Transnational Popular Culture as a Catalyst for Social Change – 22-23 June 2020 – Call for contributions open until 29 March
Transnational Popular Culture as a Catalyst for Social Change Workshops
Sheffield Hallam University, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June 2020
Changing minds changes lives. Popular culture has enormous discursive power which creates meaning through storytelling and performance, and can thus be used as a political tool for social change. Arts and Humanities put the human at the centre of analysis and provide a methodological framework for cultural, social and economic critique. These workshops aim to forge interdisciplinary links between those working in disparate disciplines such as Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Health and Wellbeing. We will consider popular culture as a key mediator in the transnational understanding of power and a significant interlocutor in social change. If we consider popular culture one of the most influential agents of value construction, then cultural artefacts can be considered a powerful tool to guide viewers through the moral climate of their time, attesting to a collective process of working through social issues. Social and economic benefits of this research are instrumental as well as intrinsic. Raising awareness, creating knowledge and changing attitudes towards transnational cultures improves social and intellectual capital of individuals, social groups and organisations. Brexit and its aftermath make this knowledge creation a strategic imperative for the country.
The Creativity and Culture Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University is renowned for its world-leading research and thus provides the ideal context.
The workshops are run by the following colleagues:
Esther Johnson,
Anja Louis,
Ana-Maria Sanchez,
Amy Wigelsworth.
The workshops will cover all forms of popular culture (e.g. comics, fiction, film, performing arts, and television). Themes may include but should not be limited to:
- Globalisation
- Health
- Identity politics
- Interculturality
- News Media
- Migration
- Multiculturalism
- Neoliberalism
- Otherness and Othering (BAME, disability, gender, LGBTQ+)
- Place-making
- Postcolonialism
- Security
Organised by:
Dr Anja Louis, Reader in Cultural and Intercultural Studies, Languages and Cultures. Contact Anja here.
Find out more on the workshop website here.