Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+

University of Freiburg ,

16-18 February 2007

	Home
	Registration
	Accommodation
	Programme
	Abstracts
	Teachers' Workshop
	Student Workshop
	Film Screenings
	Arrival
	Contact
	Common Ground (Exhibition)
	[Back to Website Prof. Reinfandt]

Download group photograph of conference participants (Sunday)

(copyright Violeta Topalova)

The first years of the new millennium have witnessed a renewed anxiety about ethnicity, cultural belonging and religion in Britain and its multi-ethnic communities. In the aftermath of 9/11 and the ensuing preoccupation with terror, and with increased intensity since the London bombings of 2005, cultural difference is back at the forefront of public debates, and artistic representations of multi-ethnic Britain tread a highly politicised ground. Widely-read novels such as Zadie Smiths White Teeth (2000), with its rather playful attitude towards transcultural dynamics, or Hanif Kureishis The Body (2003), which all but transcends the physical constraints of cultural belonging, share the stage with accounts of the more dire aspects of immigrant communities, such as Monica Alis Brick Lane (2003), the absurd sociology of terror, for instance in Partick Neates City of Tiny Lights (2005), or the indignities of political asylum (Caryl Phillipss A Distant Shore , 2003) and illegal immigration (Michael Winterbottoms film In this World, 2003).

The symposium Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000 + will provide a forum for discussions about the current situation and future perspectives of artists working from or about Britain s multi-ethnic communities. This may involve diverse issues, including artistic responses to religious fundamentalism and terror, intercultural dialogue and the reality of racism, legal as well as illegal immigration, the politics of the global and the local, the New Labour involvement in the war on terror, and many more.

We specifically invite papers about recent literary work in all genres, but also encourage contributions on film, visual or performing arts, and music. Journalist and critic Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has agreed to deliver the keynote lecture; two writers, Rajeev Balasubramanyam and Patrick Neate, have confirmed their presence and will read from their work. The symposium will also feature the opening of the British Councils photography exhibition Common Ground Muslim Experience of Life in the UK in Freiburg .

The English Seminars of the Universities of Tübingen and Freiburg, in cooperation with the

and the Haus für Film und Literatur im Alten Wiehrebahnhof