Important Message!

• Deadline for submissions: January 1, 2009, only through e-mail to: ct2009iact@tokyo.com
• Result will be announced on February 1, 2009

Time & Venue

• Conference Theme: Cultural Studies and Asia; Past, Present and Future
• Time: July 3-5, 2009
• Venue: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo
• Organizers: Cultural Typhoon and the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society
• e-mail: ct2009iact@tokyo.com
• Website: http://www.tufs.ac.jp/st/club/culturaltyphoon2009/
• Download (PDF file)

Statement:

Entering the 7th year for the Cultural Typhoon and the 10th for the publication of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies journal, we decided to hold a joint conference in Tokyo to reflect on the past and present practices of Cultural Studies in Asia and to look towards the future.

In the past seven years, Cultural Typhoon has gradually established a reputation for its flexibility and openness to make connections with critical social forces. It has created an attractive space not only for graduate students and teachers to present their research in progress, but also for different projects and concerns to intermingle. In short, in Japan and beyond, Cultural Typhoon has become a symbol for alternative modes of intellectual work and critical engagement.

Since the late 1990s, the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (IACS) project has worked towards the imagination and possibilities of diverse forms of intellectual integrations in Asia. Besides publishing intellectual work produced out of Asia since 2000, the IACS has also organized various forms of activities to contribute to interaction in Asia. In 2004, an Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society (IACSS) was formed in response to meet the growing demand of younger intellectuals to expand the scale of interactions in and across the region. The 2009 Tokyo Conference is the second meeting to provide a platform so that scholars and intellectuals can meet each other to discuss and analyze urgent issues emerging in the region.

Looking retrospectively, in July 2002, when members of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies joined the “New Dimensions in Cultural Studies: Media, War and Globalization” held in University of Tokyo, during the typhoon season, this was the first moment of encounter between IACS and Cultural Typhoon, which was officially launched in 2003. The overlapping membership has ever since maintained intimate relation between the two projects. And we hope this reunion in 2009 can further the links and generate productive results.

We welcome critical contributions to review cultural studies practices in different locations as well as to imagine new possibilities.

Open Call for Panels

1. The Conference will accept organized panels only, and will not accept individual papers.

   Deadline for submissions: January 1, 2009, only through e-mail to: ct2009iact@tokyo.com
   Result will be announced on February 1, 2009

2. Panel proposals should include the following materials:
   • a. general statement of purpose
   • b. individual paper abstracts
   • c. short autobiographical information for each participant (including panelists, moderator and discussant), plus e-mail address
   • The conference will NOT consider incomplete proposals.
3. The organizing committees of the conference will review the panel proposals and select the best ones. Accepted panels will be announced on February 1, 2009
4. The conference particularly encourages the organizing of trans-local panel proposal. However, due to the limited resources and capacities the organizing committees may prioritize proposals and panelists within Asia. The conference organizing committees reserve the right to designate areas of priorities.
5. Language: English is the mediating language of the conference. We accept panel proposal for presentations in all Asian languages. We assume the panel organizers of such non-English panels will find ways to make translation into English available during the conference to increase the participation from the audience
6. As a general rule, conference participants will raise their own funding to join. We encourage all students and faculties to find their own travel fund where and if possible.
7. Limited funding will be available to support partially travel/accommodation for selected proposals from developing parts of Asia. Applications for funding support must be submitted with the panel proposal. The application should include paper title, abstract, short autobiographical information and projected budgets in detail (airfare and accommodation). Recommendation letters are welcome though not compulsory. The committee will NOT consider incomplete applications.

Registration

US$50 registration fee for salaried faculty, and US$20 for students and participants from developing countries, will be charged. Additional cost for reception party, lunches and dinners will be paid by the participants.

Accommodations

By March 1, 2009, information for accommodation will be announced on the conference web-site. It will be the responsibility of all participants to contact the hotels in the nearby area where the conference is to be held.

Organizations

Cultural Typhoon Committee:
Minoru IWASAKI (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), Kiyoshi ABE (Kwanseigakuin University), Mamoru ITO (Waseda University), Koichi Iwabuchi (Waseda University), Toshiya UENO (Wako University), Hiroki OGASAWARA (Kobe University), Toshimaru OGURA (Toyama University), Hiroko SAKOMOTO (Hitotsubashi University), Masaki SAKIYAMA (Ritsumeikan University), Osamu TADA (Hitotsubashi University), Yasuhiro TANAKA (International Christian University), Ichiro TOMIYAMA (Osaka University), Yoko NAGAO (Wako University), Shigemi NAKAGAWA (Ritsumeikan University),Hiroshi NARUMI (Kyoto University of Art and Design), Tetsuya MOTOHASHI (Tokyo Metropolitan University), Yoshitaka Mori (Tokyo National University of Arts and Music), Shunya Yoshimi (University of Tokyo)

IACSS Committee:
Shunya Yoshimi (Tokyo University of Tokyo), Kim Soyoung (IACSS; Korean National University of Arts and Trans: Asian Screen Culture Institute), Yoo Sunyoung (IACSS; Korea Press Foundation), Yoshitaka Mori (Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music), Tejaswni Niranjana (CSCS, India),Cho Heeyeon (Sungkonghoe University, Seoul); Chua Beng Huat (National University of Singapore), Fran Martin (Melbourne University), Malathi De Alwis (International Center for Ethcni Studies, Sri Lanka), Eric Ma (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Hilmar Farid (Cultural Network, Jakarta), Shin Hyunjoon (Sungkonghoe University), Chen Kuan-Hsing (Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)

During the period of the summer camp, invited participants will stay at Casaville residence hotel in Shinchon, Seoul from June 29 to July 3. Two students will share one room, and there will be two sigle beds in each room.

• Website: www.shinchonco-op.com
• Address: 57-26 Nogosan-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea
• Tel: 82-2-6220-4000
• Check-in: 14:00, June 29
• Check-out: 12:00, July 3

From Incheon Airport to Casaville

1. Take limousine bus at the airport
   • The best way to reach to Seoul is to take limousine bus, 602 at the airport.
   • It departs from 5B, 12A every 15 minutes. You are required to purchase your ticket at the ticket booth before getting on the bus. 8,000 Won.
   • Please see Airport Bus Guide.
2. Get off at Shinchon Station
   • Get off at Shinchon Station.
   • By telling the driver in advance that your destination is Shinchon Station, you can avoid getting off at the wrong station.

The the map is available at Yonsei University website.

• Dates: 2008. 6.30~7.3.
• Venue: Yonsei University, Seoul
• Organizer: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society
• Co-organizers: Korea National University of Arts (School of Film, TV, and Multimedia), Sungkonghoe University (Institute for East Asian Studies), Yonsei University (Graduate Program in Culture and Gender Studies and Graduate School of Communication and Arts)
• Contacts: E-mail iacsssummercamp2008@gmail.com; Website www.inter-asia.net

<Statement>

This Summer Camp aims at organizing an open forum where young cultural studies researchers and graduate students gather and discuss common interests and current issues. The camp intends to provide participants with the opportunity to share, with fellow-researchers and cultural practitioners, concerns about emerging cultural phenomena and agenda in Asia and beyond. Another purpose of the camp lies in fostering the participants’ visions and passions as future scholars and activists.

Today, the neo-liberalist order is greatly influencing the methods of governance, the profit-making of corporations, the general trend of popular culture, and the knowledge production of academia. Cultural researchers are in the situation of having to understand the actual workings of the world through creating critical discourses and cultural practices. This camp is a place for education, in which next generation cultural researchers gather and communicate through researching radical changes brought about by neo-liberalist order.

Throughout the Camp, young researchers and students who are interested in the cultural currency and urgency of Asia will have uplifting experiences of learning and networking by discussing with scholars, experts, activists, and policy-makers. Asia is rapidly changing and the future generation of cultural studies researchers and cultural workers is emerging. In the camp, we wish to create a critical perspective toward what is happening “here and now” in the inter-Asia and a sustainable platform for solidarity and collaboration among the young generation.

<Organizers>

The Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society associated in Seoul hosts the 2008 summer camp. The organizing committee is listed below;

1. The organizing Committee

• Cho Hee Yeon (Sungkonghoe University, Korea)
• Paik Won Dam (Sungkonghoe University, Korea)
• Shin Hyun Joon (Sungkonghoe University, Korea)
• Shim Bo Seon (Sungkonghoe University, Korea)
• Cho Haejoang (Yonsei University, Korea)
• Kim Hyun Mee (Yonsei University, Korea)
• Lee Sang Gil (Yonsei University, Korea)
• Yoon Tae Jin (Yonsei University, Korea)
• Kang Myung Koo (Seoul National University, Korea)
• Kang Nae-hui (Chungang University, Korea)
• Kim So Young (Korea National University of Arts, Korea)
• Yoo Sun Young (Korean Press Foundation, Korea)
• Chua Beng-Huat (National Univ. of Singapore, Singapore)
• Chen Kuan-Hsing (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan)
• Earl Jackson (Korea University, Korea)
• Tejaswini Niranjana (Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, India)
• Mouri Yoshitaka (Tokyo National University of Music and Arts, Japan)

2. The graduate students committee

• Shim Bo Seon (Committee chair) / Bark-Yi Eun Sil (Yonsei University) / Cho Chang Eun (Myungji University) / Hwang Miyojo (Centre for the Study of Culture & Society, India) / Joung Seung Hwa (Yonsei University) / Kang Ju Hee (Yonsei University) / Kim Dong Hyun (Yonsei University) / Kim Soo Yeon (Korea National University of Arts) / Kim Sue (Sungkonghoe University) / Sohn Irhe (Korea National University of Arts)

<Streams>

• The camp consists of seven ’stream’s. ‘Stream’ is a concept in which each team communicates and exerts social influence by acting in a stream-like manner.
• Each stream runs four sessions, which are
  • a. Lectures (Faculty members lecture on subjects related with streams)
  • b. Seminar (students present working papers)
  • c. Workshop (researchers or practitioners give presentations and intensive team discussion follows) or Field work (upon decision of stream participants)

1) Cultural Movement and cultural policy
“How cultural movement works? What is the impact of cultural policy on cultural activism? How the two interact?”
- Teachers: Cho Dong Won, Kang Nae-hui (Chungang University, Korea), Won Yong Jin (Sogang University, Korea)
- Field Work: Visiting Radical Social Sites (Cultural Action, Medi Act, Migrant Worker Television, People’s Media, Newscham)

2) New urban spectacle and Asian Cinema Anew
“The emerging topics. New films, new directors, and new stars. Digital Experimentation. History and trauma in film. The transformation of urban landscape and designs.”
- Teachers: Earl Jackson (Korea University, Korea), Guo-Juin Hong (Duke Univerisity, United States), Kim So Young (Korea National University of Arts, Korea), Lim Dae Keun (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea), Moinak Biswas (Jadavpur University, India)
- Workshop: Media For Change: Art and Technology Media Lab
- Field Work: The Old Seoul Railway Station
- Moderators and Discussants: Lee Hyong Sook (Ewha Women’s University), Ahn Soo Jeong (Korea National University of Arts), Jeon Minsung (Korea National University of Arts), Sohn Ireh (Korea National University of Arts), Bae Juyeon (Korea National University of Arts)

3) Cultural economy and New Media
“How are the creative industries and the new mediascape reorganized in the changing cultural ecology? How the different forces in industries and media compromise and clash?”
- Teachers: Kelly Hu (Chung-cheng University, Taiwan), Lee Sang Gil (Yonsei University, Korea), Mouri Yoshitaka (Tokyo National University of Music and Arts, Japan), Shin Hyun Joon (Sungkonghoe University, Korea), Yoon Tae Jin (Yonsei University, Korea)
- Field Work: Alternative Cultural Spaces/Sangam Digital Media Center

4) Memory, nationalism, and inter-Asia
“How is the new form of Asian-ness emerging in the globalizing world. How is the past nationalism and inter-Asia related with new Asia?”
- Teachers: Dai Jin-Hua (Peking University, China), Paik Won Dam (Sungkonghoe University, Korea), Kwon Huyk Tae (Sungkonghoe University, Korea), Yoo Joong Ha (Yonsei University, Korea)
- Field Work: Historical Sites (Korea Democracy Foundation, Jinbo Network, The War Memorial of Korea)

5) Gender and sexuality in the global space
What conditions the newly emerging identity-politics within Asian and beyond? How can we go beyond the essentialist notion of identities and create new solidarity and networks across various identity-based politics?
- Teachers: Kim Hyun Mee (Yonsei University, Korea), Kim Mi Ran (Sungkonghoe University, Korea)
- Field Work: Visiting Women’s Spaces in Seoul

<detailed schedules> (the following schedules are subject to change)

June 30, Mon: Opening
12:30 am-1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm-2:00 pm: Registration
2:00 pm – 3: 30 pm : Keynote Speech, Yoo Sun Young
3: 40 pm – 5: 10 pm : Orientation
5: 10 pm – 6: 00 pm : Stream meetings
6: 10 pm – 7: 10 pm : Dinner
7: 30 pm – : Opening Party

July 1, Tue.: Lectures
10: 00 am – 12: 00 pm : Session 1
12: 00 pm – 1: 30 pm : Lunch
1: 30 pm – 3: 30 pm : Session 2
3: 45 pm – 5: 45 pm : Session 3
6: 00 pm – 6: 50 pm : Dinner
7: 00 pm – 9: 30 pm : Film Screening: Out: Smashing Homophobia Project (110min)
9: 30 pm – 9: 50 pm : Performance by L FLOWer

July 2, Wed. : Presentations and Workshops
10: 00 am – 12: 00 pm : Workshop
12: 00 pm – 1: 30 pm : Lunch
1: 30 pm – 3: 30 pm : Presentation 1
3: 45 pm – 5: 45 pm : Presentation 2
6: 00 pm – 6: 50 pm : Dinner
7: 00 pm - : Field Work and Free time

July 3, Thurs. : Wrap-up
10: 00 am. – 11: 00 am : Masterclass, Chua Beng Huat
11: 00 am – 12: 00 pm : Closing Ceremony
12: 00 pm – 1: 00 pm : Lunch

- The IACSS Summer Camp Organizing Committee

The Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society is pleased to announce that the 1st Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society Summer Camp will be held in Seoul from June 30 - July 3, 2008.

Following on the announcement two weeks ago, we made some changes to our original application guidelines. You can download PDF versions of the announcement as well. We are looking for all varieties of contribution.

Application Announcement & Register Form

• Register Form
• Application Announcement

Application Announcement for the 1st Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society Summer Camp
Title: “Imagining ‘Inter-Asian-ness’ beyond Neo-liberalism”

• Dates: 2008. 6.30~7.3.
• Venue: Yonsei University, Seoul
• Organizer: Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society
• Co-organizers: Korea National University of Arts (School of Film, TV & Multimedia), Sungkonghoe University (Institute for East Asian Studies), Yonsei University (Graduate Program in Culture and Gender Studies and Graduate School of Communication and Arts)
• Contacts: E-mail iacsssummercamp2008@gmail.com; Website www.inter-asia.net

<Statement>

This Summer Camp aims at organizing an open forum where young cultural studies researchers and graduate students gather and discuss common interests and current issues. The camp intends to provide participants with the opportunity to share, with fellow-researchers and cultural practitioners, concerns about emerging cultural phenomena and agenda in Asia and beyond. Another purpose of the camp lies in fostering the participants’ visions and passions as future scholars and activists.
Today, the neo-liberalist order is greatly influencing the methods of governance, the profit-making of corporations, the general trend of popular culture, and the knowledge production of academia. Cultural researchers are in the situation of having to understand the actual workings of the world through creating critical discourses and cultural practices. This camp is a place for education, in which next generation cultural researchers gather and communicate through researching radical changes brought about by neo-liberalist order.
Throughout the Camp, young researchers and students who are interested in the cultural currency and urgency of Asia will have uplifting experiences of learning and networking by discussing with scholars, experts, activists, and policy-makers. Asia is rapidly changing and the future generation of cultural studies researchers and cultural workers is emerging. In the camp, we wish to create a critical perspective toward what is happening “here and now” in the inter-Asia and a sustainable platform for solidarity and collaboration among the young generation.

<Organizers>

The Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society associated in Seoul hosts the 2008 summer camp. The organizing committee is listed below;

1. The organizing Committee
   • Cho Hee Yeon, Paik Won Dam, Shin Hyun Jun, Shim Bo Seon (Sungkonghoe University)
   • Cho Haejoang, Kim Hyun Mee , Lee Sang Gil, Yoon Tae Jin (Yonsei University)
   • Kang Myung Koo (Seoul National University)
   • Kang Nae-hui (Chungang University)
   • Kim So Young (Korea National University of Arts)
   • Yoo Sun Young (Korean Press Foundation)
   • Chua Beng-Huat(Singapore, National Univ. of Singapore)
   • Chen Kuan-Hsing (Taiwan, National Tsing Hua Univ.)
   • Earl Jackson, Jr. (Korea University, Co-director of Trans Asia Screen culture)
   • Tejaswini Niranjana(India, Centre for the Study of Culture and Society)
   • Yoshitaka Mouri(Japan, Tokyo National University of Music and Arts)
2. The graduate students committee members
   • Shim Bo Seon (Committee chair), Cho Chang Eun (Myungji University), Hwang Miyojo (Centre for the Study of Culture & Society, India), Joung Seung Hwa (Yonsei University), Kang Ju Hee (Yonsei University), Kim Dong Hyun (Yonsei University), Kim Soo Yeon (Korea National University of Arts), Kim Sue (Sungkonghoe University), Park Yi Eun Sil (Yonsei University), Sohn Irhe (Korea National University of Arts)

<Programs>

1. The camp consists of seven ’stream’s. ‘Stream’ is a concept in which each team communicates and exerts social influence by acting in a stream-like manner.
2. Each stream runs four sessions, which are
   • a. Lectures (Faculty members lecture on subjects related with streams)
   • b. Seminar (students present working papers)
   • c. Workshop (researchers or practitioners give presentations and intensive team discussion follows)
   • d. Field work (upon decision of stream participants)
3. We will notice the list of participant faculties and practitioners in mid March.
4. At the end of the Camp, participants will be given a certificate.

<Streams>

Listed are the seven streams. We listed examples of topics under each stream. Of course, participants can come up with their own topics in relation with the suggested stream. We expect that the number of participants will be 15-20 for each stream (100-150 in total).

● Cultural Movement and cultural policy
- Practices and organization of cultural movement in Asia
- Relationships between cultural movement and cultural policy
- Re-conceptualization of cultural movement and cultural policy in the global age

● New urban spectacle- consumption and space
-Multiplex and arcade
-Urban design
-Consumption of spaces
-Contemporary Club Culture
-Alpha girl, BoBos, Creative class

● Cultural economy and cultural industry
- Cultural economy of piracy
- Copy right under free trade (FTA)
- Reorganizing of labor in cultural industry
- Cultural management in the private sector
- Cultural marketing in the public sector

● New media and cultural development
- The impact of mobile media on audience reception
- User Created Contents, blogging, personal media
- Media literacy
- Media activism
- Open source movement and copy left under free trade (FTA)
- Subjectivity in cyberspace (youth culture, Otaku)

● Gender and sexuality in the global space
- Immigration and diaspora
- International marriage
- Sex work Industry
- Gay/lesbian movements
- New feminism in Inter-Asia

● Memory, nationalism, and inter-Asia
- Reinvention of collective memory
- Fantasies of Asian-ness in inter-Asia
- New nationalism
- Trans-Asia and pop culture
- Imagining Asian solidarity

● Asian Cinema Anew
- Emerging Topics
- New Films, New Directors, and New Stars
- Digital Experimentation
- History and Trauma in film

<Detailed schedules> (the following schedules are subject to change)

• Please check our pdf version of application announcement (30KB).

<Open Call for Papers>

1. The Summer Camp will accept individual working papers(work-in-progress, or full paper that potentially leads to participants’ thesis).
2. Eligibility: Graduate Students (ma/M.Phil/Ph.D) from any humanities or social science disciplines from any college/university.
3. Deadline for submissions: April 27, 2008, only through e-mail to: iacsssummercamp2008@gmail.com
4. Proposals should include the following materials:
   a. general statement of purpose
   b. selection of two streams in order of preferences
   (e.g. 1. Cultural movement and cultural policy, 2. New media and cultural development)
   c. individual paper abstracts
   d. short autobiographical information and e-mail address
   e. passport information (including number, name, expiring date)
   f. projected budget for air fair and accommodation if you apply for funding
   g. The Summer Camp will NOT consider incomplete proposals.
5. The organizing committees of the summer camp will review the proposals and select the best ones. Accepted proposals will be announced in early May, 2008.
6. Language: As a general rule, we accept proposal for presentations in English. However, we will have people available for helping translation during the presentations and lectures.
7. Limited funding will be available to support travel/accommodation for selected proposals. Applications for funding support must be submitted with the panel proposal. The application should include paper title, abstract, short autobiographical information and projected budgets in detail (air fair and accommodation). Recommendation letters are welcome though not compulsory. The committee will NOT consider incomplete applications.

This is a second call for papers for a proposed collection investigating genre in Asian film and television. The main motivation for this second call is to fill in gaps in the field that the collection still has room for.

In the first proposal, a call was put forward for essays on studies in Asian cinema and television that aimed to address those genres and locations which have so far been overlooked in much of English-language academic writing on the subject.

Currently, we have submissions in the following areas:

• Anime re-imagining of Europe
• Chinese documentary
• Chinese literary adaptation for television
• Contemporary Japanese costume drama
• Contemporary Singapore cinema
• Genre as a means of cross-cultural negotiation
• Indonesian reality television
• South Korean legal dramas
• Soviet Central Asian film

We would like to include essays on the following topics/areas of research:

• Representations of ‘Asia’ in genre films/television
• ‘Asian genres’ versus ‘genres in Asian film/television’
• Films/television of/by/for Asian diaspora communities
• Non-Japanese animation or non-anime Japanese animation
• Propaganda films/television
• Television genres in Asia
• Folklore, literary, and comic book adaptations

Proposals on subjects outside these areas are welcome, especially if they are studies that provoke new thinking on where the boundaries surrounding notions of ‘Asia’ and ‘genre’ might lie. These may include case studies of individual media texts, comparative studies across generic or national contexts, and overviews of the historical development of genres within particular national (and trans- and inter-national) contexts, as well as of new or lesser explored genres, such as non-Japanese animation produced in Asia.

Proposals of up to 500 words, including a brief author bio and publishing history, and any inquiries, should be sent to asiangenre_at_googlemail.com by 15th October 2007. Completed papers of about 5,000 to 6,000 words are expected by 30th December 2007.

• Conference Schedule (.pdf)
• The Main Information of All Panels in Pre-conference (.doc)

• Airport - Shanghai University (pdf/40KB)

Around Shanghai University

Please download the map below and show it to the taxi driver and ask him to take you to the North Gate if you have booked a room in Lehu hotel, or the West Gate if you have booked a room in Jufengyuan hotel.

• Map for Taxi Driver (pdf/100KB)
• Updated English Version (jpg/150KB)

The first themed dialogues present a set of reflective commentaries on the turbulent events surrounding the UK Reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother 07. Collectively the dialogues begin to map the complexity of race and media culture in our globalised digital world.
Editorial: Celebrity Big Brother dialogues - the global pantomime of race

Further Journal highlights include: Paul Gilroy in conversation with Max Farrar; a round-table discussion on transnational feminism and terrorism with scholars from the US and Europe including Gargi Bhattacharya; Inderpal Grewal; Ronit Lentin and Jasbir Kaur Puar; a poetic filmic mediation on the Coventry Ritz Cinema by Nirmal Puwar; a review essay on the film Crash by Paul Gormley; a review of Yinka Shonibare at the Musee de Quai Branly in Paris by Sara Wajid.

Future themed issues: Race and Materialism; Desiring Otherness - Psychoanalysis and Alterity

the Commons includes insightful interventions on contemporary culture and global politics - don’t miss Ben Pitcher’s posts on the troubled politics of whiteness; or the exiled Londoner, Ko Banerjea’s ‘Lynch-esque’ dispatches on the traumas of everyday living in LA.

darkmatter editors (ash sharma and sanjay sharma)
www.darkmatter101.org

darkmatter journal is committed to producing incisive post-colonial cultural critique. We are interested in interrogating contested issues of multiculture, while eschewing current orthodoxies. darkmatter seeks to promote critical knowledge production from a range of contributors exploring the politics of everyday life.