Fourth International Cultural Difference and Social Network Conference

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL DIFFERENCE AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY NETWORK CONFERENCE

4th International Conference

Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network

Differences, Solidarities and Digital Technologies

Hosted by

Middle East Technical University

Northern Cyprus Campus

Tuesday, 1 July through Friday, 4 July, 2014

The 4th International Conference of the Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity Network aims to examine the influence of the spread and growth of digital technology on constructions, concepts, and perceptions of difference and solidarity. By “digital technology” we mean any combination of electronic devices and digital communication including the devices themselves (from smart phones to servers), software and applications, and communication networks. Approximately two thirds of the world’s population (according to the World Bank) has limited access to digital technologies, yet the remaining one third of the population who use these technologies are arguably reshaping concepts of difference and solidarity that have broad implications for all people, their social and cultural institutions, the environment, economic systems, etc. As an example of an area of contested solidarity and difference within that one third of global users, are the broad claims from academia, the market, and digital technology proponents regarding the use of digital technology and devices to promote solidarities, virtual and real, and create an easing of difference through democratizing constructs such as increased access to the internet and communication devices. Contrary arguments assert that solidarities in a virtual world are not possible; that the democratizing effect of the internet, or even wireless service, is an illusion constructed by large corporations that control many of the on-ramps and consumer interfaces of the web in neoliberal societies; and that the growth of use of digital technologies creates new differences and increasingly solidifies existing ones.

This conference seeks to provide a space for scholars to take stock of the present global context and share knowledge – specific or general, empirical or theoretical, with a view to develop and explore the possible ways of understanding the impact of digital technologies on differences and solidarities. The conference is intended to be interdisciplinary and welcomes papers from scholars whose research crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries. Papers and panels are sought for presentation at parallel sessions where each paper will have a strict maximum of 20 minutes presentation time on panels of 2 papers with 25 minutes per paper discussion time.

Initial starting points for paper topics on the 2014 conference theme are listed below. We will also consider papers on themes from previous conferences and/or previous participants who have on-going research on broader areas of difference and solidarity. All papers/presentations should in some way connect to, or address, Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity:

Social media:

Identity

Economy

Politics

Law

War

Governments

Revolutions

Displacement

Sex

Bullying

Religion

Technology and hegemonies

Academia and technology:

New disciplines e.g. Digital humanities

Academic freedom

Discrimination

Discourse

Exploitation

Inclusive/exclusive methodologies

Electronic production:

Mining, manufacture, distribution, retail

E-waste

Passive and active digital media

Ethics and digital technology

Art and Culture

Digital geography

Digital nativism

New media subjectivity

Gaming

Digital literacy

Epistemology

Experience

These themes are not exhaustive and the organizers will consider other papers relevant to the conference subject of Digital Technologies and Cultural Difference and Social Solidarity. We expect to publish a post-conference edited book, derived from the papers presented and organized around themes that reveal themselves during the conference.

There will be two keynote plenary sessions with speakers to be announced. Reflecting the conference theme in the context of the conference venue, one of these sessions will focus on aspects of these themes in Cyprus.

Abstracts may be submitted anytime until March 31, 2014

Notification of abstract acceptances and rejections is on a rolling basis (within 3 weeks of submission)

Online conference registration open from March 17, 2014 to May 30, 2014

Conference Fees to be paid by May 30, 2014

The conference language is English and all papers and presentations should be in English.

The conference fee is 395 Euros (295 Euros for post-grad students and non-participants).

This fee includes:

Registration:

Transfers to and from Ercan Airport in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to METU-NCC Campus

4 nights at Campus Guest House with breakfast

4 lunches

2 Sunset Dinners (all drinks included)

1 Dinner Banquet (non-alcoholic drinks included)

Guided Historic/Cultural Excursion

Abstracts of no more than 350 words may be submitted online only, to: http://www.differenceandsolidarity.org/

For any questions or concerns please see our website, including the FAQ page, or contact the conference organizers at the email address below.

Conference Organisers:

Scott H. Boyd

Middle East Technical University – Northern Cyprus Campus

Paul Reynolds

Edge Hill University

info@differenceandsolidarity.org

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Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Rouge Forum Conference 2014

ROUGE FORUM CONFERENCE 2014

THE ROUGE FORUM CONFERENCE 2014
The Struggle for Social Justice Inside and Outside the Classroom
JUNE 5-7, 2014
DENVER, CO, USA
Keynote Speaker: David Barsamian
Location: Metropolitan State University of Denver in Downtown Denver, CO
Conference website: http://rougeforumconference.wordpress.com/

The Rouge Forum Dispatch

Rouge Forum Dispatch: Happy Holidays and Don’t Forget to “Read Marx and Make Class War!” (E. Wayne Ross)--is updated here: http://www.richgibson.com/blog/

Best wishes to Our Side

Rich Gibson

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Laddism and Higher Education

Laddism

LADDISM AND HIGHER EDUCATION

A Society for Research in Higher Education event

Date - 7 February 2014 ; 10.30 - 16.30

Venue - SRHE, 73 Collier Street, London N1 9BE

Network - Student Experience Network (SEN)

A one-day SEN symposium discussing masculine behaviours and student culture.

The Student Experience Network of the SRHE is holding a one day symposium on laddism and Higher Education. Its focus is on the intersection of such masculine behaviours with student culture, minorities, lived experience, and the night-time economy, all areas which also inform and shape pedagogical identities. The day has been organised following the NUS' 2013 report on lad culture in higher education, That's What She Said and is thus orientated towards asking how the HE sector should respond to research findings and what further research is necessary.

Emerging Themes from That's What She Said with a discussion on further research and actions
Isabel Young (co-author of report), seconded by Kelly Temple (NUS)

This presentation reports on a research project, funded by the National Union of Students, which sought to explore women students’ experiences of ‘lad culture’ in educational, social and personal spheres. The project consisted of two parts: (1) a thematic literature review covering areas such as gender and education, cultural studies and policy sociology; and (2) in-depth qualitative research using focus groups and semi-structured interviews with a sample of 40 women students, focusing on their experiences of teaching and learning, extra-curricular activities, social life, and sex and relationships. The findings of this research show that although ‘laddism’ is only one of a variety of potential masculinities, there exists at least a significant minority of women students who find ‘lad cultures’ problematic, citing issues such as misogynist ‘banter’, objectification of women and sexual pressure and harassment. This presentation explores some of the key themes to have emerged from the report, including the evolution of ‘laddism’ and its existence as a behavior; the connection between night economies and the propagation of ‘lad culture’; intersections between gender, race, (dis)ability, sexuality and ‘lad culture’, and more. It will conclude by looking ahead to further research possibilities and actions around the impact of ‘lad culture’ in higher education and more broadly.

Isabel Young has a BA in Sociology and an MA in Gender Studies from the University of Sussex. Her research has explored BAME women's experiences of anti-Muslim racism, constructions of sexual violence on Facebook 'banter' sites, and most recently, the impact of ‘lad culture’ on women students in higher education. She has worked with Survivor’s Network, Woman’s Hour and UK Uncut on the issues of VAWG and the cuts. Isabel currently runs a community programme for migrant mothers as part of the Arbour’s Migrant Women’s Mentoring and Social Inclusion project based in East London.
isabelkayoung@gmail.com

Kelley Temple is the NUS National Women's Officer. She blogs at: http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/blogs/blog/kelleytemple/
kelley.temple@nus.org.uk

Degrees of Laddishness: Laddism in Higher Education
Professor Carolyn Jackson and Dr. Stephen Dempster
This paper provides insights into how laddism is understood, perpetuated, legitimated and challenged among undergraduates in two British universities. We explore the perceived benefits of subscribing to laddish masculinities, and also the costs of laddishness for male and female students in both student social life and teaching/learning environments. We discuss the ways that laddishness can be problematic for men as well as women, but argue that viewing laddishness as existing in a continuum of potential masculine subject positionings not only enables a more sophisticated understanding of laddishness, but also may suggest strategies through which more extreme laddism might be challenged.
Carolyn Jackson is a Professor in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, and Co-Director of the Centre for Social Justice and Wellbeing in Education. She has published widely on gender issues in education. Her books include Lads and Ladettes in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure (2006), and Girls and Education 3-16: Continuing Concerns, New Agendas (2010, co-edited with Carrie Paechter and Emma Renold). She is currently engaged in two projects exploring laddism in higher education.
c.jackson2@lancaster.ac.uk
Dr. Steven Dempster is a Research and Teaching Associate in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University and the Dean of one of Lancaster’s undergraduate colleges.  Steve has published a number of papers on laddism in higher education and is currently working on a further project on laddism in HE, an evaluation of enhancement of teaching and learning in Scottish HEIs, and a study of the impact of the Harry Potter franchise on boys’ literacies.
s.dempster@lancaster.ac.uk

Chanting Students
Dr. Matthew Cheeseman

I began researching and collecting examples of student chanting in 2005 and have found them a stimulating way of thinking about students and their experience of higher education. Far from simple, chants are both verbal forms and performances, full of contradictory meanings and creadings. In this paper I look at how they are received by others and how they operate as expressions of student identity and enactments of 'lad culture'. Using data collected following an ethnographic methodology, I attempt to situate chanting within larger and no less contradictory performances (such as being a student) and explain its relationship to a language that has become a totemic within the United Kingdom: banter.

Dr. Matthew Cheeseman is a Research and Teaching Associate at the University of Sheffield. He works between English Literature, Folklore, Creative Writing, Music and Education. Alongside Dr. Camille Kandiko, he convenes the Student Experience Network for the SRHE, arranging approximately three symposiums a year. He blogs at http://www.einekleine.com.

Round table on Students' Union responses, programmes and strategies alongside thoughts on further research.
Abigail Burman, Sophie van der Ham and Kelly Temple

Abigail Burman is an American undergraduate at the University of Oxford. During her time at university she's served as her college's Equal Opportunities Officer, focusing on issues of violence and harassment and helped form the first University-wide campaign against sexual violence.

Sophie van der Ham completed a BA in English literature and linguistics at the University of Amsterdam & Edinburgh. She came to the University of Sussex to study an MA in Gender Studies and co-chaired the Women's Group on campus. She was elected welfare officer at the University of Sussex Students' Union and is carrying on the zero tolerance to sexual harassment and discrimination campaign that was started by the previous welfare officer. The campaign has been mentioned by The Guardian and aims to work constructively with the University in introducing a sexual violence policy.

The day will conclude with a general discussion, with the option to splinter into smaller groups in order to discuss research strands.

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Anglia Ruskin University, Department of Education, Research Seminars - 2014

Professor Dave Hill

ANGLIA RUSKIN UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, CRITICAL EDUCATION AND JUSTICE (CEJ) and EARLY CHILDHOOD RESEARCH GROUP (ECRG) RESEARCH SEMINARS

SEMESTER 2: ALL WELCOME – OPEN INVITATION

Wednesdays 4.30-6.30 Room: Sawyers 005

We will try, for each session have a sort of open house of 45-60 minutes, whereby research students can have 20-25 minute slots to bounce ideas, report back / present to the attendees. Sometimes these student presentations will be scheduled, at other times there will open discussion.

Semester 2 / Trimester 2 /Spring Term 2014

8 January 2014 Joint ECRG and CEJ research seminar

Dr Leena Helavaara Robertson (Middlesex University) on an aspect of Early Years/ Social Constructivism/ Critical Multilingualism, or, Conflicting Ideologies in Early Years Education 

*15 January 2014 CEJ research seminar

a) Preparing for the ICCE and BERA conferences: series of mini-presentations by possible participants

b) Linda Akomaning and Amal Hussein

5 February 2014 Joint ECRG and CEJ research seminar

 b) Doctoral Student presentations/ Discussions: Polina Chrysochou and Sharon Howden plus 2 ECRG doctoral/ conference presentations

*12 February 2014 ECRG led research seminar- and also CEJ led research seminar

Dr. Maria Nikolakaki (University of the Peloponessus, Corinth, Greece). Critical Pedagogy

Preparing for the ICCE and BERA conferences: series of mini-presentations by possible participants, in the two research cluster groups and by doctoral students within the two research clusters. Open to other doctoral and pre-doctoral students).

5 March  2014 Joint ECRG and CEJ research seminar-

a) Alpesh Maisuria (University of East London)

b) Doctoral Student Presentations/ Discussions

*12 March 2014 CEJ led research seminar-

a) Dr. Glenn Rikowski (Flow of Ideas) – ‘Crisis and Education’

b) Doctoral Student presentations/ Discussions : Polina Chryssochou, Sharon Howden

2 April 2014 Joint ECRG and CEJ research seminar

Presentations in preparation for the BERA and ICCE conferences

Trimester 3 /Summer Term

7 May 2014 Joint ECRG and CEJ research seminar

Presentations in preparation for the BERA and ICCE conferences

21 May 2014 CEJ led research seminar-

Deirdre O'Neill (University of Ulster/ InsideFilm, http://www.insidefilm.org/) Film, Prisons, Social Class and Critical Pedagogy

4 June 2014 Joint ECRG and CEJ research seminar

a) Final Preparations for the ICCE and BERA conferences: series of mini-presentations by possible participants

 b) Doctoral/ Student presentations/ Discussions: Alison Feist, Samya Cook and Alan Bradwell on progress the EdD Dissertation and Linda Akomaning on her PhD progress

*11 June 2014 ECRG led research seminar- and also CEJ led research seminar

Preparing for the ICCE and BERA conferences: series of mini-presentations by possible participants, in the two research cluster groups and by doctoral students within the two research clusters. Open to other doctoral and pre-doctoral students).

2 July 2014 Joint ECRG and CEJ research seminar

Doctoral Student and Staff Research Presentations and Discussion

Possible other Forthcoming CEJ speakers ...

Spyros Themelis (University of East Anglia, Norwich),

Nicki Spawls (Middlesex University),

Grant Banfield (Flinders University, South Australia)

Preparing for the BERA (British Education Research Association) annual conference  at the London Institute of Education, Sept 2014) and preparing for the 4th ICCE (International Conference on Critical Education) conference being held Jun23-26 at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. A series of very mini-presentations by CEJ and ECRG members in preparation for BERA 2014 and ICCE 2014

The joint cluster will organise two or three symposia for / including/ comprising ARU colleagues at BERA 2014 (in London) 23-25 Sept. 2014 and at the ICCE (in Thessaloniki, Greece) 23-25 June 2014, and at various of the joint cluster sessions (CEJ-EYRG) colleagues will be able to present ideas, drafts, problems at the regular fortnightly Weds pm (4.40-6.30) sessions in a supportive and non-intimidating atmosphere.

Many thanks. Dr Paulette Luff (co-convenor, with Dr Chris Such) Early Childhood Research Group (ECRG), and Professor Dave Hill (co-convenor with Polina Chrysochou) Critical Education and Justice Research Cluster (CEJ)

For information: paulette.luff@anglia.ac.uk or dave.hill@anglia.ac.uk

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski