Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies
‘The Kurds and Kurdistan: Considering Continuity and Change’
Exeter, 6-8 September 2012
Since our first international conference on Kurdish Studies in 2009, the States where Kurds live have seen tumultuous events. The Iranian elections and their aftermath have been followed by the protests in Iraq, anger over the referendum and elections in Turkey, and huge violence in Syria.
As many ask whether the so-called ‘Arab spring’ will bring change to the Middle East, we would like to interrogate the very ideas of continuity and change themselves across a number of disciplines. Does complete ‘rupture’ ever occur in history? Does regime change bring real differences in people’s lives? When migration brings change to individuals and families, what continuity is maintained in order to re-produce identity? How does language change and how far should linguistic change be managed? How should we study cultural continuity which exists over ethnic boundaries and international frontiers? What have been the changes and continuities within the field of Kurdish studies itself?
Our Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies will be held in Exeter on 6-8 September 2012. We aim to bring together scholars from all over the world, working in political science, geography, anthropology, history, literature, linguistics, gender studies and other disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.
Update: Conference announcement, January 2012
We were delighted to receive a large response to our Call for Papers, especially from younger scholars, and hope to schedule some extra panels on the Saturday, 8 September, to enable as many scholars as possible to participate. We would like to thank all those who sent in abstracts for papers or panels. We hope to notify everyone during the next week – that is, by Friday 20th January, of whether or not your papers have been accepted; for those of you who also requested bursaries, it will take a week or so longer for us to notify you whether it’s possible for us to help and by how much.
We look forward to welcoming you to Exeter in September.
For further information see the conference website.
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“Challenging Capitalist Modernity – Alternative Concepts and the Kurdish Quest”
Hamburg University, Hamburg Germany
3–5 February 2012
Dear Friends,
The organizers of the conference “Challenging Capitalist Modernity – Alternative Concepts and the Kurdish Question” are pleased to extend an invitation to all those interested in discussing theoretical and practical measures required to establish an alternative way of life. This conference should also prove of interest to all those who would like to be fully updated on the latest transformations within Kurdish society and its popular movement as well the alternative proposals put forward by the Kurds.
In recent years, the Kurdish freedom movement has developed and been transformed from the traditional Marxist-Leninist methods and perspectives that had underpinned its national liberation struggle. This conference aims to open up detailed discussion into the Kurdish movement and society’s transformation and its search for an alternative within the context of global developments and contemporary debates. It also seeks to act as an international platform to exchange ideas at the academic level about the worldwide theoretical and practical measures that are needed to intervene effectively against capitalist hegemony. Debates will also – but not exclusively – be focused on the Kurdish example.
The conference will be held at Hamburg University, Hamburg Germany between 3–5 February 2012. We plan to translate all speeches and discussions simultaneously into English, German, Kurdish (Kurmanji) and Turkish. In order to register yourselves please send an email to networkaq@gmail.com. You can find further information and the program at www.networkaq.net.
In order to support this conference or become a media partner, please write to networkaq@gmail.com
Supported by by Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples (Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples, France), Mouvement de la Paix (Peace Movement, France), LAIKA Verlag (publishing house)
Organized by the Network for an Alternative Quest: KURD-AKAD – Network of Kurdish Academics • YXK –Association of Students from Kurdistan • Kurdistan Report • Informationsstelle Kurdistan (ISKU) • Cenî – Kurdish Women’s Bureau for Peace • International Initiative “Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan–Peace in Kurdistan”
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Big Dams: Investigating their temporal and spatial politics in Africa, the Middle East and Asia
Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, June 1st 2012
This workshop, to be held at Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin on June 1st 2012, seeks to explore the spatial and temporal dimensions of big dam projects in Africa, Asia and the Middle East . Big dam building projects are often associated with the post-war high modernist moment, but they have never ceased to proliferate, particularly in the global South. Costs and benefits of these enormous projects are hotly contested. Hydro-electric dams have stood as symbols of human ingenuity, signs of progress, and imposing greeners of the desert (McCully 2001) and ‘temples’ of the modern nation-state, as Nehru put it for India. On the other hand, displaced populations, environmental activists, tax payers and creditors cast serious doubts on the justification and means of building large dams (Ghosh 2006; Roy 1998; Scudder 2005).
As highly loaded symbols of state power and as sites which incorporate specific practices of “governmentality”, dam building projects bring together actors, materialities and discourses from very different spatial scales: local activists and populations interact with national and regional governments, international organizations, or globally operating companies. They are also sites which focus representations of heterogeneous temporalities: notions such as progress, modernisation, development and securing future wellbeing are contrasted with the loss of ‘traditional’ ways of life, of ancient environmental balances, of cultural and archaeological traces of the past.
With a view to a subsequent publication, we invite papers on empirical case studies from various disciplinary backgrounds that address any of the following questions:
- Can we find typical patterns of cost-benefit analysis by different actors? Do these differ in any way from those relating to other large-scale modernisation projects, such as urban (re)building, highway construction, etc.?
- What are the spatial scales of social belonging invoked in the contestations of dam building projects, e.g. ‘small’ and marginal communities having to sacrifice for the ‘greater’ (national or regional) good?
- How are these discourses temporalized, how do they articulate ideas of ‘modernisation’, ‘progress’, ‘backwardness’ and ‘tradition’? How do the different social actors deal with processes of erasure and submerging sites of past experiences and memories in the name of the future? And how do governments, citizens and corporate investors deal with historical successes or mistakes associated with dams?
We invite abstracts of no more than 500 words by Friday 3rdFebruary 2012, to be sent to the conference organizers at feaucroj@hu-berlin.de, langekat@rz.hu-berlin.de, katrin.bromber@rz.hu-berlin.de. Limited funding is available to help cover accommodation and travel expenses (please indicate where needed).
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The Kurds in Syria: Past, Present and Future
Call for papers
The Kurdish Studies Association (KSA) invites paper proposals for a KSA-sponsored panel at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) meeting to be held November 17-20, 2012 in Denver, Colorado.
This panels aims to bring together scholars from various disciplines to shed light on the situation of the Kurds in Syria—the largest minority in the country, yet the smallest population of Kurds of the major Middle Eastern states with Kurdish minorities—by examining the past, discussing the present, and pondering the future.
For the past nine months, Syria has been embroiled in a bloody conflict that will see, at some point, significant changes for the Kurdish minority in that country. Should the revolution succeed, Kurds may have an opportunity to become equal partners in a post-Ba’ath, post-Assad Syria. Some questions that come to mind for this panel are: How have Kurds maintained their cultural identity under Ba’ath rule? How effective have Kurdish political parties in Syria been at representing Kurdish aspirations? What has been the role of Kurdish youth in the current uprisings? What type of role will Kurds play in a new Syria? How have Kurdish politics in other countries helped/hindered the Kurdish cause in Syria?
The KSA is looking for five (5) abstracts that, together, will offer a multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted look at the Kurdish situation in Syria.
Paper themes may include, but are not limited to:
- Art, Music and Literature
- Culture
- Democracy
- Education
- Gender & Women’s Studies
- Human Rights/Minority Rights
- Linguistics
- Politics
- Social Media
Please e-mail abstracts of up to 300 words and a 100-word bio to Christian Sinclair (christian dot sinclair at arizona dot edu). Deadline for submission is January 23, 2012. These should be sent as a single attachment in MSWord format.
Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by members of the KSA executive committee and selections will be made by February 8, 2012. KSA will set up a panel submission area on the MESA system and selected panelists will then have one week to submit their proposal via myMESA. Panelists must, prior to submission, have set up their own account and have paid MESA membership dues.
Accepted panelists must also be a registered member of the Kurdish Studies Association. Membership details can be found on the KSA website (kurdishstudies.org) beginning January 1, 2012.
Please note that panelists are responsible for arranging funding to attend MESA.
Panel papers will be published in a single volume on the KSA website after the MESA meeting.
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L’Institut kurde de Paris est heureux de vous convier à une conférence-débat avec
Salih AKIN
Université de Rouen
Katarina Brizic
Université de Vienne, Autriche
Ergin Opengin
Université de Paris III
Yazgul Simsek
Université de Potsdam
sur
La transmission intergénérationnelle de la langue Kurde en Allemagne et en France
le samedi 3 décembre 2011 à 16h00
Institut kurde de Paris
106, rue La Fayette, F-75010 Paris
M° Poissonnière – Gare du Nord – Gare de l’Est
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THE ZAZA PEOPLE: HISTORY, LANGUAGE, CULTURE, IDENTITY
October 28-30, 2011
Yerevan, Armenia
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ZAZA STUDIES,
In commemoration of the 155th anniversary of the great German-Armenian scholar, pioneer of the Zaza Studies, Academician FRIEDRICH CARL ANDREAS (BAGRATOUNI) (1846-1930)
The Conference is organized by the International Journal “Iran and the Caucasus” (BRILL, Leiden-Boston) in the Framework of the Celebration of its 15-th Anniversary, in cooperation with Modus Vivendi Center, Yerevan; Caucasian Centre for Iranian Studies, Yerevan; International Society for the Study of Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus (ISSTIC), and ARMACAD (supported by Hyksos Foundation).
Conference venue: Congress Hotel, Yerevan, 1 Italy str., Yerevan, Armenia
For the program of the conference click on this link.
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Centre for Kurdish Studies,UniversityofExeter
Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies
‘The Kurds and Kurdistan: Considering Continuity and Change’
Exeter, 6-8 September 2012
Since our first international conference on Kurdish Studies in 2009, the States where Kurds live have seen tumultuous events. The Iranian elections and their aftermath have been followed by the protests inIraq, anger over the referendum and elections inTurkey, and huge violence inSyria.
As many ask whether the so-called ‘Arab spring’ will bring change to theMiddle East, we would like to interrogate the very ideas of continuity and change themselves across a number of disciplines. Does complete ‘rupture’ ever occur in history? Does regime change bring real differences in people’s lives? When migration brings change to individuals and families, what continuity is maintained in order to re-produce identity? How does language change and how far should linguistic change be managed? How should we study cultural continuity which exists over ethnic boundaries and international frontiers? What have been the changes and continuities within the field of Kurdish studies itself?
Our Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies will be held inExeteron 6-8 September 2012. We aim to bring together scholars from all over the world, working in political science, geography, anthropology, history, literature, linguistics, gender studies and other disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.
We invite abstracts for individual papers of twenty minutes, or proposals for panels comprising three or four papers. Abstracts should be 250 to 300 words in length, clearly stating the contributor’s name, institutional affiliation and contact details. There will be some limited bursaries available to cover expenses; preference will be given to junior scholars and those from countries outsideWestern Europeand theUSAwithout funding from their own institutions. If you wish to request one of these, please state clearly whether you have other sources of funding and give a reasonable estimate of your costs.
Please send abstracts to cks-kurdishconference@exeter.ac.uk by 30 November 2011. Notification of acceptance will be sent by15 January 2012.
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Call for papers
International Conference on Kurdish Migration and Diaspora
12-14 April 2012, Uppsala, Sweden
Organized by the Hugo Valentin Centre at Uppsala University in collaboration with:
Department of Sociology atUppsalaUniversity;
Department of Linguistics and Philology atUppsalaUniversity;
Swedish network for studies of transnationalism and diaspora located at The Centre for Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations (CEIFO) at Stockholm University;
Middle Eastern Studies at Stockholm University;
and the Kurdish Studies Network
Current debates on the configuration of ethnic and racial boundaries in the era of transformations have refocused academic attention on the concept of diaspora. Diasporas are one kind of social phenomenon where a complex social process can be observed characterized on the one hand by dispersion, dislocation and feelings of social exclusion and on the other hand by movements for location. However, diaspora is a complex concept and can sometimes be misused and misunderstood. The concept is sometimes understood as a synonym for ethnicity and nationalism, an assumption based on the ethnic, nationalist and religious conceptions of ethnic particularity that, as Paul Gilroy points out have co-existed with the term. Moreover, the concept is often connected with and defined on the basis of specific experiences, and consequently can give rise to the problem that James Clifford highlights, namely the slippage between diaspora as theoretical concept and diaspora discourses. Hence, in order to avoid such problems, as Avtar Brah notes, there is a need for a historicity of diaspora experiences, that is, “each empirical diaspora must be analysed in its historical specificity.”
The last two decades of Kurdish history can be distinguished as a period when the Kurdish diaspora has become mobilised on a large scale. Kurdish transnational communities and Kurdish diasporic spaces are established as an outcome of the intensified Kurdish migration and relationship with the countries of origin and among Kurds settled in different countries around the globe. Furthermore, the Kurdish diaspora has played an important role in bringing international attention to the plight of the Kurds, not least inTurkeyasTurkeyattempts to become a member of the EU. However, diasporas as complex and dynamic social processes go through continuous change and transformation over time. As diasporic communities and identities are characterised by a triadic relationship with the home countries, host countries and the transnational diaspora communities, any change in the socio-political situation in these points of references imply certain changes in diasporic projects and identities. Additionally, any change in the composition of the diasporas, for instance regarding the emergence of new generations, affect the diaspora communities in various ways. During the last two decades a whole new generation among the Kurdish diaspora has emerged and with this also new hyphenated identities, but also new issues, conflicts and challenges have followed, for instance regarding gender issues. Importantly, during this period but especially since 2001, the political situation for and attitudes towards non-western and supposedly Muslim migrant communities in the West has worsened which has directly affected these groups in multiple ways. Within this period we have also witnessed the change of the political situation of the Kurds inIraqand to a certain extent inTurkey. For the Iraqi Kurds, the fact that they have since 2003 achieved an advanced level of self-government and stability in the form of the Kurdish Regional Government inIraqhas brought with it questions of home coming and return and increasing transnational activities around economic, political and social issues. Thus, this conference aims to provide an important opportunity to critically explore these processes that are of importance both for the theoretical contributions to migration and diaspora studies and for shedding light on the current state of the Kurdish diaspora which constitutes considerable minorities in several European countries
Conference themes
Abstracts are welcomed on the following related topics:
- Kurdish diasporic communities, networks, identities, and belonging
- Diaspora and the development of the Kurdish language, media, music, and literature
- Development of Kurdish diasporic institutions during past recent decades
- Kurdish diaspora and new generations: youth and issues of identity and belonging
- Kurdish diaspora and issues of gender, generation, and sexuality
- Migration and family relations, conflicts, changes and continuities
- Kurdish diaspora and religion
- The new political situation in Iraqi Kurdistan and its impact on issues of homeland and return
- Kurdish diaspora’s transnational activities related to the home countries (economic, social, and political)
- The impact of the return migration on the process of nation and state building and on the social and economic development in Iraqi Kurdistan
These themes are not exhaustive and papers relevant to the conference subject will be considered. Abstracts, in Word and of no more than 300 words should include the following information and in this order:
a) author(s)
b) affiliation (if applicable)
c) email address
d) title of abstract
e) body of abstract
The submission of pre-formed panel proposals are welcomed. The conference language will be English and all papers and presentations should be in English.
Dead line for submission of abstracts: 30 October 2011
The organisers will inform about acceptance of paper: 15 November 2011
Abstracts should be sent to: kurddiaspora@valentin.uu.se
Dead line for registration: 20 November 2011
There will be a registration fee of 100 €. For students 70 €. It will include Conference dinner on Friday 13 April and lunch during the conference 12-14 April.
Conference home page: http://www.valentin.uu.se/information/kurddiaspora.html
Questions about the conference should be directed to:
Minoo Alinia: minoo.alinia@valentin.uu.se
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Conference on New Regional Perspectives for the Kurds at Bilgi University, Istanbul
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
“TOWARDS CITIES FOR WOMEN”
The international conference “Towards Cities for Women” is organized jointly by Diyarbakir Baglar Municipality and Baglar Women’s Cooperative.
This conference aims at providing an opportunity for various social groups including women’s organizations, leaders, local, national and international administrations, academic and non-academic researchers to communicate, work together and mobilize along universal principles with the goal of creating free, democratic and gender emancipatory urban environments.
Date: 5-6 February 2011
Place: Turkey / Diyarbakir
Venue: Baglar Municipality Conference Hall
Languages: Kurdish / Turkish / English
Time: 09.00-18.00
Duration of presentations: 10-15 minutes each
The conference comprises five different sessions with an average number of four presenters in each (in some sessions this number might increase). Note that in the third and fourth sessions, which offer the participants a chance to share their experiences, the number and duration of individual contributions might change. In the discussion periods following the presentations, audience members will have a chance to share their views and opinions and to ask questions of the presenters.
The proposed conference session topics are as follows:
1-) In what kind of cities should women live?
2-) Policies and Resources
3-) Sharing Experiences I: Cities for Women
4-) Sharing Experiences II: Cities for Women
5-) Women, Culture, Media and Communication
SESSION TOPICS
05 February 2011 Morning Session
1-) In what kind of cities should women live
This session will explore basic principles, policies and approaches necessary for creating livable cities for women. The main objective is to provide a basis for discussion and sharing, in order to encourage and support the transformation of cities according to gender-egalitarian perspectives. Possible sub-topics include; “Urban Planning and Design for Women”, “Security of Women in Urban Environments”, “Women and Public Transport” and “Woman, Ecology and Environment”.
05 February 2011 Afternoon Session
2-) Policies and Resources
The topics to be explored in this session are; the position of women in urban life; local government approaches to gender–based needs of women; the expectations which women have of local governments; the aims, approaches and implementation stories of gender-based budgets on an international level and reflections on the Turkish case, successes, failures and suggestions; the comparative inquiry of the position of women in relation to local governments in both internal jurisdiction, and international treaties, documents and declarations. This session will bring the basic policy approaches and resources for more free, democratic and liveable cities for women to the agenda.
06 February 2011 Morning Session
3 – 4) Sharing Experiences I and II: Cities for Women
The principle aim of this session is to acknowledge and understand the experiences and struggles of women from different geographies, cultures and identities in creating appropriate urban environments for women. The organizational level, experiences of struggle, progress, failure and opportunities for growth will be discussed in order to enhance solidarity and collaboration among women experiencing different organizational models.
06 February 2011 Afternoon Session
5-) Women, Culture, Media and Communication
This session will focus on the ways in which women relate to urban life, culture, media and communication, and the experiences of women expressing themselves in participatory, decision-making and representative processes, the problems they encounter and the strategies they develop in response.
Please contact us for further details.
Baglar Municipality
Tel: +90 412 25 193 18
Fax: +90412-251 93 19
Email: kadinkentleri@gmail.com
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The First North American Conference on the Kurdish Language
The Kurdish American Education Society (KAES), a non-profit cultural organization in Los Angles will be hosting the first North American Conference on the Kurdish Language and Culture on November 5, 2010. The event is co-sponsored by the UCLA G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies (CNES). Our conference will bring to Los Angeles Kurdish and non-Kurdish linguists, students, and scholars from different parts of the United States, Canada, and Europe to address a wide spectrum of topics and research on Kurdish studies.
The primary goal of the conference is to stress the need for reviewing the existing trends, current challenges, and new linguistic and socio-linguistic and historical studies, recognize the achievements that scholars and practitioners have made in their respective fields of research, and open new possibilities for raising consciousness about and change the state of the language and its community of speakers.
Conference participants and presenters are from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including but not limited to applied linguistics, dialectology, lexicography, sociolinguistics, anthropology, art and language, educational linguistics, Kurdish as a heritage language, discourse analysis, and historical linguistics.
The Call for Papers welcomes timely submission of abstracts for papers and posters to be presented at the event on Nov 5 in Collins Conference room at the UCLA James West Alumni Center. Some of the emerging conference topics include: The Influence of Kurdish on the Neo-Aramaic Language, Kurdish language policy and planning, language and identity, challenges of developing educational materials in Kurdish, music and cultural rights. The Conference Committee has already received a range of topic proposals and themes as listed below.
We urge all those interested in research about theoretical linguistics, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, lexicography, educational linguistics, language minorities, heritage languages, literacy, language and literature, language and gender to join us in co-sponsoring and contributing to the success of this conference. We will also use the conference as an occasion to honor and pay tribute to the memory of Dr.Vera Saeedpour who laid the foundation for scholarly and academic work on the Kurdish life and culture.
The deadline for abstracts is Oct. 25, 2010. All you need is a title and a 300-word abstract for a 20-minute presentation to be sent via email to: sharifiamir@yahoo.com
The sessions are still being organized as papers are coming in, presenters will be notified if they will be presenting individually or in panels. For additional information on the conference and registration, please refer to the KAES website: www.kaes.us or contact Amir Sharifi: Asharifi@kaes.us
List of the names of the presenters and their affiliations:
1) Dr. Yonar Sabar, scholar, specializing in Neo-Aramaic studies, professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California Los Angeles.
2) Dr. Jaffer Sheyholislami, Assistant Professor at the School of Linguistics and Language Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Areas of research: language and identity; language of/in media; language policy and planning; language and power/ideology; genre studies.
3) Mr.Christian Sinclair, Assistant Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies University of Arizona, PhD candidate in Kurdish Studies at the University of Exeter, specialized in media, language policy, and identity.
4) Ms. Shayee Khanaka, librarian for Linguistics & Middle Eastern Studies, at UC Berkely, has an MA in Folklore and a thesis on Kurdish Humor
5) Dr. Rashid Karadaghi, Author of the Azadi English-Kurdish Dictionary andwriter on Kurdish affairs
6) Mr. Ali Ashuri, author, poet, and critic, specialized in philology and Kurdish literature; he has taught at San Diego State University
7) Mr. Muhamad Tawfiq Ali, applied linguist, translator, critic, member of Chartered Institute of Linguistics ( MCIL)
8) Mr. Gregory Scarborough, field researcher on Kurdish music and cultural rights, focusing on Kurdish areas in Turkey, director of Cultural Cornerstones
9) Dr. Alexandra Jaffe, the incoming editor of Linguistic Anthropology and formerly the editor of Language and Education, specialized in linguistic anthropology, language ideology, bilingualism and the status of minority languages, professor at California State University, Long Beach
10) Mrs. Susan Barwari, Ph.D student, UCLA Department of Linguistics, educator specializing in assessment and educational material development in Kurmanji
11) Dr. Hashem Ahmadzadeh, Kurdish scholar, a lecturer in the Kurdish Studies Center of the University of Exeter, specialized in language in Kurdish novels
12) Mr. Opengin Ergin, 2nd year Ph.D. student at L’Université de Paris -Sorbonne Nouvelle, specializing in Kurdish sociolinguistics.
13) Mr. Norman Léonard, the Director of Outreach, Language Acquisition Resource Center, San Diego State University, President of California Teachers Association , specialized in community based heritage language programs and training teachers through California Foreign Language Project.
14) Dr. Amir Hasssanpour (via Skype), scholar of Kurdish sociolinguistics and history, professor at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto.
15) Dr. Michel Chyet ( Via Skype), Library of Congress, author of Kurdish Dictionary: Kurmanji-English, scholar and researcher, author of a thorn bush sprang between them”: studies on Mem u Zin.
16) Dr. Hisyar Ozsoy, fellow at the Social and Cultural Anthropology Department, University of Texas, Austin, specialized in research on state formation, nationalism, neo-liberalism, multiculturalism and transformations of Kurdish politics.
17) Dr. Salih Akin, lecturer in general linguistics at Rounen University, France. He specializes in linguistic and sociolinguistic description of Kurdish language, the representation of foreigners in French media, the onomastic and languages of immigration.
18) Dr. Amir Sharifi, lecturer, Department of Linguistics, California State University, Long Beach, applied linguist, translator, specializing in literacy socialization.
