Metropolitan Processes of Hybridization: Urban Immigration in Literature and Visual Arts (NeMLA 2021)

Nicole Bonino Announcement
Location
Pennsylvania, United States
Subject Fields
Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Environmental History / Studies, Humanities, Immigration & Migration History / Studies, Literature

Conference:

Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

11th-14th, March 2021, Philadelphia

 

Panel:

Metropolitan Processes of Hybridization: Urban Immigration in Literature and Visual Arts

 

Chair:

Nicole Bonino, PhD

University of Virginia

 

Description:

In line with the theme of the 52nd NeMLA Annual Convention, the aim of this session is to explore how the humanities depict contemporary cultural and social challenges through the arrangement of innovation and tradition. Rather than an irreconcilable dichotomy, this binomial combination leads to valuable cultural meanings, collaborating to the transmission of memories and experiences via both canonical and traditional forms of representations and innovative, technological, and interdisciplinary methods.

 

Similar hybrid processes are perceivable as well into several aspects of modern life, from the socio-cultural effects of immigration to urban architecture and metropolitan art. World-famous theorists, such as Néstor García Canclini, Homi Bhabha, and Edward Said, investigate the phenomenon of cultural hybridization, describing this concept as the emergence of a new multiculturalism in which different cultural forms coexist. According to this interpretation, instead of being locked up in the past, tradition constantly interferes in the present, demanding the transformation and hybridization of intercultural relations.

 

Contemporary metropolises are a powerful example of hybrid constructions, since they are the result of the sedimentation, juxtaposition, and intersection of cultural traditions and innovation greatly determined by migratory flows affected by climate change and global crises. The humanities, in both their traditional and innovative forms, play a fundamental role in the registration, conservation, and dissemination of these diasporic dynamics. In an effort to spread awareness on the interconnections between urban growth, immigration, literature, and art, this session aims to examine the implications involved in the adaptation of diasporic groups in the city and its periphery and how these dynamics are represented by contemporary authors, filmmakers, and artists.

 

Submission guidelines:

Submit your abstract (250 words max) here. Only abstracts received through the NeMLA web site may be considered. Email submissions should be directed to the portal.

 

Timeline and deadlines:

  • June 15: The abstract submission interface opens.
  • September 30: Deadline to submit abstracts.
  • October 15: Final notification on the acceptance status of submitted abstracts.
  • December 9: Deadline for membership and registration fee.
  • March 11-14: Conference

 

Contact Information

Nicole Bonino, PhD

University of Virginia 

nb3hf@virginia.edu 

Contact Email
nb3hf@virginia.edu