Movements of people, transformation of places and changeable cultural memory are all areas of study that have been continuously addressed by scholars of different disciplines over the past two decades. The abundance of new research material and crisscrossing the disciplines and research methods has, however, partly blurred the role of researchers engaged in these areas of study and left many younger researchers confused.

The conference will bring together postgraduate students and some established scholars in exploring the space of contemporary interdisciplinary research in studies of place, space, migration and cultural memory. We aim to attract research students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. We will examine the ‘spaces in-between’ the disciplines and methodologies, discuss the meanings and transformations of physical and imaginative borders and explore the implications of changing places, identities and historical narratives. We will try to explain how processes of remembering and forgetting reflect the politically-driven narratives of the past and how places and spaces help shaping these processes. In what ways do individuals and collectivities re-imagine and re-invent their pasts and how can we look at these issues through tracing changes in social and/or cultural landscapes? How are the meanings produced in spaces and places and how do places and spaces interact with individual and/or collective identities?

This conference aims to cross the boundaries between disciplines as well as methodologies. We especially welcome papers that deal with methodological concerns, looking beyond the boundaries of traditional ethnographic research in social sciences and humanities. We will organise roundtable discussions on the nature and effectiveness of new methodologies and we will explore possibilities for establishing a space for research that moves beyond methodological work we are often presented with (and have to conform to) during our studies. We will investigate the field between academia and art and discuss the possibilities and constraints that new modes of conducting fieldwork research present us with. Is the role of the researcher in this new complex research environment changing? And if it is, what does this mean for the future of interdisciplinary research? Which are the excitements and downsides that we encounter while we try to reason our research methods? What does the innovative research mean for the researcher and how does it influence the research outcomes?
We are particularly interested in papers that involve work-in progress, case studies and comparative studies as well as theoretical and critical contributions. Topics can address a number of areas, including:

• Place/Space and cultural memory
• Changing borders and the meaning of border- and boundary-making (especially in the region of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe)
• Displacement and embodiment; performance and locating the ‘self’
• Place-making and migration
• Urban space, imaging, imagining and reimagining
• Cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism and human rights
• Crossing boundaries, crossing methodologies; innovative ways of engaging with the ‘field’
• Music and literature as ethnographic methods
• Researching diversity and difference through image, sound, smell and taste
• Soundscapes and urban space...

We welcome proposals from students in all disciplines concerned with these issues and themes including Anthropology, Architecture, Film, Fine Art, History, Philosophy, Politics, and Sociology.

The conference will take place on the 27- 29 November 2008 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It will provide an opportunity for postgraduate students to establish networks and to initiate discussions among each other as well as with some established scholars and researchers.
300-word abstract, a short biographical note and contact details should be sent electronically to Maša Mikola (mmikola@zrc-sazu.si) or Kaja Širok (kajasirok@hotmail.com).

The deadline for abstracts/proposals is 20th September 2008.

No registration fee will be required.

This conference is organised by postgraduate students and lecturers of Intercultural Studies – Comparative Studies of Ideas and Cultures at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts and University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia.