GCfE 8th Annual Conference ‘Travelling Europe’: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Place and Space

Wednesday/Thursday, 26-27 March 2014, University of Birmingham

Call for papers

This year marks a number of exciting events in the fields of travel and tourism within the UK and Europe. From the UK’s own Yorkshire earning the accolade of Europe’s leading travel destination to recent debates surrounding the High Speed 2 railway line, transport and travel have seldom been out of the headlines. In addition, several other developments are underway including the pioneering efforts of the European Commission to simplify visa procedures in a bid to attract more tourists. Coupled with our increasingly globalised world, it is now more pertinent than ever to consider these fields of travel and tourism in a European and indeed global context.

The Graduate Centre for Europe’s Eighth Annual Conference invites contributions from postgraduates across a variety of disciplines. It aims to promote dynamic cross-disciplinary dialogue, foster valuable links between postgraduates and academics across different areas, and develop new and exciting ways of thinking within ‘European’ research.

We would welcome proposals for individual papers and panels on any aspect of travel, tourism and space within Europe in relation to politics, communications, education, economics, history, law, literature, music, geography, environmental sciences etc. Panels have been proposed on the following themes and further panels or individual papers are also invited on either these or similar topics:

• ‘Travelling Ideas’: Intellectuals in Europe
• ‘The Past is Another Country’: Imagining Europe's Past through Heritage Sites 
• Crossing Borders: The Dynamics of Europeanization 
• ‘Inside-Looking Out’: Europe’s Relations with the World 
• ‘Moving Europe’: Migrating Identities 
• Geographically Sustainable Tourism in Europe 
• Natural Area Tourism and the Conservation of Geodiversity

Participants are also encouraged to submit their conference papers for publication in the Graduate Centre for Europe’s postgraduate journal, the Birmingham Journal for Europe.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided throughout the conference, as well as a conference dinner on the first evening. A limited number of bursaries will also be available to assist with travel and accommodation expenses.

If you would like to present at the conference, please send an abstract of 200-300 words, along with your contact details, to gcfe@contacts.bham.ac.uk by 15 December 2013.