Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs5th Annual International and Interdisciplinary Conference Call for Papers From Scroll to Scrolling: Shifting cultures of language and identity March 9-11, 2017Middlebury College, Vermont, USALanguage and identity are inseparable. Changes in writing technology, on the one hand, and inpower dynamics, on the other, shape communities and individual identities. This conferenceexamines two intertwined themes: One, the impact of the production and circulation of texts,over time and place, on practices of writing, reading, and the transmission of knowledge. Two,the way in which power imbalances affect language use, community, and identity. As writingtechnologies emerge, decisions are made regarding what knowledge gets preserved and(re)produced or forgotten and lost. Changes in technologies of writing and access to theircontrol have profound effects on cultural survival and social change.The conference will address questions such as
- How are individual and cultural identities linked to the materiality of a given language
and its writing system (e.g., the painterly quality of Chinese ideographs; Helveticatypeface)? Are there universal elements of written technology that transcendparticulars? Is digital technology—the ability to type any language on a singlekeyboard—flattening or erasing the materiality of individual languages?
- How have the physical aspects of the production and circulation of texts (e.g. carvings,
scroll, codex, manuscript, screen) shaped knowledge production over time? How havechanges in ways of writing and reading lent new meanings to ‘old’ texts, and newreading experiences?
- How does the study of ancient technologies of writing and reading—epigraphy,
scholarship of Chinese bone script—inform contemporary understandings of culturalcommunity? Does it suggest essential continuities? Or does it suggest a rupture withthe past in which technology has fundamentally changed the nature of communication?
- How have national literatures and cultures negotiated the distance between their oral
and written languages through time? How have uses of technologies of writing createdor reflected this distance?
- How have religious communities negotiated changes in technologies of writing and what
role have sacred languages played in the construction of shared religious identitiesacross linguistically diverse communities?Presenters may want to address the following themes:
- Language and identity
- Materiality of language
- Sacred language
- Orality, literacy, and new media
- Poetics, textuality, politics
- Censorship and language policies: threatened and disappearing languages
- Technologies of writing—multiplicity, diversity and change
- Technology, hybridity, authorship
We invite papers that address these issues from a range of disciplinary perspectives as theypertain to different historical periods and geographical locations.Those interested in presenting at the conference should send an abstract (no more than 250words) and their curriculum vitae by October 1, 2016, to the organizers below. The selectionprocess is competitive.Funds are available to support travel and lodging of all participants.Organizers:Tamar Mayer, Professor of Geography and Director of the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs,mayer@middlebury.eduSteve Snyder, Professor of Japanese Studies and Dean of Language Schools,ssnyder@middlebury.eduJuana Gamero de Coca, Associate Professor of Spanish, jgamero@middlebury.eduMarybeth Nevins, Associate Professor of Anthropology, mnevins@middlebury.edu