Breaking News!
GLOCAL IMAGINARIES
WRITING / MIGRATION / PLACE
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/movingmanchester/glocal_imaginaries/index.htm
9 - 12 September 2009
Lancaster University, and the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, UK

GLOCAL IMAGINARIES is the closing conference of the AHRC-funded research project 'Moving Manchester: How the experience of migration has informed the work of writers in Greater Manchester from 1960 to the present'. The increasingly complex relationship between the local and the global has emerged as one of the defining characteristics of contemporary Manchester writing and it is also one that, we trust, will be of topical concern to researchers and writers throughout the world and across a wide range of disciplines.
With an interest in both the material and imaginative (re) configuration of location, mobility and migration in the early twenty-first century, the conference invites papers from colleagues working in the fields of geography, sociology, anthropology, politics, linguistics and history, as well as literature and creative writing, and the conference will be 'streamed' in such a way that delegates are able to participate either within, or across, disciplines. Inasmuch as the 'Moving Manchester' project itself has focused upon the work of contemporary writers, literature and the creative arts will be an integral feature of the conference programme and culminate in a 'creative arts' day in Manchester (Saturday 12 September) which will feature readings, performances and an exhibition.
Conference strands are expected to include: The Glocal City (Darien Rozentals); Re-Writing Space and Place ( Darien Rozentals); Queer G/localities (Jackie Stacey); G/local Mobilities (Allison Hui); G/local Diasporas (Lindsey Moore); G/local Economies (Sondra Cuban); Discourses of the G/local (Bethan Benwell); Moving Stories: Rewriting Space and Place; (Shirley Chew); Virtual Diasporas (Graham Meikle), Migration and Diaspora (Maggie O'Neill), The Black Atlantic (Alan Rice) and Gendering Diasporas (Anne-Marie Fortier).
The conference will begin at 2pm on Wednesday 9 September and end at 5pm on Saturday 12 September with an additional evening's entertainment in Manchester for those able to attend. We are expecting this event to attract upto 300 delegates and accommodation and full conference facilities will be provided. This will include transport to and from Manchester on Saturday 12 September.
We are delighted to report that we have received over 200 proposed papers from 35 countries
Many thanks to all those of you who have submitted papers and / or expressed interest in the conference -- it promises to be a truly international event!

Click here  for information on the Creative Arts Day at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester

m.oneill@lboro.ac.uk

Invitation to attend the 'sense of belonging' exhibition at the Bonington Gallery, Nottingham 10th - 30th January. 
Click here for the  invite.

 The exhibition is one outcome of  an AHRC knolwedge transfer fellowship 'Trans national communities:towards a sense of belonging' awarded to Loughborough Unuiversity academics Maggie O'Neill and Phil Hubbard working in partnership with four regional community arts organisations' Click here for Background Information.

'The end of programme conference will take place on 3rd and 4th July 08 exploring the power of participatory arts and the contribution of refugees and asylum seekers to the cultural life of the East Midlands' - Click here for the conference flyer -
 Click here for conference programme. - The conference is now fully booked

Click here to see some photos of the Conference

The AHRC has awarded Maggie O’ Neill and Phil Hubbard (Loughborough University) £20,529.00 for ‘Making the Connections’  - a regional network based upon the principles of participatory action research (PAR) and participatory arts. This network will examine the transformative role of arts and culture  in fostering integration and belonging for new arrivals in the East Midlands. The network seeks to build upon the strong regional work of the Arts Council East Midlands, regional community arts organisations, academics in regional Universities, artists, practitioners, policy makers and diasporic communities by creating a programme of workshops and seminars in order to:

• enhance the lives of recent arrivals in the East Midlands
• stimulate high-quality inter-disciplinary research and the production of art works
• facilitate connection, communication and feed into public policy and
• contribute to public awareness of the  issues facing new arrivals

The programme was launched on the 26th of April (supported by the Arts Council East Midlands). The aim of the launch was to identify the potential for collaboration between the arts, academics, policy makers and those working with newly-arrived migrants, with a view to identifying themes and areas in the East Midlands to act as focus for 10 workshops over the next 24 months led by stakeholders across the voluntary, statutory, university and arts sector.  Funding for workshops/seminars will be distributed by the grant holders.