If you are having any difficulty using this website, please contact the Help Desk at Help@nullHofstra.edu or 516-463-7777 or Student Access Services at SAS@nullhofstra.edu or 516-463-7075. Please identify the webpage address or URL and the specific problems you have encountered and we will address the issue.

Skip to Main Content
Cultural Center event

HOFSTRA CULTURAL CENTER
presents a symposium

CULTURE AND IDENTITY CONFIGURATIONS:
REFLECTIONS ON THE 21ST CENTURY

Thursday and Friday, October 26 and 27, 2017

CULTURE AND IDENTITY CONFIGURATIONS: REFLECTIONS ON THE 21ST CENTURY, Thursday and Friday, October 26 and 27, 2017

We invite the submission of papers to be presented at the Culture and Identity Configurations: Reflections on the 21st Century symposium to be held at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.

The symposium is an exceptional opportunity to bring together diverse perspectives and methodologies that are concerned with revealing and describing the intricacies and contradictions of contemporary identity discourses. An underlying methodological diversity is considered a prime requirement for addressing these complexities and contradictions, as ours is a time of increasing misapprehension among identity groups. Researchers from a broad spectrum of disciplines will examine how identity is shaped, articulated and fostered in language, literature, religion, history, the arts, film, sociology, etc. The symposium also invites contributions that examine the role of immigration in forging and transforming contemporary identities.

Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University Joseph G. Astman Distinguished Symposium Scholar, will deliver the keynote address on Thursday, October 26, 1:15-2:15 p.m.

SYMPOSIUM CO-DIRECTORS

Alfonso J. García Osuna, PhD
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
School of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts
Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Email: Alfonso.J.Garcia-Osuna[at]hofstra.edu

Sabine Loucif, PhD
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
School of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts
Hofstra College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

  • SYMPOSIUM THEMES

    SYMPOSIUM THEMES INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE FOLLOWING:

    LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

    • Literature and the creation of identitary patterns
    • Portrayal of ethnic, racial and religious groups in literary works
    • "Immigrants, foreigners and outsiders" in literary works: conventions and formulas
    • Language as badge of identity
    • Language and identity crises
    • Identity in fictional multicultural environments

    FILM

    • Film and the creation of identitary patterns
    • Portrayal of ethnic, racial and religious groups in filmic works
    • “Immigrants, foreigners and outsiders” in film: conventions and formulas
    • Filmic portrayal of identity crises
    • Documentaries and their treatment of identity
    • The ethnic/racial environment of good-guy, bad-guy dichotomies in early film such as the “greaser” movies

    HISTORY

    • Identity and history: contemporary conflicts and their historical backdrop
    • The nation as a source of identity
    • Regions of historically overlapping identities (e.g., Catalonian  Spaniard)
    • Regions of historically conflicting identities (e.g., Christian Turk; Arab Israeli)
    • Cultural identity in ancient peoples
    • The new European identity model
    • China and India as identitary kaleidoscopes
    • Latin America as identity crucible

    RELIGION

    • Religiosity as a mark of identity
    • Religious minorities and competing identities
    • Religion and gender identity
    • Religion as instrument for the creation of identity
    • The sacralization of identity

    SOCIOLOGY

    • Sociology and its treatment of identity issues
    • Immigration, diasporas and identity
    • Globalization and identity
    • Gender identity
    • The defense of “original, native” identities as apologia for the rejection of the immigrant
    • Identities and their hypothetical “innate” characteristics

    THE ARTS

      • Identity and painting
      • Identity as expressed in music: sounds and instruments
      • Identity expressed in physical space: urban environments, buildings, green spaces, monuments
      • Dance as an expression of ethnic identity
      • Clothing as badge of identity
  • DOWNLOAD CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

For more information, please contact the Hofstra Cultural Center at 516-463-5669.

Schedule Thumbnail