Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies

‘The Kurds and Kurdistan: Considering Continuity and Change’
Exeter, 6-8 September 2012

Since our first international conference on Kurdish Studies in 2009, the States where Kurds live have seen tumultuous events. The Iranian elections and their aftermath have been followed by the protests in Iraq, anger over the referendum and elections in Turkey, and huge violence in Syria.

As many ask whether the so-called ‘Arab spring’ will bring change to the Middle East, we would like to interrogate the very ideas of continuity and change themselves across a number of disciplines. Does complete ‘rupture’ ever occur in history? Does regime change bring real differences in people’s lives? When migration brings change to individuals and families, what continuity is maintained in order to re-produce identity? How does language change and how far should linguistic change be managed? How should we study cultural continuity which exists over ethnic boundaries and international frontiers? What have been the changes and continuities within the field of Kurdish studies itself?

Our Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies will be held in Exeter on 6-8 September 2012. We aim to bring together scholars from all over the world, working in political science, geography, anthropology, history, literature, linguistics, gender studies and other disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.

Update: Conference announcement, January 2012

We were delighted to receive a large response to our Call for Papers, especially from younger scholars, and hope to schedule some extra panels on the Saturday, 8 September, to enable as many scholars as possible to participate. We would like to thank all those who sent in abstracts for papers or panels. We hope to notify everyone during the next week - that is, by Friday 20th January, of whether or not your papers have been accepted; for those of you who also requested bursaries, it will take a week or so longer for us to notify you whether it's possible for us to help and by how much.

We look forward to welcoming you to Exeter in September.

Christine Allison, on behalf of the conference organising committee