Stranger

MAKAT (Hungarian Cultural Anthroplogical Association) – through its Workshop for the Study of Modern Mythologies in collaboration with: Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Humanities and its Research Group for the Study of Cultural Interaction Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Social Sciences, Romanian Association of General and Comparative Literature (ALGCR), International Association for Hungarian Studies, University of Szeged, Faculty of Arts – Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology and the MTA-SZTE Research Group for the Study of Religious Culture based at the University of Szeged and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences kindly invites you to the interanational conference in three languages (HU-RO-EN) IDEGEN – STRĂINUL – STRANGER to be held in Miercurea Ciuc, at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering between April 21th and 22nd, 2017.

http://ghtk.csik.sapientia.ro/en/news/idegen-strainul-stranger


STRANGER

Today we can witness the birth of foreigner discourses, of discourses about the foreigner’s language and their world that in most cases stem from the believed, thought or known stereotype evilness or goodness of individuals, groups, communities or forces – at times themselves mysterious, misunderstood *others* – which come into contact with, enter or attack (from the inside or outside), fraternize with, help and alienate themselves from certain cultural and language communities. These narratives that build upon various topics may very well function as myths explaining the world in our contemporary demystified society.

These myths are present in today’s culture in a great variety. The myths from earlier times as well as the modern myths of our contemporary culture that have arisen from its peculiarities, changes, insecurities, lack, wishes, fears, obscured knowledge or creative imagination exist next to each other. Within these myths most wide spread are the stories and images about the stranger, which can be found at all levels of society, in every cultural segment.

Our interdisciplinary conference intends to examine and analyze foreigner discourses, their representation in the media, their occurrence in society, the circumstances of their birth, their motivation (economic-, political-, psychological factors), the symbols used that are connected to or present in the Hungarian, Romanian and European, as well as universal culture. Contributions that deal with the archetype of the stranger and are related to the topics listed below are more than welcome:

  • the unknown stranger, our stranger,
  • us, strangers in a foreign world,
  • the stranger as enemy and helper,
  • the stranger as minority, as majority, as inner/outer oppressor/rebel,
  • the otherworldly stranger, the alien,
  • the myths of the stranger in the media,
  • the stranger in literature, in movies,
  • the language(s) of the stranger – speaking a foreign language,
  • social trends, stereotypes and social reactions towards strangers;
  • the strangers of migration: wanderers, refugees and asylum-seekers, the epidemic-bearers, terrorists, economic immigrants, the parasite, the invader, the religious otherness, from East, from Africa, the European foreigner,
  • the stranger in folk tradition and in contemporary conspiracy discourses,
  • factors explaining the myths of the stranger (sociological, ethnographic-anthropological, historical, political, economic and socio-psychological, linguistic aspects);
    • genre features, mythical structures;
    • traditional and digital media-publicity;
    • social context;
    • global and national (Hungarian, Romanian, other) historical variants;

In order to participate, please fill in the online registration form below by the 25th of November 2016.

Link here: http://ghtk.csik.sapientia.ro/en/news/idegen-strainul-stranger

When sending the abstract please select the domain in which the paper will be presented:philology, linguistics, sociology, anthropology, communication studies, interdisciplinary session. It is possible also to select the virtual session; in this case only the full paper will be sent, which will be made available to the audience together with the e-mail address of the author.

Confirmation of abstracts will be announced by the 10th of December 2016.
The final papers, elaborated according to the author’s guide of the selected domain will be sent in by 28th of 2017, together with the document certifying the payment of the registration tax. The conference registration tax is 35 EUR, and covers the costs of the welcome reception, the coffee breaks, conference print materials, as well as the expenses of publishing the presented papers. In case of the virtual session the registration tax is 20 EUR.

The papers presented at the conference are going to be peer reviewed and published in the conference volume and/or in the upcoming topical issue of the Acta Universitatis Sapientiae series, corresponding to the selected scientific domain (*Philologica*, Social Analysis, Communicatio),registered in international databases.

Scientific Advisory Committee of the Conference:

  • Corin Braga, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
  • Bangha Imre, University of Oxford, UK
  • Kapitány Ágnes and Kapitány Gábor, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
  • Rafał Smoczyński, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland
  • Amedeo di Francesco, Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", Italy
  • Hatos Adrian, University of Oradea, Romania
  • Tuomo Lähdelmä, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
  • Tapodi Zsuzsanna, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Miercurea Ciuc, Romania

Organizing Committee:

  • Bakó Rozália Klára, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Social Sciencies;
  • Hubbes László Attila, Workshop for the Study of Modern Mythologies, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Social Sciencies;
  • Lajos Katalin, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Humanities;
  • Mihály Vilma Irén, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Humanities;
  • Nagy Tünde, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Humanities;
  • Nistor Laura, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Social Sciencies;
  • Povedák István, Workshop for the Study of Modern Mythologies,MTA-SZTE Research Group for the Study of Religious Culture based at the University of Szeged and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences;
  • Tapodi Zsuzsanna, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, Socio-Human Sciences and Engineering, Miercurea Ciuc – Department of Humanities, ALGCR