تويت
<span style="font-weight: bold"><a name="tun"></a>On Mutual (Mis)understanding</span><br style="font-weight: bold" /><span style="font-weight: bold">Institut supérieur des Sciences Humaines de Tunis, Tunisia</span><br style="font-weight: bold" /><span style="font-weight: bold">1-3 February 2007</span><br style="font-weight: bold" /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0,0,102)">Deadline for proposals: 15 November 2006</span><br /><br />We invite papers on the problem of growing mutual misunderstanding between North and South, West and Islam, which seems—if one subscribes to Huntington’s alarmist thesis—to be leading towards a head-on collision between civilizations and cultures. How can we avoid such a collision, if there be one? What role can intellectuals play today to bridge the widening gap between cultures, and sustain a rational discourse in a world more and more driven by political fury and irrationality? How can the notions of "universalism" and "particularism" be understoood in an age more and more riveted on flagrant contradictions: i.e. sprawling globalization and a concurrent return to cultural solipsism? How can we maintain a relationship of mutual understanding between hyper-modernized societies and half-modern, if pre-modern, ones? To what extent is the postmodern project relevant and applicable to Third World realities? <br />Papers on cases of mutual understanding between cultures and cultural encounters are strongly encouraged. <br />The theme of mutual (mis)understanding should however be understood in the broad sense. So, papers examining the issue from literary, historical, political, philosophical, cultural, sociological, translational and linguistic perspectives are most welcome.<br />Papers must be delivered in English and should not exceed 20 minutes. They might treat—but not exclusively—the following themes: Dialogue/clash between cultures and civilizations; Colonial encounters and collisions; Translation as mistranslation of culture and language; Nationalism versus transnationalism; Rationality versus irrationality; Critics/criticism versus Authors/literature, etc.<br />A selection of papers will be published in a book form.<br />Please send your abstract (maximum 300 words), no later than 15 November 2006, to Rached Khalifa at: <mutual_understanding2006@yahoo.com>. Please make sure you write your name and affiliation on top of the page. You can also send it by post to Rached Khalifa, Institut Supérieur des Sciences Humaines de Tunis, Département d’Anglais, 26, Avenue Darghouth Pacha, 1007, Tunis, Tunisia.