"Migrations of Cultures"

An Undergraduate Conferenceinthe Modern Languages

To be held at the University of Pittsburgh  |  March 30-31, 2017

Do you want to share your ideas with other undergraduate students? Or get feedback on a paper? Maybe you are considering graduate school in one of the modern languages and want to get some conference experience and practice your presentation skills? Then consider sending an abstract to the exciting conference we are planning at the University of Pittsburgh. Abstracts should be sent to mecchia@pitt.edu, by December 9 2016.

The conference papers should address the concept of cultural migrations in the broadest sense of the term, that is, immigrations and emigrations in real and virtual space linked to the movements of people(s), language(s) and culture(s). We are looking for multiple disciplinary, geographic, and historical perspectives reflecting the conflicts and the opportunities created by the shifting flows of populations, languages and cultural traditions, throughout the ages and in the contemporary world. The language of the conference will be English but we welcome papers addressing Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish languages and cultures.

This bi-annual conference for undergraduate students is organized and hosted by The Modern Languages programs at the University of Pittsburgh and will feature one prominent keynote speaker in addition to the papers presented by undergraduates.

Topics could include:
Multilingual societies and their conflicts ("language wars") and advantages
Linguistic landscapes and their evolution
Translation as a political tool
Literatures of the diaspora
Circulation of texts through multiple areas and in multiple languages
Travel literature through the ages
Exiles, migrants,and refugees
Processes of acculturation
The politics of literary prizes
Films and the problems of cultural translation

Papers should be twenty minutes long. Papers will be selected by a selection committee that includes undergraduates from the University of Pittsburgh. Students who submit abstracts will be notified by January 15, 2017. Limited travel subsidies will be available!