Cultural Literacy in Europe

CLE2020: Research in the Arts, the Arts in Research

A SYMPOSIUM

Thursday 14 – Friday 15 May 2020, taking place via Zoom (see Technicalities PowerPoint for info and Conference Padlet for meeting links below)

TECHNICALITIES AND CONFERENCE INFORMATION (via SharePoint)

ACCESS THE CONFERENCE PADLET HERE

CLE2020 Final Programme (as of 6 May 20)

CLE2020 Final Groupings (as of 6 May 20)

CLE2020 Booklet (via Google Drive)

Artists study the reality they are surrounded by, people they live among, themselves, their instruments of work and how these areas are interconnected. Their work addresses complex issues, establishing dynamic relationships to a whole variety of other disciplines, from philosophy to new technologies. Their creative activity generates knowledge that could not be gained otherwise. Artistic knowledge is acquired through sensory and emotional perception and is practice-based, practice-driven, ‘felt’, ‘embodied’. It crosses the borders of different countries, languages, cultures, disciplines. Many artistic research projects are genuinely multicultural and interdisciplinary. Yet artists still often have to justify the idea that their practice is research.

Academic research too has become increasingly inter- and multidisciplinary. Cultural Literacy [CL] is the ability to think in literary ways about any topic or question, using the key concepts of textuality, fictionality, rhetoricity and historicity (see http://cleurope.eu/about/key-concepts/). How can the creative arts and CL come together to think about the contemporary world?

This Symposium is designed to generate active discussion, focusing on thinking and talking rather than formal presentations. Abstracts and bios will be included in a ‘book of presentations’ that all participants will be asked to read in advance of the Symposium. The contributions will be grouped together into parallel break-out sessions of 90 minutes during which each presenter will briefly summarise their points and the subsequent discussion will aim to explore the key theme of the panel.

Prior membership of CLE is required; see Sign up for Membership

CONFERENCE FEES

There is no fee for this Symposium; anyone who has paid will be refunded. However, prior registration is required:

REGISTER HERE

You are also required to be a member of CLE in order to attend the Symposium:

SIGN UP FOR MEMBERSHIP

THE SYMPOSIUM PROGRAMME COMMITTEE

  • Jernej Habjan, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
  • Joanna Jabłkowska, University of Łódź
  • Joanna Kosmalska, University of Łódź
  • Jarosław Płuciennik, University of Łódź
  • Naomi Segal, Birkbeck University of London
  • Ricarda Vidal, King’s College London

THE FOLLOWING – OR ALLIED – TOPICS WILL BE BROADLY COVERED (CALL FOR PAPERS NOW CLOSED):

  • Creative work as a source of cultural, social, psychological and political information;
  • Interpreting art works as cultural, political or pedagogical products;
    Rethinking the role of art and the artist in society;
    Art in multicultural and multilingual contexts (the questions of translation, cross-cultural understanding, multicultural conviviality, etc.);
  • The subjectivity and reliability of claims in artistic research;
    The relevance of artistic research for developing skills for cultural literacy and the potential of cultural literacy to inform artistic research;
  • The relationship between the artistic work, the critical text and the viewer/ reader/experiencer;
  • Objects of high culture and popular culture (for example, novels, poetry books, graphic novels, performances, events, films, memes, tweets, blogs, comic strips, tabloids, computer games, advertisements among others) as learning material about reality in which we live.

CLE Conferences 2015 & 2017

A5_04_Page_1The first Cultural Literacy in Europe [CLE] Conference took place in London, at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, on 16-18 April 2015. A major outcome of the conference is a shared understanding of Cultural Literacy as a key societal challenge for the future of Europe and its relationship with the rest of the world. This recognition must lead to common objectives among academics, professionals, and representatives of cultural associations and funding bodies.

The Conference demonstrated that excellent research and initiatives are already taking place in this area across Europe and beyond its borders. Whether working with methods and tools of Literary and Cultural Studies [LCS] or spanning other interdisciplinary areas, researchers and teachers in the Humanities and Social Sciences can make a key contribution to both understanding and answering the challenge of Cultural Literacy.

The second Cultural Literacy in Europe Conference took place in Warsaw, at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, on 10-12 May 2017.

The aims and objectives of CLE

The CLE initiative has two main aims: to achieve a broad shared understanding of the notion of Cultural Literacy and its importance; and to increase the visibility of the challenge presented by Cultural Literacy and of the contributions which LCS scholars and their fellow researchers continue to make in this area.

To achieve these aims, CLE is bringing together academics, educators, artists, policy-makers and members of the cultural industries, as well as a growing number of partner institutions, in a Forum for discussion and development across Europe and beyond.