
abundance of applications that goes beyond our control, we will notify
each applicants of the acceptance of proposal by the end of April 2004.

The Way of Application

Please write your Name, Institutional Affiliation, Address, Telephone
Number, E-mail, Title & Abstract.

(If any, equipments and materials in your presentation that you want to
use.)

And please send them by 31 March 2004 to the secretariat of Cultural
Typhoon2004:

Osamu TADA

By e-mail: tada@nirai.ne.jp

By post: Osamu TADA

Faculty of Law & Letters, University of the Ryukyus

1 Senbaru, Nishihara-cho, Okinawa 903-0213 JAPAN

In case of e-mail, you could use both ways of an attached file and pasting
the items directly on the mail.

Inquiry

About the conference: Yasuhiro TANAKA
E-mail: yasuhirot@ma5.seikyou.ne.jp

Typhoon 2004