The Human and Humanities in Literature, Language and Culture
A landmark international conference hosted by
The University of Sydney
4-6 February 2009
The 35th Congress of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association (AULLA) will be a landmark event. As the first decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, it is time for a major reassessment of the human and humanities in literature, language and culture. Scholars in these fields are invited to submit proposals for papers and panels relating to this theme throughout history and into the future. The conference has a dual aim of promoting: (1) detailed research into the human (and inhuman) in literature, languages and culture; and (2) broad-scale exploration of the past, present and future definitions of and directions for the humanities. There will be opportunities for delegates to have their papers considered for refereed publication. Plenary speakers are:
Deirdre Coleman, Robert Wallace Professor of English, University of Melbourne
Debjani Ganguly, Head of the Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University
Elizabeth Grosz, Dept. of Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University, New Jersey
Jeffrey Riegel, Professor and Head of School of Languages, University of Sydney
Bob White, Professor of English, University of Western Australia
Please follow this link to plenary speakers' cvs and lists of publications.
Presenters are invited to consider the following issues:
- How are the human and inhuman represented, constituted and reconfigured in literature, languages, film and culture?
- What do the human and inhuman signify to authors, directors, translators, compilers, readers, spectators and thinkers?
- What are the filmic, literary and cultural theories of the human and inhuman that resonate with and illuminate our texts?
- What are the ethics, politics and aesthetics of the human and humanities?
- What are the human and humanities in the twenty-first century and what have they been in the past?
- What are limits of and possibilities for our current disciplines within the humanities?
- What are the specifically Australasian contexts for the human and humanities?
Refereed proceedings of the conference will be published within 2009 as a special electronic edition of the associations's journal, AUMLA.
Abstracts (200 words) for papers and suggestions for themed panels should be sent to abstracts@aulla.com.au by 31 December 2008.
General enquiries to:
Colin Anderson (AULLA President) (c.g.anderson@massey.ac.nz)
Liam Semler (AULLA Secretary) (liam.semler@usyd.edu.au).
Download registration form here.
