Crossing Borders: Crossing Yourself

Transcription

1 Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Minutes of the Interzones Academic Council s Meeting Crossing Borders: Crossing Yourself Kraków, May 14-15, 2010

2 Interzones Academic Council s Meeting Krakow, May 2010 May 14 th, Friday Before the AC meeting started, the Co-ordinator insisted on a few recent events where the Interzones EMJD was mentioned. You can find these different articles in the press or on the net below as attached documents. It is also important to bear in mind that whenever a partner institution promotes the EMJD, its local co-ordinators are warmly encouraged to think about forwarding tapes, videos, net pages or press articles to Stefania Consonni in Bergamo. We must gather this information for our future publicity campaign and our progress reports to the EACEA. Two examples of best practice were presented by the Co-ordinator: the various videos in which Laura Borrás has appeared recently (video material is really the format we should go for in our future PR actions) and the short presentation that the University of Zürich (see attached document entitled Zürich) sent to Stefania Consonni when she required from you flagship material several weeks ago. It is almost perfect (book covers, pictures of conferences, a video of one professor talking on a relevant subject), clear, short, really flagship (in other words do not put everything, think about what should be the book, the seminar, the event that recently made the news in your research centre, put it online on your website (if you don t have one convince the people around you to create a news page on your doctoral school website) and send the link to Stefania for the official Interzones website. Of course think about updating your page regularly (pictures, book covers, latest conferences etc). 9.00: Comment capisce Sie «Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones»? Grodzka 64, room 207 * The meeting started by a round table where every local co-ordinator present answered a few questions by the Gal co-ordinator on the specificity of their graduate/doctoral school s approach to the title of the programme: Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones. The aim of this first session was to introduce to one another the many ways of adapting the dynamics of Interzones in the different universities and local cultural practices involved in this EMJD. The full presentation is to be found in Annex 1. We are still expecting a synthetic presentation for Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 10 Nanterre, Cash at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and Brown Graduate Center. (Please send it to didier.girard@unibg.it ), it will be very useful in a near future to present our activities and when we will work on the publication of a promotion brochure / portfolio. It is also meant to use as a working document for the Academic Council to elaborate on the curricular development to give to the doctorate. * Didier Girard then explained what would be the point of the next morning s main task, in other words, finalize the recommendations that the AC wants to communicate to the first

3 Interzones Academic Council s Meeting Krakow, May 2010 round of selected doctoral students in terms of mobility, language to be used for the dissertation and research project itself. In order to introduce this, a table was circulated among partners with the basic information for each student (see Annex 2 as finalised the next day) 10.30: Coffee break 10.45: Induction semester: Contents and Organization, by Franca Franchi The director of the EMJD implementation in Bergamo (where the students will spend their induction semester) explained the main features of what she has been implementing in her doctoral school, stressing the fact that it was not very easy to convince the 23 members of a doctoral school to work together and to take an active part in a new programme... A remarkable achievement indeed! She then described the main themes of the encounters that will be organized between professors from Bergamo and the students (8 of them, each of them made of one morning and one afternoon sessions). One can consult this list and calendar in Annex 3. The proposed sessions cover: 1) Cultural anthropology and the in-between 2) Post-colonial Studies 3) Border and Queer Studies 4) Memory studies 5) and 6) Visual culture and a special focus on photography 7) Cultural Studies 8) Media and intercultural Studies. She then announced that 6 comparable sessions would be generously open to colleagues from partner universities. For technical reasons, they should concentrate in the first three weeks of October. A few suggestions were then made by partners and associate members to contribute to the conferences given during the induction semester (see further down, Saturday 15 th for the list of proposed contributions). It was decided that a competition would be organized every year (the call for papers would be published in November on the website and the Academic Council, during the doctoral student selection meeting in January, would decide what contributions would be best suited for the following year. This year, time does not allow us to organize such a selection committee so partners and associate members are invited to 1) check with their administration that they can be sent (and paid!) to teach in Bergamo 2) suggest to Franca Franchi what they would like to offer in terms of contributions. Professor Franchi will then make the necessary choice to ensure that the trans-disciplinarity is respected : Jagiellonian University (Guided Tour), : Meeting at the Rector s Office of a delegation made of the 5 degree-awarding partner institutions Gołębia 24, first floor

4 Interzones Academic Council s Meeting Krakow, May 2010 A delegation of the Interzones EMJD was received by the Vice President of International Relations. Professor Andrzej Mania was particularly enthusiastic about the challenges that such a doctorate programme offered, he stressed the importance of inter-disciplinary European projects (the Jagiellonian University is involved in quite a number of them, including two specialized in the Humanities). He also underlined the difficult issue of joint degrees at doctoral level and congratulated the consortium for putting up a system based on the co-tutelle formula. A more technical discussion followed and after having a word with the various local co-ordinators insisted on the pleasure his university had in hosting such an interesting academic meeting where the focus was not solely on technicalities but on a vibrant academic exchange of ideas and long term ambitions : Lunch at Nowa Prowincja, Bracka 3-5, first floor 16.00: Public Conference: Crossing Borders, Kanonicza 14, The Hall of Mirrors In front of an audience made of the Interzones co-ordinators, colleagues from the Jagiellonian and local doctoral students, Professor Markowski delivered a paper entitled Crossing Borders, Interdisciplinarity and other Dangerous Games to Avoid (the full text can be read in Annex 4). After the talk, a passionate debate followed by questions, and answers which encapsulated different issues involved in the programme. A broader view of the cultural landscape evoked by interzones (and the exchanges of the early session) was reached.

5 Interzones Academic Council s Meeting Krakow, May 2010 May 15 th, Saturday Before the AC meeting resumed, Didier Girard collected information concerning the academic calendar (indicative only since based on the current year) in the various institutions involved in the Interzones EMJD. This will be an essential tool for the future organization of our meetings and the mobility of our doctoral students, although some information is still missing from a few institutions. An updated version of this calendar will be published every September on the general Interzones website (Annex 5). 9.00: Curriculum Development (Think Tank) Grodzka 64, room 207 Among the proposals from the partners contribution to the induction semester s encounters with the students: - Paris 3: Post-colonialism (Martha Dvorak) - Tübingen: Spaces and System Theories (D. Kimmich and S. Schahadat) - Mexico: Neurohumanities (F. Gomez Mont during the conference in Bergamo organized by Angela Locatelli) - JNU: Oriental philosophies (Saugata Bhaduri) - UNER, Paraná: Social politics: From Street Art to net activism (Claudia Kozak) - Zürich: Textuality and Transference (Daniel Muller Nielaba) - Krakow: Anthropology of Mimesis (M. P. Markowski) - Provence: Gender Studies (Alessandro Marignani) In the absence on the second day of Professor Franchi, director of the implementation of the EMJD in Bergamo, partners and associate members could not decide what contributions would be most welcome. Another administrative question has to be solved: what are the institutions who can pay and send their professors to another site to teach doctoral students? Members of the AC decided that they would enquire and finalize the list of contributions with Franca Franchi in Bergamo. The AC then suggested that we should organize a conference on a specified topic and in order to make the event less costly and time-consuming to gather academics and students in January before they leave and in the continuity of the selection meeting of the second round of doctoral students. The date of January and 15 th 2011 was put forward. Various topics were suggested and after a vote, the AC opted for Plages/Page/Strand/Playa Warning concerning the last point: Since the meeting took place, Professor Franchi has informed the members of the AC that such a conference was impossible to set up. The selection meeting has to take place in

6 Interzones Academic Council s Meeting Krakow, May 2010 Bergamo and probably at a later date in January and the idea of a conference is pointless as she kindly suggests that: - the visiting professors (when they come to teach in Bergamo) should for instance use the Friday afternoon to organize such debates on pre-determined books or subjects to make the debate more precise and professional (discuter avec les étudiants sur des livres (à choisir) appartenant aux différents domaines concernés) - we should all start to think about a minimum bibliography that we consider essential for our doctoral students. Plend send your list asap to Franca Franchi who has to order these books on time to furnish the shelves of the beautiful reading room that has just been redecorating to welcome the students - she is also concerned about the necessity to have a monthly debate with members of the AC about the didactic progression of the doctorate (conduire des tables ronde/séminaires/réunions (par example le vendredi), ayant pour but de faire le point sur les thèmes du parcours didadctique). In other words, Professor Franchi was surprised that we did not tackle the essential issue of setting up a comittee that would think and shape what makes or should make the cohesion of the Interzones EMJD, as it is the case for any doctorate. Proposal by the co-ordinator: Following this failure at direct communication between the director of the implementation of the doctorate in Bergamo and the AC, I suggest that partners do send to Franca their official proposal (when it is authorized by the local authorities of each insitution) for a contribution in October. (When Franca has received all these proposals she will decide what fits better again we have to improvise this year, and in the future we will proceed more rigorously with a call for proposals and a decision by the AC in January). I also encourage partners to respond to Franca s concern for a more structured and homogeneous definition of the didactic structure of the doctorate. How could we achieve that? Can partner institutions send representatives regularly to Bergamo? Should we do that through Skype interviews? Do you want a stricter control over what should be taught to doctoral students? Question also for Franca: to what extent is the Scuola del dottorato in Bergamo open to the recommendations that academics who do not belong to it might make? I think it is vital that the AC initiates a debate via on this subject (please restrict yourself to the official members of the AC) : 11.00: Coffee Break The Gal co-ordinator recapitulated a certain number of duties that local co-ordinators should carry out before any new semester when students are coming to their institutions: 1) inform staff locally (administrators and academics) of the latest procedures and decisions made by the consortium; 2) prepare a welcoming party for the incoming students; 3) make sure that before every new semester starts that accommodation opportunities are provided to the

7 Interzones Academic Council s Meeting Krakow, May 2010 student; 4) check the local and specific requirements imposed by your institution for registration/library access etc : Our first round of Doctoral Students research projects After a case-by-case examination of doctoral students research project and mobility options, the AC prepared together the feedback forms that will be sent in the following days to the students. For each of them, recommendations included: a. Redefining research projects: recommendations (for some) by the AC on the language to be used for the dissertation and detailed comments by potential supervisors here and there b. Redefinition (in certain cases) of mobility patterns, especially concerning Semester 4 destinations Once the students accept these recommendations, they can be fully registered by the coordinating university and their mobility track will not be liable to ulterior changes. Copies of these recommendation feedback forms will be sent before July 2010 to the local coordinator of every university where students will go, so that the local co-ordinator can prepare the arrival of the student(s) involved and circulate the comments of international colleagues to the potential supervisors : The Royal Wawel Castle (Guided Tour) 14.00: Lunch, Nowa Prowincja, Bracka 3-5, first floor 15.00: Supervision mechanism, by Laura Borrás After a general dicussion on the needs to ensure a fair and efficient co-supervision mechanism across the consortium, Laura Borrás came with the idea of an interface / intranet system to be implemented (based on the example of Moodle campus/ Droomla or Websity softwares or any equivalent). This interface forum should have 3 main areas: 1) space for students 2) storage space where students can upload their documents and notes (individual access) 3) a kind of forum/blog where Interzones students could exchange info (this could be seen by every one, only students could upload info here) 4) Space for professors (access open to both students and professors, but uploading would only be permitted to professors)

8 Interzones Academic Council s Meeting Krakow, May ) a kind of forum where the Interzones consoritum could post messages concerning news about the AC or IBD 6) a space where professors could make announcements about what is going on in their research centers 7) space for both This would be the Logbook described in the Application bid document and in the IDS. There would be a special space for each student + his/her 3 supervisors + the supervisors co-ordinator (this year Ingrid Hotz Davies) + the General co-ordinator. One different password for every one of these spaces should be communicated to these 6 individuals only. In it there would be: a) a sort of communication interface between student and supervisors (where the s exchanged on their research project could be kept and read by the other supervisors) b) at the bottom of the page a special box which would indicate what portfolio activity has been carried out succesfully (it would have to be validated by both a professor and the local co-ordinator), when (which semester), some comments by the latter ones, and the number of ECTS gained. It was agreed that we would encourage students to carry out these portfolio activities preferably during the first four semesters (to let them focus on the writing of the thesis during the last two semesters). The idea would be also to carry out at least one of those portfolio activities during each of the first four semesters. For instance it will be very easy to gain at least 10 ECTS during the first semester in Bergamo as the activities at the scuola del dottorato already include such activities. The university of Barcelona, represented by Laura Borrás, and Bergamo, represented by Francesca Pasquali for new technologies, are the two universities who should collaborate to prepare the creation of such an interface (as stipulated in the Consortium Agreement) that could be operational by the end of October. They should be in touch with no delay to see the practicalities of such an important tool for a smooth co-supervision mechanism.

9 Interzones Academic Council s Meeting in Kraków (May 14-15, 2010) Annex 1 - Comment capisce Sie «Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones»? o University of Edinburgh (Marion Schmid, External examiner) The notion of Interzone can of course be geographical, linguistic, artistic, ethnic, cultural, etc, and calls for an inter- and pluri-disciplinary approach (it could involve Architecture, Urbanism, Anthropology, Geography, Sociology, History alongside Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies). To me 'Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones' would imply first of all moving away from conceptions of literature and culture defined by traditional national and linguistic boundaries (German, French, Italian...) towards trans-national, diasporic, post-colonial and pluri-cultural concepts of literary, cultural and artistic production, reception and circulation. The shift away from traditional national conceptions of literature and culture towards interzones resolutely throws into relief the linguistic and cultural complexities and diversities within national boundaries, the richness of immigrant and diasporic artistic production (Maghrebi-French literature and film, Turkish and Rumanian literature in Germany, etc.) and the constant exchanges, contacts and clashes in a global, media-dominated world. In comparative literature, such an approach would fully accommodate not only the still relatively neglected 'peripheral' literatures and cultures (India, China, Latin America, etc.), but encourage the study of confrontations and mediations between cultures and literatures (trans-cultural adaptations of literature to the cinema and the stage; the reading of Western literature through concepts such as Glissant s 'Le Tout-monde' and his aesthetics of relation; redefinitions and reappropriations of modes and genres according to different cultural contexts). In short, 'Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones' would encourage a radical rethinking of notions of identity, belonging, cultural transfer and mediation leading to new conceptions of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies informed by concepts of trans-nationalism, inter-mediality and relation. In a globalised world, it is all the more important to rethink notions of borders, identities and belongings in terms which are non-totalising and which allow for diversity and renewed forms of artistic engagement. Such an approach would prompt a rethinking of artistic and cultural productions in their relation to ideologies, politics and technological progress as well as offering a new prism through which past and future literary and cultural histories and productions can be examined. o Bergamo (Franca Franchi) Les différentes cultures nationales se sont présentées au rendez-vous de notre siècle fortement accrochées à la défense de leurs traditions, tout en reconnaissant la confrontation nécessaire avec les instances de globalisation qui sont en acte. On pourrait considérer cette attitude comme le résultat d un retard, et cela est en partie vrai, mais il faut tenir compte que c est justement la globalisation qui a porté l attention sur l exigence de cultures locales, dans la tentative de se soustraire à une homologation vue comme appauvrissement. D où la récupération diffusée, et parfois fantaisiste, de fêtes, de rites, de célébrations, de commémoration de différentes sortes, aussi bien religieux que laïques, même dans les endroits les plus écartés. Ce phénomène se retrouve, en même temps, au sein de plusieurs domaines culturels, et par conséquent, si d une part on reconnaît que la culture, en tant que patrimoine collectif, est inséparable, d autre part on assiste non seulement à une défense rigide des limites identitaires de différents domaines du savoir, presque de caractère corporatif, mais même à une progressive spécialisation et fragmentation des domaines mêmes. Le doctorat en Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones, dont l Université de Bergame est le siège administratif, envisage de se confronter à cette problématique, dans la certitude que cette

10 contradiction est de fait une marque constitutive fondant notre contemporanéité. La multiplicité des disciplines appelées à collaborer au doctorat au sein de la Faculté au profil humaniste de l Université de Bergamo a comme fondement le fait qu elles dialoguent ; ce dialogue étant le fruit d une tension communicative, d un désir d interagir et de la conviction de ne pas pouvoir, juste à cause d un excès de spécialisations, suffire à elles-mêmes. Il ne s agit donc pas de mettre en discussion la légitimité, la pertinence des identités disciplinaires acquises au fil du temps, mais de reconnaître la complémentarité des savoirs. Le fait de définir des domaines, des frontières, est indispensable pour pouvoir donner une forme, une identité aux interlocuteurs dialoguant, et pour porter à l évidence les compétences qu ils pensent être en mesure de représenter, mais il n est pas moins important pour ne pas être prisonnier de ses frontières car chaque mur érigé pour se défendre est aussi un symbole de faiblesse. Les savoirs se sont développés non seulement dans l ordre de la quantité, mais justement grâce à leur enrichissement ils ont introduit de profondes mutations dans des paradigmes épistémologiques aussi. Les pratiques des savoir sont devenues plus complexes non seulement en vertu des approfondissements spécialisés, mais aussi des hybridations des perspectives et des modèles interprétatifs mis en acte au fur et à mesure, face à l émersion de nouvelles problématiques : que l on considère comme exemplaire celles de caractère éthique liées au développement de la médicine, de la biologie et de la technologie. Notre doctorat est appelé à fournir des réponses aux problèmes en partie inédits (ne serait-ce que à ceux qui ont été posés par le développement des arts les plus récents tels que la photographie, le cinéma, la télévision posent), et par le surgissement des horizons nouveaux liés aux nouvelles articulations politiques et sociales comme la culture postcoloniale, la culture de genre, et les nouveaux modèles de production et organisation culturelle. C est à ce vaste champ de tensions et interactions que le doctorat voudrait faire face, pas forcement pour élaborer des réponses, mais dans la perspective de faire jaillir une conscience, de créer de nouvelles mappes des savoirs et bien évidemment aussi de nouvelles frontières, qu on n interprète pas comme des limitations mais comme des points de départ pour de nouvelles explorations. o UFF (Cristina Franco Ferraz) Wir kämpfen mit der Sprache. Wir stehen im Kampf mit der Sprache. (Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1931) In a general perspective, our program expects from the Interzones program and thesis an intensification and radicalization of some challenges we have been facing, as a group of contemporary researchers in the field of Media Studies, Technologies and Image/Sound: the development of new methodologies and concepts able to surpass not only usual and already-made dualisms but also the negativity implied in the logics from which they were invented and with which they operate. In this sense, we understand that a promising project should not confound objects of research (be they empirical or not) with RELEVANT QUESTIONS, to be formulated and reformulated upon intense bibliographical survey and reflexive thinking. In a large sense, we intend to strengthen our tools and intellectual weapons to fight against a certain present disqualification of critical perspectives, so often cynically stated (even academically). It looks as if being critical seems a modern, all too modern perspective. In this view, criticism is often confounded with negativity and nostalgia. The mot d ordre of our times seems very well and directly expressed in a recent pub of Diesel: after images of joy without any other kind of concern (about otherness, politics etc), the new motto is Be stupid!, a new version of the somehow old-fashioned be happy. In this sense, challenging this cynical and transparent mot d ordre, we intend to reinforce critical perspectives, by developing together consistent and creative projects and by reaffirming the political role inherent to the valorization of a concentrated attention and time dedicated to the invention of concepts and to the movement (and joys) of thought.

11 As Deleuze perspicaciously stressed at the end of last century, the creation of concepts has been insistently captured by what he called the joys of marketing. So it is a relevant political gesture to reassume this task in our even more explicitly cynical times. As to the specificities of our program, emphasis should be given to some of our peculiarities and different possible contributions. We work in 3 different lines of research, which are very often intertwined in directions of thesis and also in mutual exchanges and work: 1. As to Image and Sound Studies, here follows what we think should be stressed: Building on its tradition of 41 years of existence of Brazil s second Film program (launched by pioneer Cinema Novo filmmaker Nelson Pereira dos Santos back in 1969 at an undergraduate level), the Postgraduate Program in Communications at UFF (PPGCOM) develops an innovative approach to Film Studies combined with Critical Theory, in a totally interdisciplinary curriculum which combines Media, Cinema and, more recently, Digital Studies. Both the Master s and Doctoral Programs combine studies of Brazilian and Latin American Cinema within a framework of popular culture and newly developed digital technologies and textualities. These new areas also include gaming and techno-culture. Students are encouraged to pursue their own areas of interest, research and concentration from courses in third cinemas, Latin American and Brazilian cinema and television (Drs. Fabián Nuñez, Dr. Roberto Moura); Film & Cultural Studies (Dr. Maurício Bragança), Theories of Melodrama, Gender and Sexuality (Dr. Mariana Baltar); World Cinemas, Film Theory, History and Criticism, Film and Comparative Literature (Dr. João Luiz Vieira); Gaming, Digital Textualities and Multimedia Writing (Dr. Tunico Amâncio); Techno-cultures & the Body (Dr. Paula Sibília); French Cinema, Transnational Media History and Criticism, Political Philosophy (Dr. Cézar Migliorin); Sound Theories and Digital Culture (Dr. Fernando Morais). (Contribution of Dr. João Luiz Vieira) 2. As to Media and Technological Studies, there are different and rich fields of research: Dealing with the implications of technologies concerning the reconfigurations of body, perception and sociability, in modern and contemporary cultures, efforts have been made to create new concepts and specially new methodologies. Dr. Maria Paula Sibilia and Dr. Maria Cristina Franco Ferraz have been developing a genealogical method (inspired by the works of Nietzsche, Foucault, Deleuze, and more recent authors, such as Jonathan Crary), challenging an ever-lasting trap frequent in Media Studies: media and technologies regarded as separate and autonomous fields, a gestutre that leads to a teleological and internally directed view of their historical changes. Dr. Simone Pereira de Sá has been developing research in the domain of music and a renewed look into industrial culture. During the 1990s, the music industry lived in a pioneer way the impact of the Internet, the development of software for the exchange of music files and new devices originating from this mediatic environment. These reconfigurations had a deep impact not only in the stages of music production, circulation and consumption inside the entertainment industry, but also raised reflections on the new practices, languages, aesthetics and sociabilities such as the sampling and the DJ culture and new audibilities such as the soundscapes technologically mediated, the listening through cell phone, the soundtracks for games, among other expressive examples that are focused on this study field. (Contribution of Dr. Simone Pereira de Sá) 3. Communication and mediation studies: Emphasis has been laid on the analysis of mediatic messages and the communication processes associated with them, considered from the perspective of the social circuit of communication (production, reception and message consumption). Strongly referred to Cultural Studies, combined with interdisciplinary references, such as literary studies, anthropology and history, the main researches developed in this domain in our program are on the following themes: politics and journalism studies (Prof Afonso Albuquerque), media discourses and narratives (Prof Fernando Resende and Prof Kleber Mendonça), Consumption of cultural goods (Prof.Guilherme Néry) and Culture and Mediations (prof Ana Lucia Enne and prof Marildo Nercolini). As a further indication of the international themes and interests of UFF s researchers, Dr Fernando Resende s present project concerns Narratives of Conflict and the problem of the representation of

12 the Other on media discourses a study which compares journalistic narratives with documentaries and comics, generally, but not only, related to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Rio de Janeiro/Berlin, May 2010 o Tübingen (Ingrid Hotz-Davies) At the university of Tübingen, those most closely involved with the Interzones programme and its potential research trajectories can be found in two distinct faculties: the Neuphilologische Fakultät (soon to be fused with two other faculties into an even larger unit) and the Fakultät für Sozial- und Verhaltenswissenschaften, specifically the department for Empirische Kulturwissenschaft (this faculty is also in the process of fusion with another faculty). It can be easily seen that things are in a state of flux and that at the moment Interzones is decentralized, itself very much an interzonally dynamic process rather than a location. We are in the process of changing this by trying to fuse those elements in both faculties which are relevant for Interzones into a trans-faculty centre, among other reasons in order to provide a platform specifically for Interzones. When we look around what people are researching, teaching, conferencing about etc., as well as the ideas they have come up with when confronted with the notion of an Interzone, the one consistent idea is that an interzone is to be thought of as a meeting place, a space, a contact region, etc. between two or more entities. How this space may be thought may vary: as a Zwischenraum (inbetween-space), a Niemandsland (noman(sic!) s land), a border region etc. where stable social and cultural inscriptions appear fluid or even suspended or conversely as a poly-systemic meeting place, for example in multi-ethnic environments or in those imaginary spaces which establish shared cultures across the boundaries of geographical and social space (e.g. via the Internet, transglobal agglomerations of cultural affiliation and interest, etc.). In all cases, I think it is safe to say that in Tübingen we tend to think of an Interzone phenomenologically as a dynamic process rather than a stable system of markers. And while many of us work in fields affiliated to the disciplines of transculturality (comparative literature, post-colonial studies, border studies, etc.), others focus on intersystemic relationships within specific cultures and cultural contexts or within specified systems of signification. This might include specific forms of intertextuality e.g. those that seek to assimilate, translate, appropriate or otherwise utilize that which appears alien or interactions across habitus-defining axes like gender, class, age, education, etc. In such a view of the interzone, any transaction between individuals takes place in a social space already criss-crossed with a system of demarcations and boundaries zones of tension as it were between which, across which communication takes place in a dynamic relation of interpellation and affect. To list some of the contexts within which interzonal matters are at the moment being negotiated in Tübingen (note that the names listed are examples and not a comprehensive list of participants): Transcultural negotiations (e.g. Reinfandt, Kimmich, Tonn, Johler, Wertheimer, Schahadat) Imaginary spaces (e.g. Kimmich, Tonn) Interdisciplinarity (e.g. Johler, te Heesen, Schahadat) Systemic and intersystemic relations (e.g. Reinfandt, Johler) Interpellation/Affect (Hotz-Davies, Schahadat)

13 Some of the disciplinary contexts the participants of Interzones have worked and are working in: Gender, Postcolonial Studies, Comparative Literature, Ethnicity, Emotion, Space, Ethics, Media Studies, Border Studies, War, etc. o Perpignan (Jonathan Pollock) Le littoral comme interzone «Le littoral, c est ce qui pose un domaine, tout entier comme faisant [à] un autre, si vous voulez, frontière, mais justement de ceci qu ils n ont absolument rien en commun, même pas une relation réciproque» 1. Au dire de Lacan, les deux domaines absolument hétérogènes qui se font ainsi frontière sont le savoir, d une part, et la jouissance sexuelle, de l autre. En parlant du savoir, il épingle surtout le discours universitaire, qu il définit comme «du savoir mis en usage à partir du semblant». La question qui se pose est donc la suivante : «Est-il possible du littoral de constituer tel discours qui se caractérise [ ] de ne pas s émettre du semblant?» Certes, du côté de la jouissance, «le rapport sexuel ne cesse pas de ne pas s écrire» 2. Néanmoins, Lacan suggère que l écriture, de par son artifice même, peut «faire accueil» à la jouissance en creusant un vide : «La lettre n est-elle pas proprement littorale? Le bord du trou dans le savoir que la psychanalyse désigne justement quand elle l aborde, de la lettre, voilà-t-il pas ce qu elle désigne?» Pour saisir la logique du littoral, prenons un autre exemple, celui du sacré et du profane. L opération de «sanctification» par laquelle un espace sacré se sépare d un espace profane qu il détermine comme n étant pas sacré, est celle du sens en général, pour autant que le sens d une notion se ramène à sa différence avec ce dont elle se distingue. Or, ces rapports de détermination réciproque nous empêchent de parler d hétérogénéité «absolue». S il y a de l hétérogène, il serait à chercher plutôt sur la «frontière» d une notion, mais à condition d entendre «frontière» non pas comme une décision privée de dimension qui «fait» la différence, fonde l identité et donne le sens, mais comme une zone indistincte où une notion quelconque p n est ni «vraiment p» ni «vraiment pas p». La logique peircienne y situe le «peut-être» et le «pas vraiment», c est-à-dire la possibilité et la contamination : l enceinte du sacrum n est ni sacré ni profane, elle participe des deux, elle est «sainte» (sanctum). Quoi de plus hétérogène que la plage? La mer et la terre représentent deux éléments, deux dynamiques, deux physiques disparates ; et pourtant les atomes de sable du littoral, corpuscules durs qui s écoulent par myriades, participent des deux domaines. À en croire H.D. Thoreau, cette hétérogénéité foncière caractérise également les êtres qui fréquentent la plage : Avant que la terre ne monte de l océan, et ne devienne terre sèche, régnait le chaos. Et, sur l estran, entre la marque de la marée haute et la marque de la marée basse, là où la terre est déjà en partie dévêtue et sort encore en partie de la mer, règne aujourd hui une sorte de chaos, où seules des créatures hors de la norme peuvent habiter. 3 Mais si le littoral est le lieu d une naissance, il est tout aussi bien la fin des terres, là où s échouent «toutes sortes de détritus, d épaves et de débris». Et de quoi témoignent-ils, ces restes, ces lettres (letters) qui parsèment (litter) la page de sable, sinon d un naufrage, l occasion suprême d une jouissance mortelle? Lorsque les corps n y choient pas sur des serviettes de bain, fondant sous le soleil comme de l argile, ils jonchent le littoral en tant que cadavres littéralement déchus. Car, à lire Thoreau, «l estran est une morgue, un charnier. Des charognes infâmes y pourrissent, «le ventre plein d exhalaisons», comme des fleurs qui s épanouissent» (CC, 33). Ainsi, sous la plume de Thoreau et de Lacan, le mot littoral excède la simple réalité géographique. Par un jeu apparemment gratuit d homophonie langagière, ils rapprochent le littoral du littéral pour en faire une image du travail littéraire. Cette zone fluctuante, incessamment remodelée par les vents et 1 J. Lacan, Le Séminaire. Livre XVIII. D un discours qui ne serait pas du semblant, Paris, Seuil, 2006, p J. Lacan, Le Séminaire. Livre XX. Encore, Paris, Seuil, 1975, p Thoreau, Cap Cod, trad. P.-Y. Pétillon, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 2000, p. 100.

14 les marées, où viennent s échouer les objets et les êtres les plus hétéroclites, offre à leurs yeux une analogie parfaite des dynamiques frontalières à l œuvre dans bon nombre de phénomènes artistiques. Un certain type de textes est comme écrit sur du sable : son inscription précède de peu son effacement, ou du moins son recouvrement sous des ordures (liturae) qui le raturent. o Iberoamericana (Francisco Gomez Mont) During the past four years and under the leadership of the academic dean of Universidad Iberoamericana-Santa Fe, a transdisciplinary group centered on neurohumanistic and neurocultural studies has auto-assembled four "coloquios:neurohumanidades" & over 300 lectures The philosophy group (3) is working on brain/mind issues, on neuroethics/empathy/mirror neurons and on "the colossal and grotesque body in contemporary art". The literature group (3) is working on neurometaphors, euronarratives, palindromes and biohumanities. the religious sciences group (3) is working on science/culture/faith issues, on kenosis, on the "reinvention of god" through complexity sciences and on brain imaging studies of meditation. The law group (2) is working on neuroliberties, neuroresponsabilities and neurojurisprudence. neuroarchitecture (2). The art history group is working in neuroaesthetics, neurocinematography, sinestesia and iconicity in verbal narratives. the mathematics group is working on complexity sciences and the brain and in mathematical beauty. An experimental curriculum in the neurohumanities for students is being developed at Universidad Iberoamericana and at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. Gene/brain/culture coevolution can be better understood via brain imaging experiments. As these new areas of research consolidate, humanistically inspired experiments become feasible. Neurocultural studies from the humanities can complement the "cultural neuroscience" coming out of social science. All brain areas are influenced by culture. o JNU (Saugata Bhaduri) Ranked among the top 200 universities of the world and 50 top universities outside the USA and the UK by authoritative ranking agencies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, popularly known as JNU, prides itself in being one of the most international universities in Asia. A residential university, primarily dedicated to postgraduate study and research, with a sprawling 1200 acre campus, JNU has a very exclusive student-strength of approximately 5000, selected through one of the toughest entrance tests of the sub-continent. Out of this, on an average about 10%, i.e. around 500 students, are international students, coming from more than 50 different countries of the world, including a significant number from the USA and Europe. Besides, JNU has memoranda of understanding with more than 100 universities of the world, through which it regularly organizes faculty and student exchanges and joint programmes. Furthermore, most of its 500-odd faculty members have international collaborative projects of their own. In spite of this high degree of exposure, the EMJD in Literary Studies in Cultural Interzones (hereafter Interzones) is special, and a significant addition to JNU s international activities for three reasons. First, this project involves a consortium of several universities unlike other international collaborations of JNU which are either unilateral or bilateral. This would surely involve a much more active interaction, a much more fruitful exchange of ideas, and a stronger pluralism than

15 conventional unilateral admissions to foreign students or bilateral collaborations with foreign universities. Secondly, since this EMJD will involve students being jointly taught and supervised by faculty members from different parts of the world, each with very different cultural beliefs and prejudices, and diverse and often antagonistic modes of functioning, this will prove to be a learning experience in co-operation, opening oneself up to scrutiny and criticism, tolerating the other, and educating oneself to new ideas, often irreconcilable with one s set beliefs. Thirdly, this collaboration being specifically in literary and cultural studies, it would require direct and exclusive involvement of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies (SLLCS), which, though probably the most international of the Schools of JNU in terms of the subjects taught in it, often does not get the lion s share of the collaboration pie in these natural sciences, technology and vocational subjects driven times of ours. This leads one straight to the SLLCS, the School that is the representative of JNU in Interzones. This plurilingual and pluricultural School offers programmes at different levels in Arabic, Bengali, Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Pashto, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, and Urdu languages and literatures, and also in Linguistics, Semiotics, Mass Media, and Culture Studies of different forms. Courses offered by the entirety of the extremely competent faculty of the School for a particular semester will be open for students of Interzones to opt, though for convenience s sake each of them will be attached to a particular Centre of the School. For example, out of the two students in the first batch of Interzones who have chosen JNU as a degree-awarding university Elsa Belhomme, who wants to work on theatre and nomadism, and Asne Handlykken, who wants to work on digital architectures and virtual cities the former will be admitted to the Centre for English Studies and the latter to the Centre for Linguistics, but they will be free to take courses from any other Centre of the School or even from other Schools of the University like the School of Arts and Aesthetics (which has separate programmes in Performance Studies and Visual Culture, including architecture) and the School of Information Technology or the School of Computers and System Sciences, respectively. Within the Centres of their parent affiliation, the students will be offered the same courses as the other MPhil/PhD students of the Centre, and no special course will be on offer solely for these students, though it can be guaranteed that most of the courses on offer, and therefore the ones that they should opt for, will be directly relevant to their areas of research. Besides, they will receive direct supervision from the PhD supervisors formally assigned to them. The training and supervision that the students will receive while in JNU will of course be state of the art and informed by the latest in contemporary global cultural theory and practice, but the most important contribution that JNU can make to the Interzones is in introducing all the students selected to the programme (and not just the few who choose to come to JNU) to a different mode of thought and cultural analysis, namely Indian Philosophy and Aesthetics, during their preliminary semester in Bergamo itself. Considering that a truly intercultural programme should expose its students to diverse theories and ideas emerging from different cultural paradigms, rather than restricting them to Eurocentric presumptions alone, the presence of an Indian university in the consortium can suitably perform this task of introducing the students to an alternate tradition. In addition to whatever SLLCS will offer to the students at its own end, the JNU Local Co-ordinator proposes to take on this responsibility by offering a module on Classical Indian Philosophy and Aesthetics, and its relations to the current postcolonial, globalized and postmodernized conditions, to all the students of the Interzones in their first semester in Bergamo. PS I think introductory lectures on literary and cultural theory will be the best for me and the students. If you so wish, I can specially focus on popular culture studies, and if you aim for the exotic, I can give a module on Classical Indian philosophy and aesthetics o European University at St Petersburg (Kapitolina Fedorova)

16 There are two departments of European University at St. Petersburg involved in the project, and both of them in their research activity study cultural interzones. The Department of Anthropology prepares young researchers working in several fields: social and cultural anthropology, sociolinguistics, folklore. Many researches conducted at the department deal with the concept of border in various senses. First, there are studies of the borderlands and intercultural communication on the borders: the situations on the Russian-Chinese, Russian-Finnish and Russian-Norwegian borders. Second, studies of different ethnic and linguistic minorities constructing their identities in constant contacts with their respective countries majorities: Greeks in Azov region of Ukraine, Sorbian minority in Germany, Catalan and Provence linguistic minorities in Spain and France, Germans in Russia etc. Third, studies of transforming cultural and religious practices and beliefs and the processes of constructing images of the other: images of West and East Berlin in the Cold War time reflected in guidebooks and tourist practices, ethnographic museums as agents in constructing ethnic identity, labour migrations in Dagestan as an instrument of cultural transformations etc. The Department of Art History is unique in Russia where traditionally art history is a rather narrow discipline focusing on painting, sculpture and architecture. Theater, film and especially literature and music are, as a rule, beyond the scope of the educational program of most Russian universities. The Department s task is to train specialists who are able to understand different artistic languages and facilitate their dialogue; the educational process in the Department is organized so that various spheres of art demonstrate their mutual transferability. The department publishes innovative researches in interdisciplinary art analysis in its own book series called I ( and in Russian). Any article title should contain this conjunction, e.g.: Petrov-Vodkin and old Italian masters ; St. Petersburg s text and St. Petersburg s texts : the image of St. Petersburg in Western literature etc. Thus comparison becomes main research instrument for art studies, and contacts between different art languages and traditions are in the focus of the researches conducted at the department. o University of Zürich (Daniel Muller Nielaba) First and foremost, our Graduate School is not only interested in sending our doctoral students out to the best research centres available in the context of their German and Scandinavian studies, but also in recruiting high profile candidates for research stays at Zurich in order to keep our programme open not only in national, but also in (trans)disciplinary terms. Since our Graduate programme includes research projects from literary and linguistic backgrounds in various specifications ranging from space conceptions in early modern literature to the use of Swiss German in liturgical contexts to George s translation of Baudelaire we are curious about anyone interested in how language creates what is then referred to as the world. As far as we understand, this perspective is our tertium comparationis with Interzones. Apart from our Graduate School which defines itself as a think tank for young scholars with a distinct epistemological and/as semiologic profile, Interzones candidates will profit from Zurich scholars involved in a National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Mediality a Master programme Cultural Analysis and several linguistic PhD programmes. So in the Interzones context, our Graduate School sees itself as a first contact point for incoming students who will then be put in contact with those Zurich scholars most relevant to their research projects. Apart from the above mentioned assets to our local scientific community, the Graduate School s council is of course also interested in keeping current on the latest tendencies on the global academic market and appreciates the opportunity to collaborate with the various fascinating institutions involved. As we always encourage our young scholars that one step in the academic community often leads to another, often unpredictable, we are not only seeing Interzones as the

17 stunningly well-planned, brilliantly organized and scientifically challenging project it definitely is, but also as a potential start of yet unknown collaborations. o University of Barcelona (Laura Borrás) Hermeneia, the International Research Group on Literary Studies and Digital Technologies- ( settled at the University of Barcelona, is taking part of the Interzones EMJD. Hermeneia is composed of 17 researchers of different Catalan, European and American universities: Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Brown University (USA), Universidad de Granada, Faculdade Paulista de Artes (Brazil), Universtiy of Jyväskylä (Finland), Università degli Studi di Bari (Italy), Università di Napoli, l Orientale (Italy), Universidad Pontificia Javeriana (Colombia) and Universté d'artois (France). From 2000 this group has wanted to offer an international gaze of the digital literature phenomenon. Therefore, the academic dialogue between members not only of our group but of other interdisciplinary groups around the world has been a central objective. At the moment, Hermeneia works in order to understand Digital Literature as an interzone, a hybrid space between textuality, literature and the digital, an artistic practice that is specific but transversal to other arts when found in the internet. As Manuel Castells puts it: "Lo que caracteriza el nuevo sistema de comunicación, basado en la integración digitalizada e interconectada de múltiples modos de comunicación es su capacidad de incluir y abarcar todas las expresiones culturales." Manuel Castells (1997: 407). or to say it in Couchot's words: "Interactif, conversationnel, participatif, collaboratif, le numérique bouleverse non seulement les rapports traditionnels entre l auteur, l œuvre et le spectateur, mais les mécanismes mêmes de la circulation de l art, sa contribution à la culture. [ ] L art numérique apparaît comme un art de l hybridation, un art paradoxal dans la mesure où il est à la fois spécifique et transversal aux autres arts.» Couchot, For several millennia, the traditional stable and external aspect of knowledge has been writing on a resistant medium that is easily seen and even palpable, and we are so used to this that we try to apply it to the forms of digital textuality. But this is not easy nor obvious. We need different approaches when we read an electronic text and when we read printed pages. In any reading, the lexico-grammatical dimension of a text cannot be separated from its semiotic dimension. This happens with a printed text, especially with poetry: the way the words are laid out on the page, on the typeface, the book itself (the cover, the weight of the paper, its intrinsic aesthetic quality, etc.) all contribute to the construction of meaning on the part of the reader. So when we change the device, when we move from paper to the computer, reading on the screen makes more evident the semiotic dimension of the text. The decoding does not proceed in the same way. Nor are the mental mechanisms of enjoyment the same with an electronic text as with those that traditionally accompany a printed text. Thanks to the hypertextual links, the connective possibilities and the network characteristics of electronic textuality inevitably activate the associative nature of memory, and in certain cases there is a closer resemblance to the functioning of the human mind than with a printed text. What are the challenges (and the dangers) for the readers of digital literature? These readers often finds the situation disagreeable because, they feel themselves also in an interzone. On the one hand, they have to extricate themselves from their entrenched reading mechanisms; and on the other, when they have to tackle works that are strictly contemporary, which are rarely accompanied by a critical apparatus, there are no guidelines to help in the reading. And this is always troubling, intimidating, because it means that they often have to start each reading and each work from scratch. From different points of view and from complementary perspectives we study the impact of digital technologies in the Literary Studies and the Comparative Literature as well. We have developed a Master's Program on Literature at the Digital Era, an interdisciplinary program where we analyze digital literature in all its genres (poetry, cyberdrama, hypertext novel, etc.) in relation with the specificity of the Internet as a hybrid media. Issues on re-mediation from different arts (manly cinema, poetry, theatre, music, arts...), the reconfiguration of the literary in an interzone such as the net is also a crucial part of the online and program that has students from different

18 countries such as The Netherlands, France, Italy, USA, República Dominicana, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, etc. o University of Entre Rios (Claudia Kozak) UNER Doctorate Program in Social Sciences is designed to contribute to the reinforcement of an academic regional comunity to be able to response, with academic excelence and social relevance, to the challenges that the complex contemporary sociopolitical scene poses within the context of globalisation. Social Sciences and Humanities debate themselves within perplex, heterogeneous and plural circunstamces due not only to cultural, economic, social and ideological asimetries and antagonisms, but to efforts to propound equal cooperation as well. Globalisation has changed time-space coordenates and the entire social life, leading to a scenery hard to avoid in order to establish academic policies which assume the challenge of finding new and better strategies to the promotion of critical thinking. In this context, our Doctorate Program in Social Sciences encourage students to design their research projects from a transdiciplinary perspective, understood as a necessary way of building bridges between different research subjects and knwoledge areas in a local-global scenery. In order to clarify our point of view about what an Interzonal perspective should be, we can point out the following items: 1. Transdisciplinarity: although Interzones EMJD as proposed to the EACEA covers areas such as Comparative Literatures, Cultural Studies (including Visual Studies) and Anthropology, which are at large already multifocal, we would like to stress the transdisciplinary approach when defining subjects of study and methodologies. UNER Doctorate Program in Social Sciences arises as a joint program between three Schools: Faculty of Social Work (degrees in Social Work and in Political Science); Faculty of Education (degrees in Education and in Social Communication; Faculty of Economics). Hence, the first commitment when designing such a joint doctorate program has been transdiciplinarity: cultural, social, political and economic perspectives are frecquently interwoven in students projects. 2. Cross-boundaries perspective: the interzonal approach is widely related to globalisation, the very existence of Interzones as an EMJD is a result of globalisation. That is the reason why it would be important if Interzones student s projects could focus issues such as migrations, multilingual processes, equalities and inequalities within globalized realities, comparative productions of sense, glocal realities 4. 4 Two examples related to the current Interzones student s projects: if we consider the project first listed in alphabetical order among the 13 selected (Christian Abes), we found it not too interzonal in the sense we are proposing. Despite of its comparative approach between literature and cinema, and despite Abes focuses in a subject that, due to colonialism topics, includes identities and cultures in struggle and/or negotiation; maybe it lacks a real interzonal approach in a topographical sense. The very concept of desert he proposes to study could be more interzonal considered in a topographical sense, comparing different realities where it could apply. Of course this couldn t be possible to do if Abes doesn t reshape his project enlarging the corpus of analysis (not only one novel and one film). If we consider de last project in the list of 13, even if it has strong fundaments and argumentations and even if it shows a philosophical interzonal point of view, we can pose to it a similar question: isn t it too French Studies oriented? Without being necessary to change anything of its main perspective, it still could be possible to study the way a theory of the pun is in part culturally defined. Do Derrida, Lacan and Bataille share because of language and culture a similar way of understanding the pun comparing it with other languages (Lewis Carroll for instance). That is not to say that Wocke should also study Lewis Carroll or any other author, but he could pose to his own project this kind of questions.

19 3. Intermediality: particularly in the Cultural Studies area within UNER Doctorate Program in Social Sciences, a focus on intermediality is present, in order to think the very nature of contemporary cultural practices and arts. All along 20 th and 21 st Century an important change in the status of arts has occurred. This change includes topics as the attack to art as institution, the interweaving of traditional disciplines painting, literature, music, performance arts and others, and the impressive consolidation of mass media, which promotes a global esthetization of culture and confronts art to its own dissolution. Combining the stress on intermediatliy with that on transdisciplinarity and crossbounderies issues, we also think on these transformations in the realm of the arts as possible to be studied in terms of social and political perspectives. In this context, courses offered in the Cultural Studies Area for instance, Arts and Culture in Latin America ; Hegemony, subalternity and the question of popular cultures ; Space and Memory In Latin America ; Contemporary Technological Poetics and Globalisation, Societies of Control, Biopolitics of Information and Poshumanism among others- intend to pursue that kind of approach. This goal is also pursued in the other areas of study, such as Political Philosophy, Latin American History and Thought, Social Economy, Contemporary Sociology. These areas are not closed compartments; on the contrary they are usually interwoven. Briefly, we can say that current research areas and thesis projects fit in one or more of the following axes: -Comparative Literatures/Arts/Society -Mass Media/Technology/Society -Education and Society -Latin American History and Thought -Political Philosophy/Memory Studies -Social Movements/Memory/Arts/Politics -Social Movements and Economic Development -Social Work and Public Policies o University of Provence (Alessandro Marignani) University of Aix-en-Provence and Marseille PhD research programs and Doctoral Schools are particularly credited in language, Mediterranean intercultural exchanges, and linguistic studies. We may offer three different branches of research to students committed in humanities and looking for a less conventional and up-to-date point of view. The partnership with foreign Universities is a constant at our University by reason of its wide field of research and of the active dialogue between many different areas. 1) The Doctoral School in Language, Literature and Arts involves five different centres among whom: a. the CIELAM (Interdisciplinary Centre on Literature Studies) spans the spectrum of its interests from classical age to contemporary times, and is especially concerned in general and comparative literature, and in the role of imagination in the generation of languages and arts. b. The LESA (Literature, Arts, Communication and Linguistics), whose domains of interest include aesthetics, poetry, cinema, with a special focus on cultural mediation, on hybrid expressive forms, on collapsing borders, and on experimental (mainly stage) arts. c. The LEOTT (Far-eastern Literatures, Texts and Translation) is distinguished for its studies on Gao Xingjian, 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature.

20 2) The Doctoral School in Space, Culture and Society promotes researches from Sociology to Anthropology, Art History & History. One of the 20 th century most influential historians, Prof. Georges Duby, was a teacher in this department, now managed by his former pupils. The School also specialises in Mediterranean area intercultural studies. On this behalf we can recall the presence of the «Maison de la Méditerranée» in Marseille and of the «Maison Méditerranéenne de Sciences de l Homme» in Aix-en-Provence. 3) Doctoral School in Cognitive Sciences, Language and Education offers students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge with a focus on social and psychological aspects. As a part of this school is the world known laboratory on Comparative Studies on Epistemology and Ergology, which research is having world resonance since o University of Sydney (Jeffrey Riegel) Australia occupies a geographic nexus between Europe and Asia and intellectually is heir to indigenous traditions as well as a legacy of Asian and European cultural influences. As Australia's oldest and arguably finest university, the University of Sydney offers unique training opportunities to students interested in global cultural developments and does so without privileging the European, Asian or any other tradition. What is distinctive about our programs in International and Global Studies or in International Comparative Literature Studies is that we integrate Asian historical experience with globalized values and facilitate intercultural discourse, thus ensuring that our students do not privilege one tradition or view literatures of others as peripheral or marginal. An example is our new postgraduate program in Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific. In recognition of Sydney's capacities in the area of global education, the University received a large grant from the European Commission to establish the first network of human rights programs in the Asia-Pacific. For our contribution to the concept of Interzones, particularly worth mentioning are the studies in the School of Languages and Cultures, where the study of eighteen languages--and of the cultures, societies, and literatures associated with them--are brought together under one roof, effectively breaking down national boundaries in our students' learning experiences; Art History, where contemporary Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian Art are viewed in a global context; Comparative Diaspora studies, where colonialism and post-colonialism are explored from the perspective of a colony. Furthermore, research in the representations of race and ethnicity, particularly of Asiatic peoples and cultures, done in the units of Architecture and Comparative Urbanism, Media Studies, Gender and Cultural Studies, illustrate how well anchored we are in transcultural and transnational comparative studies. In brief, the programs of the University of Sydney are midway between Kant and Confucius. o And still expecting responses from University of Paris 10 (Camille Dumoulié / William Marx) University of Paris 3 (Carle Bonafous / Marc Porée) Graduate Centre of Brown University (Zachary Sng / Shelley Stephenson) CASH, Jagellonian University (Tomaz Bilczewki)