المنتدى

The Tunisian Association for English Language Studies (TAELS) invites submissions to its international conference on “The Dynamics of Resistance and Discontent,” which takes place on November 22-23, 2019 in Sousse, Tunisia.

Resistance Studies have gained critical prominence within academic circles, opening up an arena for new scholarship. By examining the relationship between discontent and resistance as a site for investigation, scholars from different areas of research have sought to respond to the challenges of a contemporary turbulent world, covering in their attempts a wide array of fields of research, ranging from politics, sociology and gender studies to social media, literature, cultural studies and artistic expressions, among many others. In this new contemporary paradigm, the upsurge of such concern constitutes a capstone of social, political, cultural and literary fermentation.

 

Several readings of power/hegemony have engaged in critiquing discourses championing dominant groups over peripheral voices. The emergence of resistant agency is the logical outcome of a dynamic world open to new understandings of human relations. The dissemination of resistant discourses in social, political, gender, media, and literary contexts has never been equaled before. In fact, resistance is, de facto, related to the corruption of a present completely dissatisfactory and disappointing for those who seek action and change to build different futures. For instance, movements of liberation across the globe and the recent accelerations of events that gave birth to social uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa along with the high tide of populism across Europe and the United States are but a few articulate expressions of this age of resistance.

 

Out of a bitter sense of disappointment and discontent with the status quo, resistance has emerged as a subversive political stance and a challenging discourse to orthodox, monovocal, institutionalized doctrines. The articulation of the emerging and the celebration of the alternative correlate with the firm belief in the urgent need for change and the vitality of demythologizing homogenizing narratives. Perceived as such, resistance becomes the gateway to transcend the narrow confines of the dominant and a statement on the apocalyptic ramifications of a disintegrating “New World Order.”It therefore becomes urgent to valorize cultural practices, social upsurges and artistic performances for being the fulcrums of change articulating a common shared sense of discontent and lively testimonies on the unprecedented pace of change.

 

With its broad scope, literature has equally served as a platform for writers adhering to resistance and refusing to succumb to silence to theorize, fictionalize and politicize a considerable variety of timely issues. The interlacing of literature and politics offers a valuable space to negotiate the dialectics of discontent and resistance and foster a review of the conjuncture between the aesthetic, political and social challenges. The literary space endows marginalized minorities and subaltern groups with the power to voice their concerns and dispose of the fetters of an imposed silence. Anglophone literatures and diasporic narratives, for instance, constitute sites of resistance as writers try to negotiate new positionings and showcase ambivalent experiences. The artistic space in general, whether poetry, film, painting or dance, relocates agency to the hands of the stigmatized and the downtrodden. The process of relocation is galvanized within a discourse that stems its energy from discontent and that prospects to subvert the worldly certainties through resistance.

 

In language studies and media discourse, research on resistance and discontent has focused on strategies of manipulation and indoctrination. The emerging analytical frameworks offered new methodological tools for linguists and researchers in the humanities in general, to unveil patterns of hegemony and dominance in different types of corpora. The critical tradition in discourse studies opened new perspectives to study expressions of resistance and gave prominence to voices that have been historically silenced or forgotten.

 

It is within this framework that the steering committee welcomes individual and panel proposals related, but not limited, to the following topics:

Submission

We welcome individual abstracts for 20-minute presentations and complete panel proposals of three or four papers treating a similar theme or topic. Priority will be given to panel proposals.

 

Participants are kindly invited to submit their proposals via one of these links:

The deadline to submit proposals is June 30, 2019. Notifications of acceptance will be communicated by July 10, 2019.

We accept abstracts and papers written in English, Arabic and French.

 

TAELS editorial board will select a number of papers that will be published after peer-reviewing in a collective volume on the proceedings of the conference.

 

Participation Fees

Presenters of accepted papers will be required to deposit a participation fee of 250 TND (250 Euros for international participants) to TAELS bank account no later than August 31, 2019.

 

Bank Account Details

IBAN: TN 59 1070 5007 0481 8407 8872

Bank address: Rue Hédi Nouira – 1001 Tunis - Tunisia

Swift code: STBKTNTT

TAELS Address: ISLG, Rue Ali Jemel, 6000, Gabes - Tunisia

 

The participation fee will cover:

 

For Tunisian participants    

For International participants

For advice and more details about transportation and accommodation, please send your requests to saidiezz@gmail.com. TAELS team will be happy to assist in making your stay most comfortable.

 

[This announcement was first published on the website of TAELS.]