CHAT 2010: ‘North’
Northern Worlds in Contemporary & Historical Archaeology
November 12-14, 2010, The University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Northern worlds have always suffered from stereotyping. Since the Enlightenment, ‘North’ played the role of frontier of geographic knowledge and wilderness of harrowing and sublime proportions. The last century saw its diversification as a space of untapped resources, from fur and gold to oil and gas. In other historical moments, north figured large as a relational concept in the formulation of identities and mentalities, especially by those farther south.
Drawing on the point of view that material culture can provide, CHAT North at the University of Aberdeen seeks to question and move beyond caricatures to explore, compare and reassess the diversity and significance of northern worlds.
Papers are invited that focus on the north broadly defined. Questions addressed by the conference may include, but are not limited to:
- How have changing perceptions of ‘north’ and ‘northern’ been articulated within historical and contemporary archaeology?
- To what extent has northern as a relational concept contributed to the formulation and negotiation of social and cultural identities?
- How has north been couched within colonial and post-colonial dialogues?
- To what degree has capitalism and industry reshaped landscapes of the north?
- What is the place of the north in relationships between modernity and aesthetics?
- What is the value of northern studies in historical and contemporary archaeology?
Conference Venue: The plenary sessions will be held within the School of Geosciences, with a Key Note wine reception to be held within the university’s historic James McKay Hall in Old King’s College. Our Key Note speaker this year is Aberdeen’s own Professor Tim Ingold.
Registration and Fees: The delegate fee for CHAT 2010 is £40 (waged) and £20 (unwaged) and includes entry to the conference, tea and coffee, lunch on Saturday and Sunday and the wine reception, Saturday 13th of November. Please follow this link to the Aberdeen online store to make payment. So that we can confirm numbers, the registration deadline has been set to September 15th.
Accommodation, food, drink and travel: follow this link for further details. [PDF, 470 KB].
Provisional Conference Programme: follow this link for further details [PDF 96 KB] (note this is a draft programme and may be subject to minor alterations).
If you have any queries about the conference, please contact the organizing committee at CHAT2010@abdn.ac.uk
