Call for papers:

The 11th September 2001 throughout the world: politics, cultures, identities.

The "11th September", as a world event par excellence, received different treatment and was perceived variedly throughout the world. For long after, images of the event saturated the world's media. Hyperbole in the comment remains and "9/11" continues to feed into debate and conflict - not just within American society and in political discourse in the country, but also beyond. Numerous states in Europe and elsewhere, have been led to revise their American policy radically, taking the collapse of the Twin Towers as a symbol of the implosion of the American Empire, and the end of the United States of America as a "superpower". Others have backed away from the image of a "post-American" world, and remain attracted by the idea, or the need, of an Atlantic hegemony. These positions feed into discourse and practice -political, economic, military- which contribute to the emergence of an new "Other", a new polarisation.

What precisely was the nature of the "break" created by 11th September? When trying to go beyond the excess and outpourings, the omnipresent superlatives, how can one evaluate the event? What were the nature and the degree of its real impact in the world, in geopolitical, economic, social and cultural terms? What parallels can be established with other events of the same nature and world scale?

Among suggestions for themes and workshops are:

-The event: images, perceptions and representations

-A post-American world?

-Otherness and gender

-The individual and the collective

-Redefining "living together"

-Political action, violence, fear

-Instrumentalisation, denial, plots

Papers which will allow analyses comparing different geographical, political and cultural areas, are encouraged, as is the participation of young researchers.

The conference will be transversal and pluridisciplinary, a characteristic of the research groups involved. It will also be the occasion to underline the specificity of area studies.

Proposals should indicate the following:

-argument, issues: originality and stakes

-the existing literature: state of the research

-nature of the paper: theoretical, empirical

-methodology : corpus and tools

-state of advancement of the research (for work in progress)

-a selective bibliography.

Scientific committee : Susan Finding (Poitiers), Dominique Gay-Sylvestre (Limoges), Timothy Whitton (Clermont-Fd), Estelle Epinoux (Limoges), Gérard Grelle (Limoges), Elvire Diaz (Poitiers), Martine Spensky (Clermont-Fd), Bertrand Westphal (Limoges), Saïd Ouaked (Limoges).

Deadline for proposals: 11 March 2011 to be examined on 15th March 2011.

Conference working languages: French, English. Selected papers will be published.