Call for papers

7th Triennial International Conference of the Central European Association for Canadian Studies
9 – 10 October 2015, Zagreb, Croatia
3rd and final CALL FOR PAPERS

Beyond the 49th Parallel: Canada and the North – Issues and Challenges

Important information!
Please note that the conference dates have been changed slightly: it will now last two full days, from the morning of Friday 9 October till the evening on Saturday 10 October.

Keynote speakers:
Prof. Aritha van Herk (University of Calgary, Canada)
Prof. Daniel Chartier (l’Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada)

Special guest:
Prof. Mark Anthony Jarman (University of New Brunswick, Canada)

North, in Western culture, is the fundamental direction.

As a geographical notion, “the North” can be used to indicate any or all locations in the northern hemisphere, from the equator to the North Pole. In relation to the United States, all of Canada can be seen as “the North”. But within Canada there is a whole range of different “Norths”, both historically and at present: the “Pays d’en Haut” of the voyageurs, the old Northwest, today’s camping and cottage country “up north”, the northern regions of many of the provinces (differing across the country), the northern territories (Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut), the Far North. Each of these reflects a different kind of “nordicity”, to use Canadian geographer LouisEdmond Hamelin’s now widely adopted term.

Beyond geography, “the North” is also a concept, one that encompasses a broad range of meanings and symbolic values. It is an imagined space as well as a space for the imaginary, a space of myth as well as a space shaped by myth, by turns cruel and ennobling, enigmatic and inspiring, powerful and fragile. The country’s “northerness” is often viewed as one of its
distinguishing features, a vital element in the Canadian identity – even when “the North” in this case may mean only the non-urban part of Canada north of the thin populated band hugging the border with the United States. It is also a source of pride – “the true North, strong and free” – and, increasingly, in an era of climate change, a challenge. Canada’s imagined and real Norths have been literary and cultural obsessions for centuries.

The aim of this conference is to explore both the literal and the imaginative aspects of the relationship between Canada and “the North” – geographical, economic, literary, linguistic, cultural, social, political, diplomatic, environmental. We seek submissions from all disciplines that deal with Canada and Canadian Studies.

The topics may include but are NOT limited to:
- the North and its representations: real and imaginary territory
- the North in Canadian literature: nordicity and its varieties
- First Nations artwork and literature
- the symbolic North in Canadian culture: hockey, curling, winter carnivals, canoes
- living in the North: Aboriginal communities, the life and survival of traditional cultures, demography and development of local communities, social problems
- North and South: Canada as America’s “North”, southern Canada and its “North”
- decision-making in the North: the roles of federal, provincial and territorial governments and of local administration
- the North and economic questions: exploitation of resources, gas and oil exploration, tourism
- the North and the international community: defense of Canadian sovereignty, the Arctic Council

We welcome proposals for twenty-minute presentations in the field of Canadian Studies. We accept paper proposals in English and French. Abstracts of between 150 and 250 words + a brief CV (150 words) should be submitted via the Paper Proposal Submission Form, which is to be found on the conference website. This must be sent by 10 June 2015 to the conference e-mail zagreb2015conference@gmail.com. Notification of acceptance of paper by 15 June 2015.

Conference website: http://zagreb2015.hkad.hr/

For more information, email us at zagreb2015conference@gmail.com

After the conference, selected papers will appear in a special publication issued by the Central European Association for Canadian Studies.

Organizing Committee of the Croatian-Canadian Academic Society:
Vanja Polić (University of Zagreb)
Evaine Le Calve – Ivičević (University of Zagreb)
Marija Paprašarovski (University of Zagreb)

Secretaries:
Hrvoje Puh (University of Zagreb)
Nikola Kajin (University of Zagreb)

Academic Advisory Board for the Central European Association for Canadian Studies:
Rodica Albu (Al. I. Cuza University of Iasi)
Jason Blake (University of Ljubljana)
Janos Kenyeres (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
Lucia Otrísalová (Comenius University, Bratislava)
Don Sparling (Masaryk University, Brno)
Diana Yankova (New Bulgarian University, Sofia)