Taking Malta out of the Box: Island Cultures, Economies, and Identities - Valletta, Malta 11-15 May 2011 (new date)

Taking Malta out of the Box is an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral island studies conference. The conference will bring together academics, politicians, civil servants, and businesspeople to explore insular and coastal communities, past and present, in Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and worldwide. This Island Dynamics event is a collaboration of the University of Malta's Islands & Small States Institute, the University of Aberdeen's Elphinstone Institute, and Eastern Mediterranean University's Center for Cyprus Studies.

The conference theme will consider how the identities of maritime communities and geographical and cultural islands develop alongside their cultures and economies. The event will feature three keynote speakers http://www.islanddynamics.net/conference/keynote.html: the innovative folklorist Henry Glassie, the influential researcher of island economics and governance Godfrey Baldacchino, and the distinguished geographer David Lowenthal.

Papers are sought from a wide range of disciplines, including such fields as folklore, political science, anthropology, economics, history, tourism studies, archaeology, branding, ethnomusicology, and heritage studies. Although papers concerning the conference theme are particularly welcome, we are interested in talks on all maritime, coastal, and island topics, particularly comparative island studies. Presenters will be encouraged to submit adapted versions of their conference papers to the peer-reviewed Island Dynamics: Occasional Papers http://www.islanddynamics.net/idop.html series.

Registration fees will be £60 (standard) and £40 (students and Malta residents). Conference delegates will also have the opportunity to participate in additional activities such as bus tours, walking tours, organised meals, and cultural evenings. The conference will be held at Hotel Phoenicia, just outside the historic city of Valletta. Please note that the dates of the conference have been changed to 11-15 May 2011.

The deadline for abstract proposals is 1 September 2010.

For more information on submitting an abstract, go to http://www.islanddynamics.net/conference/cfp.html.
To learn about the conference, visit http://www.islanddynamics.net/conference.html.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact the convenor Adam Grydehøj at agrydehoj@islanddynamics.net.