Symposium on the Humanities

Dear Colleague,

We are writing on behalf of the Organising Committee, to inform you of the call for papers for a:
SYMPOSIUM ON THE HUMANITIES: FINDING A PLACE IN CHANGING TIMES

Columbia University, New York City, 24-26 February 2007 Humanities Symposium

The Symposium is to be hosted by the International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities and the International Journal of the Humanities, in conjunction with the Center for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University.

The aim of the symposium to address the ambiguous a difficult task of the Humanities today, a situation which could at times be called a crisis. Key questions for discussion will include:
* Purposes of the humanities: systemic, critical, emancipatory?
* Perceptions of the humanities: Why are they regarded with suspicion? How do we attain institutional purchase? What is it to be elite but marginal? How to avoid trivialisation?
* Programs under threat: Which? Why? How do we respond?
* Fast capitalism and slow learning: How do the humanities position themselves in relation to globalisation and corporatisation?
* Securing ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’: What roles for the ambivalent enterprises of feminism and multiculturalism?
* Global predicaments: What agenda for the humanities?
* Higher education in the humanities and elementary education for the poor: How do we bridge the gap?

We would particularly like to invite you to respond to this call for papers and presentations. Presenters may choose to submit written papers for publication before or after the conference in the fully refereed International Journal of the Humanities. If you are unable to attend the symposium in person, virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit a paper for refereeing and possible publication in the journal, as well as access to the online version of the journal.

The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short abstract) is 31 October 2006. Proposals are reviewed within one week of submission.

Full details of the conference, including an online call for papers form, are to be found at the conference website

We look forward to receiving your proposals and hope you will be able to join us in New York in February 2007.