2014 Conference
The Soundscapes of Culture
February 27 & 28, 2014
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The 2014 In/Between Conference at UIC’s School of Literatures, Cultural Studies, and Linguistics will focus on the theme of sound. By designating a conference theme the organizers aim to provide an opportunity for extended discussion of one particular concept that ramifies for the scholarly disciplines represented in the School. Additionally, the Conference offers a forum for sharing current research by our faculty and graduate students in order to showcase the diversity of our research projects.
Against the backdrop of today’s scopocentrism fueled by the omnipresent screens of visual media, sound is beginning to reclaim scholarly attention in literary and cultural studies. Part of this conference will be dedicated to examining the role of listening practices and acoustic ecologies in our reception and interpretation of speech, music, and noise. We are interested in sound as a medium of communication, and as an instrument in fashioning and preserving cultural communities. Topics that speak to our interest in exploring the relationship between sound and culture include: silent films, soundtracks, dubbing; oral dialects and code-switching in conversation; mnemonics and tongue twisters in language learning; lyrical voice, poetic rhyme schemes, and declamations of verse; discourse analysis, narratology, and storytelling; realizing dramatic scripts on stage, audience reception of musical compositions, and acoustics; oral histories and oral literature; phonology and phonetics; recording technologies used in language learning; intertextual echoes and stylistic resonances; and connections between movements in music and literature.