QUESTIONING TRANSNATIONALISM: CULTURE, POLITICS & MEDIA

Date: 17 December 2010

Venue: Arts Building, Royal Holloway College, University of London

Sponsors: The Department of Media Arts and the Department of Politics and International Relations

Keynote Speakers: Prof. Thomas Diez (Political Science, University of Tübingen), Prof. David Chandler (Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster), Prof. Randall Halle (Department of German, University of Pittsburgh).

This interdisciplinary postgraduate conference focuses on transnationalism and securitisation, issues of increasing relevance in both Politics and International Relations, and Media and Film Studies. In both disciplines, there is currently a prevailing tendency to conceive of borders as ever increasingly permeable elements in a globalising world. New communication technologies have certainly reinforced the image that the world becomes a single place. However, a ‘borderless world’ proves to be illusionary as witnessed in the global rise of securitization practices after the September 11 terrorist attacks. ‘Transnationalism' thereby becomes a useful lens through which issues such as securitisation, borders, legitimacy, citizenship, memory and solidarity can be re-examined from a fresh theoretical perspective.

Within this framework, the major aims of this international conference are threefold: to question the extent and limitations of transnationalism; to analyse the cultural and political functions of transnational actors and the impact of new communication technologies such as the internet in the contemporary world; and finally to encourage interdisciplinary approaches and critical perspectives in the studies of transnationalism.

All are welcome! For further details, including the final programme and abstracts, please see: http://royalhollowayconference.com