Jul 27 2010

NYIT-Nanjing to Host “Crossing Borders” Conference

NYIT and the Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (NUPT) will be hosting the "Crossing Borders: Traveling, Teaching, and Learning in a Global Age," conference between April 16-17, 2011 in Nanjing. The conference explores a variety of topics that touch upon the "crossing borders" theme, including teaching online vs. traditional courses, ESL courses, teaching abroad, and translations, multilingualism, texting/IM and cyberculture. Conference organizers welcome academics and students from local, national and international universities to submit abstracts. Click in for more details.

The conference topic focuses on border crossings, both real and imagined.  Border crossings can take place, for instance, between nations, cultures, and minds, and may express limitations or enhanced understanding.  As borders suggest both barriers and closeness, they paradoxically can be sites of fear, trauma, displacement or stagnation; or they can be dynamic and fluid places of discovery and change. In this age of technology, borders have shrunk, been redefined, replaced, and reestablished.  We are interested in exploring how we perceive and interpret border crossings that take place as we travel, teach, and learn in a global age. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.  Topics may include, but are not limited to:
 

Teaching: online courses vs. traditional courses, ESL courses, teaching abroad 
Communication and Linguistics: translations, telecommunications, bi- or multilingualism, texting/IM, linguistic borders, oral tradition
Arts: visual arts, creative writing, photography, dance, music
Travel: travel writing genre, studying abroad, living abroad, virtual travel
Culture and Identity: multiculturalism, transnationalism, disability, postcolonialism, cyber culture (facebook/myspace/twitter), cyber identities, race relations, gender, sexuality, self vs. community, fetishism, rituals, customs, globalization, diasporas and migration, imaginary homelands
Science and Technology: Western vs. traditional or holistic medicine, genetic engineering, space exploration, doctors without borders, internet, “gaming” (i.e. World of Warcraft), piracy, copyright infringement, film reception across borders
Philosophy and Rhetoric: comparative/contrastive philosophical thought 

Academics and researchers, along with graduate students and postgraduate students, from local, national and international universities to submit abstracts pertaining to border crossings are welcome to submit abstracts pertaining to border crossings.  The conference seek submissions from all branches of the humanities, the social sciences, the sciences, and the arts.  

For more information on the conference, e-mail Dr. Katyna Johnson at kjohns03@nyit.edu