This congress is a joint venture and springs from a long standing exchange between the two institutions and the organisation of other congresses such as Landscapes of Exile at the Universitat de Barcelona in 2004 and Landscapes of Exile: Australia Once Perilous Now Safe organised by Associate Prof. Baden Offord at Southern Cross University in 2006. Having run on a biannual basis at alternating venues until 2007, this initiative will now become an annual event at the Universitat de Barcelona. 2008 saw the highly successful Myth, History and Memory, in 2010 Food For Thought was equally successful and we hope for a similar warm response to our proposal of Pacific Solutions for 2011.

As is the general hallmark of conferences organised by The Australian Studies Centre, this conference welcomes interdisciplinarity so that its emphasis is not restricted to Australia or the Humanities, as long as its theme is addressed. Similarly, all the conferences organised in the past few years have been what could be called “boutique” events as there are no parallel sessions. This is an important factor for two reasons: first it establishes a rolling dialogue throughout the conference and secondly it also means that the number of participants has to be limited.

If possible we would like those who are interested to set up their own thematic panels, titled, and with three presenters. This allows for people to present a panel with colleagues with whom they are working. However, if you wish to present a paper and not a panel then we will  try and place it in a specific panel of similar thematic interest. Papers must not exceed twenty minutes presentation.

If you want to participate we would ask you to send us your expression of interest by December 1st 2010. After that we will post the deadlines for abstracts on our web page and other conference information. If you would like to learn more about our conferences you can go to our web page and see the breadth and variety of subject matters presented at Food for Thought by looking at the abstract page:
http://www.ub.edu/dpfilsa/welcome.html

With best wishes

The convenors: 

Co-Convenors: Sue Ballyn and Martin Renes

Confirmed Plenary Speakers to Date

Associate Prof. Baden Offord, Co-Director, The Centre for Peace and Soacial Justice, Southern Cross University, Australia

Associate Prof. Emerita Anne Holden Rønning, University of Bergen