Borderlands/Edgelands
This international workshop took place at TU Dresden (Festsaal, Rektorat) on 25 and 26 of June, 2015. The conference programme as well as the official poster can be browsed here.
The aim of this international and interdisciplinary workshop was to explore cultural, linguistic, political but also geographical borderlands and edgelands. Considering their inherent ambivalence, borderlands and edgelands are scrutinized with regard to their existence as marginalised spaces, as a potential threat to given systems of space and sense, but also as creative spaces of freedom and change. Borderlands and edgelands, however, are no fixed concepts: Their meanings contradict each other and are often metaphorical, which necessitates research that highlights the concept's epistemological, psychological, postcolonial, gender-scientific, identity theoretical, transcultural as well as transnational aspects, as well as issues of literary and cultural history, genre theory and linguistics.
The conference focuses on the question of a fundamental insecurity within borderlands, as well as the psychological impacts of migration on gender identities and patriarchal power structures. Other talks investigate the depiction of femininity in connection with the frontier of the US American West, the relationship of violence and identity in contemporary literature, the borders between sanity and paranoia, or current issues of contact linguistics and language politics. The territory covered by the conference includes British, American, Nigerian, South African as well as German and Italian literature, Hollywood cinema, as well as American sitcoms, English in a transnational context, language imperialism, and the significance of borders for the development of linguistic diversity.
Besides researchers of the University Wroclaw (a strategic partner of TU Dresden), researchers of the English and Foreign Languages University (Hyderabad, India), the University of Kentucky (USA), the University of Sunderland (UK) as well as of the Obafemi Awolowo University (Ile Ife, Nigeria) are taking part.
Borderlands/Edgelands is part of TU Dresden's internationalisation strategy, which promotes cooperation in central profile fields and globally significant research questions by establishing common research projects.
© Stefan Horlacher
Professor
NameProf. Dr. Stefan Horlacher
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Chair of English Literary Studies
Chair of English Literary Studies
Visiting address:
Wiener Straße 48, Floor 3, Room 3.13
01219 Dresden
Office hours:
Consultation hours take place on Thursdays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. after prior registration by e-mail (stefan.horlacher@tu-dresden.de). Individual consultations can also be arranged.