Vom 20. bis 23. September steht die Alpen-Adria-Universität im Zeichen des internationalen "Anglistentag 2009", zu dem rund 200 Teilnehmer aus Österreich, Deutschland, Großbritannien, USA, Slowenien, Kroatien, Ungarn, der Türkei und der Schweiz erwartet werden. Trägervereinigung der Tagung ist der Deutsche Anglistenverband e.V., eine mit rund 600 Mitgliedern gewichtige akademische Vereinigung. Klagenfurt ist in der 50-jährigen Bestandsgeschichte des Anglistenverbands nach Graz und Wien erst der dritte österreichische Veranstaltungsort des Anglistentags.

Die Einladung erfolgte auf Initiative von Prof. Jörg Helbig, der auch die Organisation der Tagung leitet. Er beschreibt seine Motivation so: "Wir wollen die große Chance nutzen, Klagenfurt einem internationalen Publikum als attraktiven, modernen und gastfreundlichen Standort zu präsentieren." Zu diesem Zweck hat Helbig ein imposantes Rahmenprogramm organisiert, das u.a. einen Kärntner Abend im Wappensaal und eine Rundfahrt auf dem Wörthersee vorsieht. Für die musikalische Begleitung werden die Carinthian Pipes & Drums und der Männerchor St. Egyden sorgen.

Das wissenschaftliche Programm und das Rahmenprogramm sind auf der Homepage des Instituts für Anglistik und Amerikanistik einzusehen.

http://anglistentag2009.uni-klu.ac.at/

The Almigthy Dollar

The dollar, Washington Irving wrote in 1837 at the height of a financial panic, is “daily becoming more and more an object of worship.” This saying is a useful reminder that from the colonial era, various forms of money have been more than mere commercial conveniences. They have also always been documents of culture, artifacts that speak to the identity of a group of people, a place, and a time. We can distinguish denominations not just by numerical symbols of perceived worth, but also by images that convey messages to and from the society that gives rise to them.

Analyzing money culturally requires an eye on what is concrete, on how it speaks, on what it does, and on how it affects the inner world of real people, the ways they feel about life, the relations between individuals, or culture in general. Lectures and papers to this conference consider people’s engagements with the “Almighty Dollar,” from the most ordinary, mundane daily practices to the most extra-ordinary, life-changing ones. Such engagements can be found in literature, the arts, film, and popular culture. This leaves the possibility of topics wide open, yet in one way or the other, they all connect to the meanings of and the increasingly thin line between the Almighty Dollar and the people who make, use, and consume it. Lectures and papers present a multiplicity of theoretical frames and methodologies that grapple with questions concerning the cultural work of the national monetary icon. Some study the stories told about the Almighty Dollar, the images produced of it, the feelings associated with it, or the values placed upon it. Others consider the ways in which the Almighty Dollar has been classified and conceptualized, or the contexts within which it has circulated and the social and cultural practices that have enabled the circulation of the national money icon. On the other hand, studying the Almighty Dollar may seem gratuitous. One only needs to consider how the dollar has been performing against the euro. In addition, the euro has surpassed the Almighty Dollar in terms of the combined value of notes in circulation. In December 2006, it stood at €610 billion, equivalent at the time to $802 billion, compared with approximately $700 billion in United States currency. Thus, the euro is now the world’s most popular form of cash. Moreover, in America, the vast bulk of monetary transactions are now

made by checks based on bank deposits or by credit cards; furthermore, nearly all dollars now exist electronically, though a lot of them seems to be

mysteriously disappearing. Yet there are still some twenty-two billion paper bills as well as a similarly large amount of coins in circulation. We can safely assume, therefore, that dollars still function as vehicles of images and symbols that help constitute membership in American society, construct a sense of collectivity, and organize cultural life, often in quite unexpected ways.

The European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment (EASCLE) invites contributions to its second biennial conference to be held at the Alps-Adriatic University of Klagenfurt in Klagenfurt, Austria. Taking as our theme “Water: Literary, Cultural and Environmental Perspectives”, we seek proposals for papers (15-minute presentation time), themed sessions (comprising 3-4 papers), roundtables (discussion sessions), poster sessions, workshops and performances that explore the relations between language / literature / culture and water. We welcome interdisciplinary approaches and readings of environmentally oriented creative nonfiction and poetry.

The global importance of water as a precious resource essential to our lives was recognised in the United Nations “Water for Life” Decade for Action launched in March, 2005, and the preservation and management of water and wetlands are likely to have increasingly important political and social implications in the future. The conference theme has been chosen for its general relevance to all Humanities disciplines. We hope it will also attract the interest of colleagues from disciplines outside the Humanities who adhere to the environmental philosophy that all organisms share the biosphere and need to learn to live together in order to ensure a stable sustainable future. We envision the participation of scholars and practitioners in

- ecologically oriented literary and cultural studies

- philosophy, history, psychology and linguistics

- cultural geography and natural history

- law and policy studies

- environmental studies

- water and plant sciences

- tourism

- the visual and performing arts

Proposals are especially encouraged on, but not limited to, the following topics:

* the literary and cultural history of water

* the semiotics of water representation: literature, film and other media

* water and genre: nature writing and the representation of moving / still / coastal waters

* the rhetoric of water in science, law, business and other discourses outside the Humanities

* environmental issues concerning European and international waterways and water use

* environmental justice activism concerning water

* water ecology and tourism issues

* ecofeminist approaches to water issues

* teaching the literature and culture of water