hydrarchist writes:

"Free Bitflows:

Cultures of Access and Politics of Dissemination"
Vienna, Austria, June, 2004

| * Conference

| * Workshops

| * Exhibition

| * Residency

In early June 2004 a digital-culture event will be held in Vienna to examine
the theories and practices for making new cultures of access viable.

"Culturepoles: City Spaces, Urban Politics & Metropolitan Theory"

Second Annual Canadian Association of Cultural Studies Conference

Hamilton, Canada, February 13-15, 2004

Join scholars, cultural workers and activists from across Canada and
around the world in wide-ranging discussions of culture and the
contemporary global city, including issues such as ethnicity, race and
the city; the suburbs; cultural practices in and against the city;
urban activisms; visual and soundscapes of the city; and the politics
of infrastructure.

“Looking Back on Marx/Moving Forward with Marxism:
Marxism and Communication Studies in the 21st Century”

National Communication Association (NCA) Preconvention Seminar Conference. 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 10, 2004. Chicago Hilton Towers, Chicago, IL

Marxism’s relationship to communication as a discipline has long been marked by a profound ambivalence. On the one hand, notions derived from Marxist theory -­“ideology,” “hegemony”, “reification”, “commodification,” “social class,”“dialectics” etc.-- are regularly deployed in the pages of the NCA’s journals and are foundational for entire subfields such as cultural studies. Moreover, a growing number of communication scholars explicitly identify themselves as Marxists or at least see their work as indebted to the Marxist legacy. On the other hand, extended, informed discussions of Marxist theory and the unique insights it affords are all but invisible at NCA’s annual meeting and in its publications. And a glance at most rhetoric and mass communications textbooks reveals that the approach receives little or no attention in most undergraduate courses.

Northeast Gathering for Autonomy

Hartford, Connecticut, Feb. 28-29, 2004

In response to the recent "Draft Proposal for a Continental Network,"
we're calling for a gathering with the purpuse of creating a network of
groups, organizations, and individuals who believe in Self-Determination,
Equality, Decentralized Organizing, Direct Democracy and Autonomy, and who
oppose and fight White Supremacy, Patriarchy, Heterosexism, Oppression and
Exploitation in all its forms.

NortheastAutonomy

Agenda and discussion will be plenary. This network will be whatever YOU
make it. Please send representatives from your groups, representing
whatever number of people you're comfortable with, just for space's sake.
However, full groups and individual nonrepresentatives are welcomed as
well. Come to Hartford with ideas for projects and such that can be
discussed and pursued at the gathering.

University of Hartford

West Hartford, CT

Gengras Student Union

February 28-29, 2004

solidarity,

m(A)tt

860-416-4575

Email: circleAmatt@riseup.net

Pacific Center for Technology and Culture Opens, Vancouver

We are pleased to announce the opening of the Pacific Centre for
Technology and Culture. Located at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the
Pacific Centre for Technology and Culture (PACTAC) is conceived as a
unique interdisciplinary institute for researching and teaching
issues related to the impact of technological change on culture,
politics and society. Simultaneously a centre of global intellectual
exchange and an innovative and collaborative site for exploring the
digital future, PACTAC approaches the question of technology from
perspectives which are interdisciplinary in scope, critical in
sensibility, and creative, experimental and immersive in method.

Classes on "Anarchism and Marxism -- Their Interrelations, Similarities and Differences"

NYC, Spring, 2004 by Wayne Price

There will be an 8 part class series on
"Anarchism and Marxism -- Their Interrelations, Similarities and Differences" begining on February 9. Classes will be on Mondays, 5:30 to 7:30 at The Brecht Forum, 122 West 27th Street, 10th floor, between 6th and 7th Avenues.

"Science Fiction Reloaded: Power, Critique and
Resistance in the Science Fiction Genre and the Information Society of
the 21st Century"

5th International Conference

Crossroads in
Cultural Studies

June 25-28, 2004, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Illinois, USA

In the last twenty years the increasing role of global communication
flows has led to fundamental changes in society which are summarized
under the concepts of "reflexive modernity" (Beck/Giddens), "network
society" (Castells) or "information society" (Poster, Lash). Not only
contemporary social theory, but also popular culture helps us to
understand the new times which are characterized by a loss of
traditional relationships and ontological security in everyday life,
individualization, new techniques of exercising power and new forms of
cultural and social inequality. The session's focus is on the discourse
of social change and the visions of a future society in the very popular
representations of the science fiction genre (films, novels, TV-series,
computer games). In this way, contemporary science fiction movies (e.g.
TERMINATOR, STRANGE DAYS, MATRIX), and especially cyberpunk novels
(William Gibson, Bruce Sterling), can be interpreted as metaphors for
the emerging principles of an information society.

As a reaction to this
fundamental change, cultural studies ought to be a transnational and
transdisciplinary project in order to explore global communication flows
and their consequences. What will be the characteristics of this
information society? How does power work in an age of such flows? Will
the social be replaced by mediated and technologised social relations or
technological forms of life? How will conceptions of social justice,
truth and social recognition change? Which forms of dissent subcultures,
"flight lines" and resistance will evolve? Can the recent science
fiction texts contribute to a "cognitive mapping" (Jameson) of the
contemporary era?

"New York City Grassroots Media Conference

Feb. 27-29, 2004, New School University

New York City will become the epicenter of the media democracy movement this
February, when hundreds of journalists, scholars, artists, and organizers
gather to discuss how to strengthen and expand the city's vibrant network of
independent media.

“Break the Cycle” Conference

Mass Incarceration of Women:

Bodies, Families & Communities

May 18-19, 2004, New York City

Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY

199 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007

“Break the Cycle” is a two-day conference held at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Individuals and organizations are invited to submit papers and outlines for panels, workshops, or performances focusing on women in the criminal justice system.  It’s time to unite and raise awareness about the lives of women inside the concrete womb of prisons and the lives of former women prisoners, their achievements as well as the obstacles that confront them.  Let’s end th e myths and stereotyping regarding women prisoners and ex-prisoners. Many former women prisoners are achieving and succeeding despite the great obstacles they face.  

1st Global Conference: Evil, Law and the State

Wednesday 14th to Saturday 17th July 2004

Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary
conference seeks to explore issues surrounding
evil and law, with a focus on state power and
violence. Perspectives are sought from those
engaged in any field that touches on the study of
law and legal culture: anthropology, criminology,
cultural studies, government/politics, history,
legal studies, literature, philosophy,
psychology, religion/theology, and sociology, as
well as those working in civil rights, human
rights, prison services, politics and government
(including NGOs), psychiatry, health care, and
other areas.