FW: Call for Papers/Fortress Europe

Fortress Europe and Its ?Others?: Cultural Representations in Film,
Media and the Arts

4-6 April 2005

Institute of Romance Studies
School of Advanced Study
University of London

Call for Papers

The historical and mythical layers embedded in Western European
attitudes towards the ?other? and the ?stranger? are currently being
reinforced by growing resistance to the flow of migrants and refugees
from non-European and Eastern European countries, as well as to
Pan-European trends towards unification of the continent.  This
resistance has been expressed most vocally by the ?far-Right? populist
parties and movements, but also in more restrictive immigration and
refugee laws throughout the liberal democracies of Western Europe.
Contemporary Europe?s new ?others? are immigrants and refugees from poor
countries particularly from Africa and Asia.  
Although Europe, as a geopolitical entity and as an ideological concept,
has itself rested on an historical process of absorbing, hybridizing,
and assimilating different people from diverse ethnic and national
groups, European countries have tended to view migration as challenging
and threatening their territory, identity and ways of imagining
themselves and others.
  
The aim of the conference is to explore how the public debate about
Fortress Europe has been negotiated in the cultural and aesthetic
spheres within a wide range of representational forms, from the media to
film, photography, literature, theatre, and the arts. Its aim is also to
assess the impact that such representations may have on public opinion
with regard to the issues surrounding immigration and asylum.  We are
also interested in contributions from and on Europe?s ?Others??
themselves, particularly on their own perceptions, imaginations, and
fantasies of Fortress Europe. 

Proposals for twenty minute papers, should be submitted in the form of a
200 word abstract by 30 June 2004 to Yosefa Loshitzky
yosefal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:yosefal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>.  Early
submissions are welcome.  We plan to publish selected essays in a
refereed monograph.