Konzeption:
Die Konferenz richtet sich an Graduierte im Dissertationsstadium und an Postdocs im In- und Ausland (geplante Teilnehmerzahl 15). Die thematische Konzeption zielt auf eine Verbindung narratologischer und medientheoretischer Forschungsbestände ab. Die Analysepotentiale beider Forschungsrichtungen sollen dabei als kritische Instrumente der Kulturanalyse erprobt und eingesetzt werden; sowohl historische als auch gegenwartsbezogene Themenvorschläge sind willkommen:
- Erzählstrukturen und Medialität bzw. Intermedialität in Geschichte und Gegenwart
- narrative und hypertextuelle Strategien digitaler Gestaltung
- 'Erzählungen' der Wissenschaften und ihrer Präsentationstechniken
- Medien der narrativen Konstruktion von Identität
- mündliche, textuelle und visuelle Erzählungen in der Alltagskultur

Themes:
The central theme addresses the complex interaction of identity, security, and cooperation, in both the past and the present. Proposals may focus on particular cases, theoretical questions, or cross-regional comparisons. Papers or panels comparing cases of the postcommunist world with cases from other regions of the world are encouraged. Given contemporary trends and events, proposals dealing with Islamist movements, intercultural contact and exchange, the Balkans, and Central Asia are particularly welcome.

Rationale:
We seek to convene an interdisciplinary international assembly of scholars interested in exploring how the peoples of Africa and Asia and their Diaspora have interacted with each other and impacted the development of the modern world. We welcome proposals on all aspects of this historic encounter including presentations that explore the social and cultural construction of collective identities such as Asian, Black, Japanese, and Indian as well as those that examine the nature of interethnic, interracial, intercultural, and international exchanges among blacks and Asians. Proposals may focus on a single geographic area, such as Japan or the United States, may be comparative in perspective, or may adopt a global framework.

Possible topics:
- Non-Violence in world religions
- The power of non-violence
- Some prerequisites of world peace
- Gandhi today
- The pacifist vision
- Obstacles to world peace
- Globalization and terrorism
- Politics and ethics of globalization
- International policy
- Nature and nurture and concept of just war

Themes:
Abstracts are invited from any academic discipline, and abstracts from non-academic presenters are also invited. The general theme of all presentations regardless of discipline or topic should concern the human environment: human or natural, built or wild, or other meditations on the nature of space and place.

Objectives:
- To identify and articulate the effect of war on women and the gender specific needs of women during times of war
- To contribute to an understanding of women's roles in peace building and constitution making
- To develop strategies for supporting, developing and enhancing women's peace building and constitution making capacities at multiple levels
- To improve the cross-regional and cross-cultural exchange on the subject

Themes:
- War's Effect on Women
- Women and Peace
- Conflict Prevention and Conflict Negotiation
- Post-Conflict: Women, Peace Agreements, and Constitution Making
- Post-Conflict: Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
- Post-Conflict: Women, Truth, Accountability and Reconstruction

Sections:
1) From general semiotics to applied semiotics – historical view
2) The culture as crossing point of ethno, eco and sociosemiotics
3) Semiosis of transition: signs and therapies of identity crisis in post totalitarian societies
4) Educational semiotics: principles, orientations, and perspectives
5) Text-subtext-context triad and the relationship between intertext and hypertext
6) Semiotics and the economic sciences: convergences, models, and applications
7) Cyberdream and Semiotics – New applicative tendencies in information systems

Programm:
- Transzendenz und Sprache. Der Mensch im Verhältnis zu Grenze und Sinngrund der Welt (Thomas Rentsch)
- Réflexions sur la langue du Coran (Mohammed Arkoun)
- Sag- und Unsagbarkeit von Transzendenz. Zur Hermeneutik menschlicher Gottesrede (Perry Schmidt-Leukel)
- Jenseits der Sprache? Gedanken über buddhistische Praxis und Theorien (Ursula Baatz)
- Hebräisch als ideale Sprache – Konsequenzen für die Hermeneutik (Günter Stemberger)
- Zur interreligiösen Hermeneutik des Einen mit vielen Namen. Eine interkulturelle Perspektive (Ram Adhar Mall)
- Was bedeuten religiöse Sätze? Die Antwort Bernard Bolzanos (Winfried Löffler)
- Wittgenstein über Gewißheit und religiösen Glauben (Christoph Jäger)
- Das Incognito als Signatur der Erlösungsbotschaft bei Kierkegaard und Camus (Rainer Thurnher)
- Différance and the Language of Prayer (John D. Caputo)
- Die Einheit der Vernunft und die Sprache der Religionen (Matthias Lutz-Bachmann)
- Kunst als Sprache der Religion. El Greco – ein Neuerer religiöser Malerei? (Monika Leisch-Kiesl)
- Abbild der kosmischen Harmonie und Expression des Glaubens (Hans-Dieter Klein)
- The Other Theology. Notes on Conceptual Idolatry (Hent de Vries)
- Der Ereignissinn der Sprache des Glaubens (Bernhard Casper)

Theme:
This conference seeks to address issues such as whether new discourses are emerging in the "Periphery", whether there are dichotomies and oppositions between "Periphery" and "Centre", and whether there are cultural negotiations and translations between them that represent internal contradictions in current globalising ideologies. The aim is to launch a new inquiry into what is submerged in, reduced by, and lost in multivalent "post-" discourses today. Focusing on how the act of viewing forms and re-forms itself in geographical and ideological spaces, we will examine attempts to re-view the world, where re-viewing is challenge, resistance and seeking. "Periphery" and "Centre" will be approached through theoretical trends and practices in the fields of language, literature and media studies as well as in philosophy, examined in the broad area of English Studies in a plurilingual and pluricultural Europe.

Theme:
The three key words in the theme, "Nationalism, Identity and Regional Cooperation", can be approached both from the perspective of their interaction and for their specific features, by emphasizing their historical, political, cultural, literary, linguistic, economic, social, legal, anthropological, and geopolitical aspects. For instance, the needs of an economy as regards cooperation or autarky could be tackled either by taking into consideration current events, or by examining past experiences, or by in-depth analysis of one country in particular. The same applies to all disciplines. Organizers are thus inviting proposals covering a wide range of approaches and topics touching upon the compatibilities and incompatibilities arising from the interplay of nationalism, identity and regional cooperation.

Focus:
The main focus of the conference will be on former Communist countries and the Middle East.

Theme:
The conference is intended to enrich the idea of democracy through both an inter-cultural dialogue and a debate between liberal and communitarian theories of democracy.

Themes:
- The changing meanings of race in the African Diaspora
- Afro-Latin culture and politics;
- The intersection of local and global issues in the Diaspora
- Artistic expression
- Religious and spiritual practices
- The impact of globalization on economic conditions throughout the Diaspora
- The complex intersection of race and gender
- The politics of African Diasporan Studies
- Historical and theoretical explorations of the significance of Africa and its Diaspora in the world today

Description:
The increasing racial, ethnic, cultural, and language diversity in nation-states throughout the world, and the growing recognition and legitimization of diversity, are causing educators to rethink citizenship education. The world-wide ethnic revitalizations movements are challenging assimilationist notions of citizenship education and insisting that diverse cultures be reflected in the school, college and university curriculum. However, every pluralistic nation-state must also be concerned about unity and a set of shared values that will cement the commonwealth. This conference is being held so that researchers can share findings about how citizenship education programs in different parts of the world deal with issues of unity and diversity. Other goals of the conference are to identify questions for further research and research-based guidelines for practice.

Description:
The mission of the Crossroads conference is to provide an open forum for all topics that interest the diverse international cultural studies community; to make contacts, exchange views and gain inspiration from each other. We encourage international participation from different countries, disciplines and cultural backgrounds, and from a wide range of research areas. In that way, the conference will also show where cultural studies is going next.