European Studies conference at Portsmouth: language as a barrier to Europeanisation?

The Centre for European and International Studies (CEISR) at the University of Portsmouth cordially invites you to a conference entitled:

Towards a European Society?
Transgressing Disciplinary Boundaries in European Studies Research
SAVE THE DATE: Thursday June 28th - Saturday June 30th 2012
 

Please note the language/translation strand of this conference, under the theme 'Is language a barrier to Europeanisation?' Proposals for panels on this topic or topics relating to translation and Europeanisation are warmly welcomed. 

Call for Panels:

In present-day Europe it is difficult to define any domain of life as purely national. There is an important European (and/or global) dimension to most contemporary economic, social, political and cultural matters. For researchers of the European Union and the wider Europe this is both an exciting and a challenging time. Recent research has moved past the original narrow focus on politics and policy-making in ‘Brussels’ to explore the manifold dimensions of the emerging European society. Thus, to give but a few examples, political scientists are conducting research into cross-border networks and the impact of EU policies on national legal and political systems; sociologists study elite formation, socialisation patterns and multiple identities in Europe; historians are exploring the comparative experiences of developing societies and states in the nineteenth century and their transnational legacies in present-day Europe; cultural studies researchers are increasingly interested in European dimensions of everyday culture as well as ‘high culture’ as a tool in the creation of shared history, memory and identity, and language scholars are interrogating communities of communication and the issues which caused, and continue to cause, language convergence and divergence in a changing European landscape.

At the same time, researchers with an interest in the EU and the wider Europe need to cooperate even more closely across disciplinary divides to better understand what is now frequently but loosely referred to as the ‘Europeanisation’ of Europe. To this end, this conference sets out to respond to these challenges, to foster transdisciplinary dialogue and to define new agendas for research on the EU and the wider Europe, bringing together researchers from political science, sociology, linguistics, history, cultural studies and other fields.
We propose discussion of the following broad themes in contemporary and historical perspective, but we also welcome proposals for panels with a different focus which nevertheless – importantly – transgress disciplinary boundaries:

Liberté, egalité, fraternité: society and state formation in Europe
Governing Europe: transnational fields and networks
Europeanisation? Changing national and sub-national polities
Language: barrier to Europeanisation?
Inclusion and exclusion: Immigrants and minorities in national and European societies
Unity in diversity? The local and regional in Europe
Contact and convergence: popular culture as banal Europeanisation?
Museums, theatres, cinema: transnationalizing high culture in Europe
Changing the Other: Europe in the world

Panel proposals should include the panel title and a short panel abstract (200 words max), a list of panellists (3-4) with their names and institutional affiliation, paper titles and short paper abstracts (150 words max).
Please send panel proposals to donna.ferrand at port.ac.uk (CEISR secretary) no later than 31st July 2011. More details will be available in due course from http://www.port.ac.uk/europeanstudiesconference/.