World Politics and Popular Culture Conference, Newcastle University‏

World Politics and Popular Culture Conference
November 19-20 2009
The Grand Hotel
Grand Parade
Tynemouth
NE30 4ER
(Organisers: Dr Matt Davies, Dr Kyle Grayson, Dr Simon Philpott, Politics, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University)

After the attacks on New York and Washington of 2001, the Bush administration declared in all earnestness a 'Global War on Terror.' The irony of the phrase coincided with the death of irony itself. And, ironically, within a couple of months of the September 11 attacks, Karl Rove was meeting with 'liberal Hollywood elites' to discuss ways in which the industry could assist prepare American and global audiences for a long war.
Rove's effort to enlist the culture industries recognised the extraordinary reach and influence of popular cultural forms. In recent decades the range of popular cultural forms has extended dramatically. In anti-globalisation protests, old forms of minstrelsy, puppetry, and street theatre were coordinated in mass demonstrations using cell phones, internet video uploads, and blogs. Indeed, in culture at large, familiar media such as literature, radio, cinema and television have been expanded into new realms made possible by the advent of digital technologies: web communities, blogging, online gaming, video games. These have become important sites at which identity and community are made and contested, where issues of representation have taken on new impetus and where the orthodox politics of the real have unravelled.
World cinema and music have become an established feature of western lifestyles and consumption patterns but more recently the formerly colonised have begun writing back to western elites and populations challenging established and seemingly settled narratives of global politics. Al Jazeera, Hamas, Hezbollah and many other groups exploit the decentred realms of electronic media to confront western governments and populations with images of their violence and embedded racism. Popular music has become increasingly diversified and produced new communities of identity, politics and protest. Food, clothing, wine, cars, travel, clubbing, gambling, magazines and fanzines all form part of lifestyle choice and are central to the politics of consumerism and fetish. Political debate often characterised by more heat than light focuses on many of these sites: health risk (food), security (hoodies, ethnic minority apparel), wine and gambling (addiction), cars and travel (environmental security and sustainability). Just as much as the emergence of global insecurities unbound by national borders - not only the threat of 'terror,' but also of financial instability, disease, or climate change - these global public spheres have undermined received conceptions of international politics.
This conference seeks to explore the limits of the popular and to interrogate the category of culture in the context of this crisis - or at least destabilizing - of the international. What do these terms of 'popular,' 'culture,' and 'international' mean both in isolation and when used in conjunction? In what ways and with what effects has popular culture become a series of sites at which political meaning is made, where political contestation takes place and where political orthodoxy is reproduced and challenged? We welcome papers on any aspect of the politics of popular culture and particularly those that critically engage with the concepts of politics, popular and culture. In addition to welcoming papers on established areas of research such as television, cinema, news media, radio, music and theatre, we also hope that researchers interested in food, drugs, gaming, gambling, sport, clothing and other apparel, clubbing, automobile cultures, public art, consumption, fear, and audience studies will extend the range of topics and forms of analysis by contributing papers to this conference.

Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words by Friday March 13 2009: Sue.Tatah@ncl.ac.uk
For further information: Matt. Davies@ncl.ac.uk; K.A.Grayson@ncl.ac.uk; Simon.Philpott@ncl.ac.uk
Newcastle and Tynemouth:The conference is being held at The Grand Hotel (http://www.grandhotel-uk.com/) on the seafront at Tynemouth, about 10 miles east of Newcastle. It is easily reached by Metro, the hotel about ½ mile from Tynemouth Metro station. Tynemouth, Cullercoats and Whitley Bay offer an excellent range of restaurants, pubs, cafes and clubs as well as accommodation to suit all tastes and budgets. Newcastle itself is on the east coast main line that runs between London and Edinburgh and is readily accessed by train. Its international airport is also well serviced by a range of domestic, European and other international carriers including Easyjet, Ryanair, Emirates and KLM/Air France.

Dr Simon Philpott
Senior Lecturer in International Politics
School of Geography, Politics & Sociology
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RUPh:+44 +191 2227473