“Struggle and Style: African Youth Cultures Today”

12 September 2014 University of Helsinki, Finland

Call for papers and sessions

“Struggle and Style: African Youth Cultures Today” is an international symposium organized by the University of Helsinki’s discipline of Social and Cultural Anthropology in cooperation with South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council. The symposium seeks to address current issues concerning youth cultures across Africa from an interdisciplinary perspective, and warmly welcomes contributions from across the humanities and social sciences.

This symposium expands upon the themes in the previously advertised event “Struggle and Swagg: South African Youth Today” which will form one part of the symposium program.

“Struggle and Style” approaches youth as a flexible and often prolonged period of life; according to conventional measures, such as establishing an independent household, many Africans remain reluctantly “youthful” well into their 30s. Yet even by more basic measurements, Africa is experiencing a demographic “bulge” with approximately sixty per cent the population under 24 years of age. Subject to high levels of unemployment and relatively low levels of education, Africa’s youth are alternatively depicted as a “ticking time bomb” ready to explode if new opportunities are not made available, and a vital asset to be harnessed in rapidly developing economies.

It is in the cultural sphere that African youth are increasingly exercising their economic muscle and making their voices heard. Youth are the key producers of popular media and style, and the key market for information and communications technology. Youth culture, particularly popular music, has had an important economic and social impact on African society and the global African diaspora.

It is therefore necessary to understand African youth cultures from perspectives that move beyond the familiar narratives of youth as a social problem or youth as an undifferentiated statistical cohort. This symposium seeks to work towards more nuanced understandings of the cultural lives of young people in Africa, taking into account not just factors such as ethnic and class differences, but questions of consumerism, gender, globalization, media, migration, music, sexuality, spirituality, technology, pedagogy and urbanization.

We invite individual presentations (30 minutes including discussion) and complete sessions (90 minutes). Proposals (abstracts with approximately 250 words) with contact information should be submitted to struggleandstyle@gmail.com by 21 July 2014. Notifications of acceptance will sent on 25 July 2014 by email. News and updates on the program will be available on the project blog (www.southafricanyouthtoday.com).  We have confirmed two international keynote speakers, Alex Perullo (Bryant University, USA) and Benita Moolman (Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa).

The symposium organizers regret that they are unavailable to provide funds for the travel or accommodation costs of participants.

The Academia Europaea Knowledge Hub Wrocław in cooperation with the University of Wrocław invite young scholars (PhD candidates and postdocs), to take part in the SeminarLiterary margins and digital media to be held in Wrocław (Poland) on 15-17 April 2015.

Full information is available at: www.acadeuro.wroclaw.pl  and on www.ae-info.org.

36th Annual Southwest Popular / American Culture Association Conference
February 11-14, 2015
Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center
Albuquerque, NM
http://www.southwestpca.org

The Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area welcomes papers,
panels, and other proposals on games (digital and otherwise) and their
study and development. The Area is also offering a three hour workshop
titled “Empathy Game Design: A Quick Introduction” on the first day of
the conference.

– PROPOSAL SUBMISSION –
Possible topics include (but are in no way limited to):

• Advertising (both in-game and out)
• Alternative reality games
• Archiving and artifactual preservation
• Competitive/clan gaming
• Design and development
• Economic and industrial histories and studies
• Educational games and their pedagogies
• Foreign language games and culture
• Game art/game-based art (including game sound)
• Haptics and interface studies
• Histories of games
• Localization
• Machinima
• MOGs, MMOGs, and other forms of online/networked gaming
• Performance
• Pornographic games
• Religion and games
• Representations of race and gender
• Representations of space and place
• The rhetoric of games and game systems
• Serious games
• Strategy games
• Table-top games and gaming
• Technological, aesthetic, economic, and ideological convergence
• Theories of play
• Wireless and mobile gaming

For paper proposals: Please submit a 250 word abstract and brief
biographical sketch to the conference event management site:
http://conference2014.southwestpca.org/. Make sure to select the Game
Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice topic area. The submission
deadline is 11/1/2014.

For panel and other proposals: Feel free to query the Area Chair first
(Judd Ruggill, Arizona State University, jruggill@asu.edu). Panel and
other proposals should also be submitted to the conference event
management site and include the information requested for individual
paper proposals (each on a separate submission form), as well as a
100-word statement of the panel’s raison d’etre and any noteworthy
organizational features.

As always, proposals are welcome from any and all scholars (including
graduate students, independent scholars, and tenured, tenure-track,
and emeritus faculty) and practitioners (developers, artists,
archivists, and so forth). Also, unusual formats, technologies, and
the like are encouraged.

– AWARD –
Graduate students accepted to present in this area may apply for the
conference’s monetary Computer Culture and Game Studies Award. The
full paper is due to the judges on 12/15/2014. For details on this
award and the conference’s other awards for graduate students, see
http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards/.

– WORKSHOP –
The Area Research Coordinator is pleased to announce this year’s Game
Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice workshop, “Empathy Game Design: A
Quick Introduction.” The workshop will be led by Carly Kocurek
(Illinois Institute of Technology). Participants will explore the
emerging genre of empathy games, which includes titles such as
_Depression Quest_, _Spent_, _That Dragon_, _Cancer_, and _dys4ia_,
and work collaboratively to conceptualize games of their own. No
technical knowledge or prior experience is necessary.

The workshop is limited to 10 participants, and the goal is for
participants to leave with a game concept and list of potential
development tools. The limited number of participants will ensure that
everyone involved will get the time and attention they need. If you
would like to enroll in the workshop, please email a 100-250 word
statement of interest to the Area Research Coordinator (Jennifer
deWinter at jdewinter@wpi.edu) and Carly Kocurek (ckocurek@iit.edu).
Nota bene: There is no charge for the workshop (for registered
conference presenters/attendees).

The submission deadline is 1/15/15.

– COLLABORATION & PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES –
The Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area is international in
scope and emphasizes diversity, an openness to innovative approaches
and presentations, and the energetic practice of post-conference
collaboration and publication.

The Area Research Coordinator would like to note the following
publication opportunities for this year’s participants:

1) The SWPACA’s peer-reviewed journal, _Dialogue: The
Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy_, welcomes
submissions. Please visit http://journaldialogue.org for information
on the journal and submission process.

2) As an official affiliate of the SWPACA, _Reconstruction: Studies in
Contemporary Culture_ always welcomes papers, especially from new
scholars and from emerging disciplines. For more information about the
journal, visit http://reconstruction.eserver.org/.

For more information about these opportunities, or to discuss others,
please email the Area Research Coordinator (Jennifer deWinter,
jdewinter@wpi.edu).