The 2018 RAAS – Fulbright Conference

 Ideology, Identity, and the US: Crossroads, Freeways, Collisions

October 4-6, 2018

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Questions of cultural, racial, ethnic, civic identity and their attending ideological discourses have been tackled by anthropologists, historians, sociologists, writers, literary critics, media representatives for a long time now. This conference intends to provide a forum for the discussion of specific or general aspects of the dynamics of the paths, barriers, borderlines and channels connecting and dividing various groups and their cultures, the de- and re-mystification of social, individual, material and linguistic values of ethnic communities, the causes and effects of individual and group identity shifts, in a world of constant change, featuring massive migration flows.

From a broader perspective, the questions related to inter- and intra-ethnic shifts and their effects on identity are related to various fields that overlap, compete, and intersect with the discursive fields of cultural studies: geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, political science, international relations, law, economics and other associated fields.

Proposals for papers and panel discussions may look at, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • conceptualizing ethnicity: theoretical developments;
  • paradigms of identity: synchronic and diachronic perspectives;
  • re-mapping places of origin, contested territories, adopted homes;
  • public history and historical memory;
  • trauma and memory with dis/re-location;
  • gender and ethnicity;
  • cultures of dis/re-placement and their representation(s);
  • ethnic cultural productions: challenges and solutions;
  • diasporic re-negociations in a digitalized/globalized world;
  • migration situatedness: gender and ethnicity;
  • crossing national/ethnic/racial borders;
  • (im)migrant mobility/fluidity/instability: conflict and reconciliation.

We are pleased to announce that

Ann Marie Plane, Professor in the Department of History at University of California Santa Barbara, US.

Philip M. Hosay, Professor, Director of International Education and Director of the Multinational Institute of American Studies at NYU.

Stefan Avadanei, Professor Emeritus, „A. I. Cuza University,” Iaşi, Romania.

have accepted our invitation to participate in the conference as a key-note speaker.

Proposals for 20-minute papers should be submitted by April 15, 2018 in the form of an abstract of 150-200 words. As each paper will be followed by 10-minute discussions, participants are kindly asked to limit the presentation to their time-slot. Those interested in proposing a panel discussion should submit the title and the names of at least three other academics who will participate in the talk.

If you are interested in participating, please fill in the registration form attached separately to this message and return it to

Nicoleta StancaRAAS Vice-President

Ileana Jitaru RAAS Treasurer

Otilia Pacea RAAS Secretary

at the following e-mail address: [email protected]

Conference fee:    RAAS members: 150 RON;

Non-RAAS members: 75 EURO / 100 USD