« November 2011 | Main | January 2012 »
This weekend in the reading roundup:
Peace on earth and goodwill to all humans.
Photo credit: Jennifer Boyer
This weekend in the reading roundup:
Peace.
Photo credit: utahwildflowers
This weekend in the reading roundup:
Image credit: Byzantine_K
In a word, the PCWP IV conference at the University of Lapland was amazing. Kudos to Laura Junka-Aikio, Julian Reid, and the rest of the conference team for organizing and managing a tremendous event. If you ever have the chance to go to Rovaniemi, go! Nowhere--including other far north outposts-- is quite like it. If you are a carnivore, the food is outstanding--indulge yourself and go to Restaurant Nili and order the Rovaniemi Market Platter. If not, the cloud berries, crow berries, and fresh local ceps will do the trick. But, I digress.
The conference was exactly what a conference should be: I walked out at the end and felt intellectually stimulated and enriched. It was great to meet a lot of new people doing work in the area, particularly the large contingent of postgrads from North America, the UK, and Scandinavia whose research is at the frontiers of the sub-field.
Laura and Julian went above and beyond in terms of bringing an incredibly accomplished group of plenary speakers who provoked and pushed their audiences to think about the myriad ways that popular culture contributes to the construction of the political. I tweeted from each of the plenaries. I'm not sure how much sense the notes now make, but if you want a flavour of what transpired, you can look here (scroll down).
The panels were equally great. There is some really important work being done at the moment that I look forward to seeing published in the not-so-distant future. I particularly enjoyed the discussions of the political function of discourses of empathy, Survivor and the sociability of game theory, collage and anti-proliferation images, Star Trek and depictions of torture, the political function of satire, and the aesthetics of biopolitics. You know a conference is truly excellent when you want to go to every single concurrent session.
In sum, Laura and Julian put together a truly memorable event and were exemplary hosts. Paljon kiitoksia!
Next year, Kevin Dunn has graciously agreed to host PCWP V which will be taking place at William and Hobart Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. Stay tuned for more details...
Photo credit: yourbartender
This weekend in the reading roudup:
Hang in there.
