Rewriting Lyotard aims to bring together students and faculty from the University of Alberta and universities across the US and UK, whose research considers the work of French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard. Over the course of two and half days of papers and discussion, presenters and audience members will have the chance to engage across disciplines and specific research topics and explore the many facets that Lyotard’s thought has to offer. We are keen to engage both students and faculty across a range of disciplines in order to promote an interdisciplinary event that takes as its focus the intersections between various areas of research. The rich and varied nature of Lyotard’s writings, which include topics such as art, politics, ethics, literature, capitalism and history, creates the possibility for these cross-disciplinary conversations.

The last few years have seen a resurgence in scholarship on Jean-François Lyotard, including a series of recent and on-going translations of his work into English (Enthusiasm, Discourse, Figure), the bi-lingual five-volume Writings on Contemporary Art and Artists, and a number of recent publications of essays on his work in both French and English (Minima Memoria, Gender After Lyotard, Les Transformateurs Lyotard, and the collection in French entitled simply Lyotard). With this conference, we aim to further this interest and foster its development by bringing together the disparate community of scholars working on various facets of Lyotard’s thought. Writers and artists interested in Lyotard’s philosophy are also welcome.

In “Rewriting Modernity”, Lyotard takes up the notion of “rewriting” as a way of avoiding the periodization inherent in the term “postmodern”. He links the act of re-writing to the process of “working through” the event – including the event of reading itself. By framing this conference around the concept of re-writing, we invite scholars from various disciplines to share their workings-through and re-writings of Lyotard’s texts, ideas, and concepts. We thus not only seek to pay tribute to his work, but challenge and engage in dialogue with his philosophies and, as he repeatedly invited his readers to do, explore how we might think differently, think otherwise, and think on radically new terms.

Taking as our focus the forthcoming collection of essays on Lyotard’s later writings, “Jean-François Lyotard: New Encounters”, we are particularly interested in papers addressing the “later” themes and works, but other topics on Lyotard are also welcome. Areas of interest might include, but are not limited to, aesthetics/philosophy of art, ethics, politics, gender, confession, and biography, as well as Lyotard’s relation to philosophy, the social sciences, cultural studies, art history, and psychoanalysis.

As an alternative to one or two keynotes speakers, we have instead confirmed participation from a number of scholars and students from philosophy, cultural theory/studies, art and drama who will provide a strong base for the conference sessions:

Herman Parret (Leuven University), Keith Crome (Manchester Metropolitan University), Rachel Jones (University of Dundee), Vlad Ionescu (Leuven University), Neal Curtis (University of Nottingham), Matthew Pateman (Kingston University), Claire Nouvet (Emory University), Stephen Barker (University of California, Irvine), Antony Hudek (University College of London), Matthew McLennan (Ottawa University) and Christopher Bamford (Leeds Metropolitan University).
The conference is sponsored by HM Tory Chair, Rob Shields, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta and numerous Departments.

Organizing committee:
Heidi Bickis, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Sociology
Rob Shields, HM Tory Chair, Department of Sociology/Art and Design
Peter W. Milne, Department of Philosophy, Santa Clara University
Kent Still, Department of Philosophy, Emory University

Please send inquiries to Rewritinglyotard@gmail.com.

-Rob

• Amanda Lagerkvist, The Future Is Here: Media, Memory, and Futurity in Shanghai
• Anca Pusca, Industrial and Human Ruins of Postcommunist Europe
• Tim Hecker, The Slum Pastoral: Helicopter Visuality and Koolhaas’s Lagos
• Kenneth R. Culton and Ben Holtzman, The Growth and Disruption of a “Free Space”: Examining a Suburban Do It Yourself (DIY) Punk Scene
• Brian Morris, Un/Wrapping Shibuya: Place, Media, and Punctualization
• Anthony Lambert, (Re)Producing Country: Mapping Multiple Australian Spaces
• Andrea Mubi Brighenti, At the Wall: Graffiti Writers, Urban Territoriality, and the Public Domain
• Andrew C. Sparkes, David H.K. Brown and Elizabeth Partington, The “Jock Body” and the Social Construction of Space: The Performance and Positioning of Cultural Identity

Carspace (Thanks to cool design site yatzer.com)

The department for urban structure and transport planning of Technical University of Munich/Germany and the Institute for Mobility Research (ifmo), a research facility of BMW Group, are pleased to announce an international call to researchers for up to 6 post-doctoral fellowships within the strategic field of “Mobility Cultures in Megacities”.

Duration of Fellowship: 6 months (extension of 2 months possible)

Location: Munich, Germany

Academic Partners: Technische Universität München, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

Disciplines: Urban transport and mobility; social sciences with a specialization in mobility and transport research; other fields of study directly related

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The major objective of the program is to generate a profound understanding of mobility patterns and mobility cultures in megacities in different parts of the world. Fellows with a regional background in these cities are asked to collaborate on a set of research questions in an attractive, interdisciplinary and intercultural environment. The characteristics and challenges of the cities shown in the map have already been analysed – those places are of specific interest for the fellowship program. Please contact us for further details and background on the current research approach.

KEY RESEARCH INTERESTS INCLUDE

- Identifying the characteristics, opportunities and constraints of the megacity studied like demographic, social, economic and regulatory conditions

- Analyzing long-term mobility decisions like location choice/urbanization, motorization,…

- Studying every-day mobility patterns like activity-chains, mode and destination choices in function of spatial structure and transport supply as well as underlying social motivations

- Investigating mobility cultures, lifestyles, perceptions and attitudes in the respective cities and their “points of entry” in order to learn if and how they might change over time

- Assessing stakeholder interaction, local planning and policy discourses and their cultural background in order to develop perspectives for “good governance“

- Identifying challenges and developing strategies for the future of urban mobility

CONCEPT

The fellowship addresses post-docs in the following disciplines:

- urban transport and mobility

- social or cultural sciences with a specialization in mobility or transport research

- other fields of study directly related

Fellows from different parts of the world will be working on these topics at mostly the same time in Munich, Germany. They are asked to contribute substantially to the interdisciplinary collaboration on mobility from the perspective of one specific megacity. This should include previous research work and where appropriate additional in-depth investigations. Scientific exchange between the fellows is an integral part of the program in order to learn from the respective experiences and results in a transdisciplinary approach. Research results must be documented in a well-founded research paper including documentation of data, methodology and interpretation of results and should contribute to a transfer of knowledge enabling to tackle the global challenges of future urban mobility in megacities.

Candidates should have a cultural background in one or several of the cities listed in the map above. They do not necessarily need to be residents of the cities; also scientists with an outstanding knowledge about a special city are welcome. Fellows will be asked to collect and analyze relevant data and material regarding their research before their stay in Munich.

The fellowship program will be accompanied by scientific supervision on behalf of Technische Universität München (TUM), Prof. G. Wulfhorst, Dr. S. Kesselring and Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main, Prof. M. Lanzendorf and Guest Prof. J. Kenworthy. Additionally the program is incorporated into a broad international expert network of scientists and practitioners from several disciplines.

Conclusions will be drawn in a closing conference and related international publications.

FACTS AND DATES

The research grant at TUM is funded by ifmo und comprises a monthly fellowship of 2500 Euro, travel expenses and additional research funds / family support (in function of individual proposals). Fellows will be asked to work in Munich, the relocation services of BMW Group and TUM will assist accommodation issues.

Applications are to be submitted to ifmo (by e-mail to the address below) by August 31st 2010.

The following documents need to be submitted (in English) with the application:

- Letter of motivation

- CV and list of publications

- Summary of own research work on related topics (2 pages)

- Earliest potential date of starting the fellowship stay in Munich – expected to be in 2011

- 2 letters of reference

Principal selection criteria are thematic qualification, interest in intercultural and interdisciplinary scientific exchange as well as relevance of previous work. Candidates will be invited to an international expert workshop taking place from November 17th to 19th 2010 in Munich.

FURTHER INFORMATION AND ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATION

Institute for Mobility Research (ifmo)

A Research Facility of BMW Group

80788 München

Germany

E-mail: irene.feige@ifmo.de

Website: http://www.ifmo.de/

Find this information and download the paper on our website http://www.sv.bv.tum.de/index.php/de/aktuelles/94-post-doctoral-fellowships-mobility-cultures-in-megacities.

The work is introduced as a point and space which marks an end point, a crossing and opening onto a new space:

“The terminus is the end, the boundary, and the border: this exhibition is a celebration of these borders but not an exaltation; it is a playful engagement with reflexivity and positionality; it asks what lies beyond and what lies within. No longer content to theorize the ends of the discipline and possibilities of new media, new locations, or new methods of asking old questions, the ethnographers in this exhibition are working in capacity to develop generative ethnographies that do not subordinate the sensorium to the expository and theoretical text.”

The University of Alberta Faculty of Extension’s City-Region Studies Centre, Edmonton Alberta Canada, in association with the Intermedia Research Studio and the Space and Culture Research Group welcomes applications from both Canadian and international applicants for a one to two year postdoctorate or research associate position.  Successful candidates will be expected to contribute approximately 50% of the time to engaged socio-economic research on urban and rural regions, governance, identity and planning and 50% of their time to their own theoretical research project which aligns with the focus of the Faculty on the scholarship and practice of engagement, the urban/rural/regional mandate of the Centre and contributes to the work of the Space and Culture Research Group.   Please submit a 1 page project proposal, indicating collaborators, partners and/or support in hand.  A background in political economy, public administration and/or small town and rural community development and policy research is an asset. Edmonton, the provincial capital, offers regional economic clusters in food processing, networks of organic food cultivation and farmers’ markets, nanotechnology, health research and videogame production.

Areas of current interest at the University of Alberta’s Intermedia Research Studio align with those of the Space and Culture Research Group but also include recent areas such as visual culture and ’second geographies’,  participatory, arts-based methods, and embodiment.  Areas being written up (including fieldwork on syncretism, race and communication in Salvador Bahia Brazil) and upcoming research is projected at many scales from the virtuality of sovereignty and the case of the Northwest Passage, to airport design, to cyborg identities, to the socio-economic aspects of nanotechnology and the material culture and regional impact of Canada’s National Institute for Nanotechnology.

This is a full time position based in Edmonton, competitively remunerated on a postdoctoral scale.  A fully complete Ph.D. is required at time of application.  A formal announcement will be available shortly on the University of Alberta website.  The University offers an accessible and diverse workplace.  This position will remain open until filled.

Fully funded Masters and Ph.D awards and visiting doctoral studentships in urban culture are also available in sociology, interdisciplinary studies, and in art and design at the University of Alberta: application deadline early Dec.  Contact the Department concerned.   The University is a global top 100 centre of research and features a vibrant cultural studies and social theory scene, as well as one of the best libraries, archives and data repositories (including GIS) in North America. The Space and Culture Research Group meets bi-weekly and provides a framework for research by faculty, students and postdoctoral researchers across the social sciences and humanities, concerned with any aspect of social space, place, urban culture or design.

Please contact: Space and Culture Research Group c/o Maryanne Wynne, Manager, City-Region Studies Centre, University of Alberta, Enterprise Square, 2-184 10230 Jasper Ave. Edmonton AB Canada T5J 4P6 Tel +1 780.492.9957

]]> http://www.spaceandculture.org/2009/09/24/space-and-culture-postdoc/feed/ 0 http://www.spaceandculture.org/2009/09/17/anne-galloway-web-book-reviews-editor/ http://www.spaceandculture.org/2009/09/17/anne-galloway-web-book-reviews-editor/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:31:31 +0000 Anne Galloway http://www.spaceandculture.org/?p=1032 Once a week for the next month or so, readers can expect to see updates and announcements from the journal editors and our bloggers—and as Web Editor, I thought I should get us started.

First, I’m very excited to announce that in November I take up a new permanent position as Senior Lecturer in Design Research at the School of Design, Victoria University of Wellington. Besides being super excited about moving to New Zealand, I’m proud to be joining such impressive colleagues and students doing world-class work. I’m also really looking forward to learning, and blogging, more about the spaces and cultures of the southern hemisphere!

Although I’m feeling quite spoiled knowing that I’ll get two summers this year, I imagine teaching in the new Culture+Context degree programme will offer plenty of challenges, as well as  opportunities. I’ll be developing courses in design+culture and design anthropology, as well as co-teaching a design research class, which will no doubt help me make new connections between sociality, spatiality and materiality. I’m also working to establish the Design Culture Laboratory and starting my new research project, Counting Sheep: Using RFID to Explore NZ Wool Industries.

In other news, I’ve been collaborating with the Touch project, led by Timo Arnall and based in the Interaction Design department of the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The project explores NFC and RFID technologies to enable people to interact with everyday objects and situations through their mobile devices. Earlier this year I completed re/touch, a website that “brings together hundreds of cross-cultural examples of social norms and values involving touch to help designers and researchers create design briefs, refine interaction scenarios, define game play or otherwise get inspired to think, make and do things touch-related.” The Oslo super-team designed an interactive exhibition for re/touch that showed at Nordes 09 a couple of weeks ago, so keep an eye on the project blog for more on that. My current work involves a material culture analysis of the project’s RFID objects collection.

Long-time readers may also remember me from my research blog, purse lip square jaw. I’ve just started blogging again after a year or so hiatus, and I hope you’ll visit me there too.

Over the next week, I’ll be posting some new book reviews here—as well as a call for reviewers and online book review guidelines. I hope you’ll join the conversations!

As the journal’s Web & Book Reviews Editor, I’ll be posting some outstanding book reviews and asking people who would like to review books for us to get in touch with me.

I’m also looking forward to introducing new members of the Space and Culture team, and we’ll post updates from everyone else too so that you know what we’ve been up to.

Of course, we’re still tracking interesting things online to share with readers, and we have some observations and reflections of our own in the pipe.

In any case, we’re really looking forward to all of this and hope you are too. Stay tuned for more!

Urban Salon, London.  Recent talk of note: Illegal’ Geographies of the City: Everyday Places of Water and Sanitation in a New Delhi Squatter Settlement, Ayona Datta (Sociology and Cities Programme, LSE)

City Group,  Berkeley-Stanford.  Recently of note: roundtable discussion of Lefebvre’s Writings on Cities

Globalization and World Cities Network, Loughborough UK.  Recently of note: several new reports on cities, knowledge and education.

-Rob

The University of Alberta welcomes applications from both Canadian and international applicants for fully funded positions for Masters and Doctorates across the range of social science and humanities disciplines starting in Sept. 2009.   Competitive awards at the Masters, Doctorate and Postdoctoral levels of research.  Now in our centennial year, The University is a major centre of research and features a vibrant cultural studies and social theory scene, as well as one of the best libraries, archives and data repositories (including GIS) in Canada and North America. The Space and Culture Research Group meets bi-weekly and provides a framework for research by faculty, students and postdoctoral researchers, regardless of Department, concerned with any aspect of social space, place, urban culture or design.  An art-based methods in the social sciences panel was amongst the numerous events over the last year.

Also of interest: the Department of Art and Design will shortly announce a competition for a Senior, Tier 1, Canada Research Chair in Design. Stay tuned.

And, the Department of Sociology has a tenure-track, open specialization, Assistant Professor in Social Theory, Application deadline: Oct 6 2008.  See this and other ads here.

I supervise in the Departments of Sociology and Art and Design but am also involved in the City Region Studies Centre. The Department of Sociology also hosts graduate students in Interdisciplinary Studies (pursuing topics such as painting and ethics, music and media, semiotics and medical visualization). I am also involved in supervision in Education, and the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies.

Areas of current interest at the University of Alberta’s Intermedia Research Studio align with those of Space and Culture, but also include recent areas such as visual culture and ’second geographies’,  areas being written up (including fieldwork on syncretism, race and communication in Salvador Bahia Brazil) and upcoming areas at many scales from the virtuality of sovereignty and the case of the Northwest Passage, to airport design, to cyborg identities, to the social aspects of nanotechnology and the material culture of Canada’s National Institute for Nanotechnology.

International experts visiting the Department this Fall include Anne Game (UNSW).  Recent visitors have included Andre Lemos (FACOM, UFBA, Salvador Brazil) researching locative media, Vince Miller (Social Science, University of Canterbury UK) researching social aspects of the internet, Giles Lane and Orlaugh Wood (Proboscis, London UK) presenting on artist activists and community art.

Postdoctoral Fellowships: Among Canada’s most prestigious research awards, Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowships are open to qualified candidates, both domestic and international, who do not currently hold a postdoc or faculty position. Applicants are encouraged to write directly to the head of a relevant department, and applications are accepted from December through January, with some awards decisions made as early as mid January. Killam Postdocs have significant value and are tenable for 2 years.

Space and Culture Research Group, Dept. of Sociology, 4-27 Tory Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton AB Canada T6G 2H4 Tel +1780.492.04889/0489

- Rob

No. 1 Food Mobilities, Sarah Gibson (Guest Editor)
No. 2 Visual and Material Culture of Cities, Karen Wells (Guest Editor)

No. 3 Table of Contents
No. 4 Table of Contents

Volume 11

No. 1 Picturing Second Geography, Elena Siemens and Craig Campbell (Guest Editors)
No. 2 Spaces of Hope, Ben Anderson and Jill Fenton (Guest Editor)

No. 3 Geography of Virtual Worlds, Eric Gordon (Guest Editor)
No. 4 Available this Fall

Siobhan Lynch and Ondine Park have been the indefatigable Editorial Assistants responsible for these print volumes and the online book reviews.

The journal is widely available at University libraries from Sage Publications.

- Rob