This week, the second in our four part Conference Special blog series takes a look at the Speakers who will make up the panels discussed in last week’s entry (here).
Session One: ‘Identity, Conflict and Cohesion’.
Chair
Session one will be chaired by Professor Hisae Nakanishi from the Graduate School of Global Studies at Doshisha University, whose research areas include Peace Studies (conflict prevention, development and security issues in the reconstruction of post-conflict societies), Middle East and Global Diaspora Communities.
Speakers
This session’s speakers will include Dr. Pamela J. Stewart and Prof. Andrew Strathern, a wife and husband research team based in the Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, although they hold a variety of Visiting Research Fellowships, from Durham to Taipei. Their research interests are wide ranging, and include Anthropology, Philosophy and Religious Studies.
Dr. Tamara Kohn, from the Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, will also be speaking during this session. Dr. Kohn spent three years living on an island in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland, culminating in a social anthropology DPhil thesis for Oxford University, and subsequently spent two years conducting post-doctoral research in the hills of East Nepal. Her recent research interests have included the study of trans-cultural communities of practice (ranging from caring practice to embodied experiences in sports and arts), the anthropologies of food and the body, and migration.
The final speaker for session one is Professor Gary Gregg, from the Department of Psychology, Kalamazoo College, Michigan. Professor Gregg, a personality psychologist, works in the “study of lives” tradition, which entails investigating single lives in depth, in order to study how people construct and shift among multiple identities. He is also interested in how culture shapes development across the life-span, particularly the development of identity in early adulthood. He lived and worked in Morocco for five years, conducting an ethnography of the Berber-speaking Imeghrane of the High Atlas-Dades Valley region.
Session Two: ‘Building Capacities for Utilizing Identities in Promoting Peace and Cohesion’.
Chair
Session two will be chaired by Sukehiro Hasegawa, the Former Special Representative for the Secretary General, UN Mission Timor Leste. Mr Hasegawa is now the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of East Timor, and visiting professor of Hosei University and the United Nations University in Tokyo.
Speakers
The speakers in this session include Professor Ellen Kaplan, chair of Theatre, former director of Jewish Studies, and professor of acting and directing at Smith College, USA, a Fulbright Scholar in Costa Rica and twice a Fulbright Artist-in-Residence in Hong Kong. In Israel, she has performed and directed at the Khan, Sherover and Jerusalem Theatres and Hebrew University, taught at Tel Aviv University and worked with intercultural theatre companies around the country. Much of Professor Kaplan’s work focuses on theatre in zones of conflict, and the intersections between expressive arts and social trauma. She has worked with incarcerated women, elders, adjudicated teens, and ABE students, using theatre as a tool for developing literacy and creativity.
Dr. Richard Chenhall, Senior Lecturer in Medical Anthropology, from the Center for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, will also be speaking during this session. Dr. Chenhall has broad experience in the fields of public health, education, and indigenous health, and has also published widely on the subjects of substance misuse, anthropology and public health.
The third speaker for session two will be Dabiru Sridhar Patnaik, Associate Professor and Director, Center for South Asian Legal Studies at Jindal Global University, India. He is Assistant Editor of the Indian Journal of International Law, and India Correspondent of the Oxford Reports on International Law in Domestic Courts. His current research is focused on Legal Aspects of Humanitarian Affairs, Contemporary Ideas of State Sovereignty and Protection of Human Rights, Cultural Commons, Work of the International Law Commission, Law of Treaties, Human Security Approaches to Post-Conflict Peace Building, and Pandemics and International Law.
Professor Ryoji Tateyama, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, and Pamela & Andrew Strathern (see above) will also be speaking during this session.
Session Three: ‘Identity Based Solutions: Regional Perspectives’.
Chair
Session three is to be chaired by Pierre Sane, President of Imagine Africa, Former Secretary General, Amnesty International, Assistant Secretary General, UNESCO. The Imagine Africa Institute is a Pan-African Think Tank aimed at improving public policy in and on Africa through enhanced research policy linkages; promoting and implementing strategies for effective corporate social responsibility; and strengthening South-South partnerships.
Speakers
The speakers in session three will include Dr. Waleed Al-Modallal, Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science, Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine. Dr. Al-Modallal specialises in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the Palestine Issue, is the former Dean of the Southern Branch of the Islamic University, and the founder of the Institute for Strategic Studies (MERAS).
Andrew Dawson, Professor of Anthropology and Director of Development Studies at the University of Melbourne, will also be speaking. He has conducted three major ethnographic projects in England, Ireland (North and South), and Bosnia & Herzegovina and its diasporas. His work focuses largely on identity politics, particularly in post-industrial and post-conflict contexts, however he has also conducted major theoretical work on postmodernism and migrancy.
The third speaker for session three is Dr. Rick Fawn, Senior Lecturer at the School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews. Dr. Fawn is a specialist on international security, with a geographic concentration on the former communist space. He has conducted research in and published on Central Europe, the Balkans, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
Professor Jotham C. Momba, from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zambia, and Professor Bouzid Boumediene, from the Department of Philosophy, University of Oran, Algeria will also be speaking.
Session Four, ‘Engaging Identities: Proposing New Tools, Techniqes and Interventions’.
Chair
Session four, where two groups of graduate students will give research presentations, will be chaired by Associate Professor Bruce White, The Institute for the Liberal Arts, Doshisha University, and OICD Director. Professor White has been developing the basic framework for Intra-Cultural Development since 1998 and promoted the OICD approach in many places around the world, building teams and proposals for the application of Intra-Cultural Development in Iraq, Japan, Ireland, Nigeria and the Pacific.
The full list of speakers, along with links to the articles which they will be presenting in a few days time can be found here, on the official conference website.
Remember – there are a number of ways you can engage with this year’s conference, even if you are unable to attend.
Facebook: Like the OICD on Facebook for conference updates and information.
Twitter: Follow the official OICD Twitter account (@OICD) for conference updates. We will be running a live Twitter feed throughout the conference weekend, using the hashtag #identityconf2013, and we want to hear your voices! Make sure to tweet us with your thoughts and questions during the conference.
Instagram: Follow the OICD on Instagram (@OICD) to see live pictures from the conference. We will be using the same hashtag (#identityconf2013).
Flickr: Photos from the conference will be posted to the OICD Flickr Photostream, which will be available during and after the conference weekend. It can be accessed via this address: http://www.flickr.com/photos/identityconf2013.
If anyone attending the conference would like to submit photos to the stream, please email them to [email protected].
