The conference focus area, Understanding Humans in Change explores the complex dynamics of the global, digital, environmental and economic change on current human interaction and on communities and cultures over time. The research identifies and explains the reasons, processes and practices involved in these changes, shows how humans adapt to them, and predicts the effects they will have on humanity in the future.

The conference seeks to gather researchers from different disciplines to discuss topics and aspects of the various processes of change which concern humanity. It discusses the wide field of meanings and applications of change in the humanities, including social sciences and various interdisciplinary fields. The conference focuses on questions which are of interest e.g. for historians, cultural researchers, and cultural geographers, as well as for researchers of sociolinguistics (e.g. language contacts and minority languages), literary scholars and social scientists.

Topics and keywords for submissions may include some of the following (not exclusively):
- Distance: are mental, cultural or physical distances a challenge or a backup?
- Borders: changing dynamics of borders and margins, center and periphery, or coastal and inland environments
- The Arctic: negotiating the aspects of the arctic region in change
- Glocal: global trends and local implementations in human encounters
- Representations: representations and interpretations of change(s) in the conceptions and images of culture, nature and environment
- Methodologies: new approaches and challenges of changing disciplines and disciplinary relations and methodologies in the research of transcultural encounters

We invite all who are interested to submit abstracts (maximum 300 words) by February 28th, 2017. Accepted proposals will be announced by the end of March, and the preliminary schedule of the conference and practical instructions will be sent to participants in end of April. The participation fee of the conference is 80€. The working languages are English and Finnish. An academic compilation based on the conference presentations is being planned.

Please address presentation proposals by February 28th, 2017 as an attached .pdf to kari.alenius@oulu.fi.

For inquiries please use the same address or see the home page of the TCERC in http://www.oulu.fi/transculturalencounters.