Conference Programme Politics and Poetics of Belon

Chairperson:
14:30—14:50
14:50—15:10

UNIVERSITY OF SFAX
FACULTY OF ARTS & HUMANITIES
Academic Year: 2014-2015
The International Conference on Politics and Poetics of Belonging (2-3-4 April 2015)
Jointly Organised by:
The English Department &
Laboratory on Approaches to Discourse (LAD)

08:30—09:00

Chairperson:
09:00—09:30

15:10—15:30
15:30—15:50
15:50—16:10

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Thursday 2 April
Opening Speech by Faculty Dean:
Prof. Mohamed Ben Ayed
English Department Chair:
Prof. Mounir Guirat
LAD Coordinator:
Prof. Mounir Triki
SESSION 1
Prof. Mounir Triki
Steven Ekovich (The American University of Paris): Keynote

Chairperson:
16:10—16:30
16:30—16:50
16:50—17:10

Speech: Meaning and Means: American Civilization and U.S.
Foreign Policy
09:30—10:00
10:00—10:20
Chairperson:
10:20—10:40
10:40—11:00
11:00—11:20
11:20—11:40
Chairperson:
11:40—12:00
12:00—12:20
12:20—12:40
12:40—13:00
13:00—14:30

17:10—17:30

Discussion
Coffee Break

Chairperson:

SESSION 2
Prof. Akila Sellami-Baklouti
Mounir Guirat (Sfax University): The Diasporic Journey of Belonging:
From Concentric Circles to Venn Diaspogram
Salwa Mezguidi Jday (Kairouan University): White Creole Subjectivity,
Migrant Status and the Aporia of Belonging in the Writings of Caribbean
Women Writers
Nawael Zbidi (Sousse University): The Poetics of Transnational Belonging,
Displacement and Fragmented Identities in Layla Halaby’s West of the
Jordan
Discussion
SESSION 3
Prof. Steven Ekovich
Sadok Damak (Sfax University): The Strategic Purpose of Belonging
in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech: An African
American Conforming to Americanity
Emna Ben Arab (Sfax University): The Perils of Belonging
Amina Abdelrazeg (Leeds Beckett University): The 2011 Libyan
Revolution and the Politics of Belonging: Causes of and Solutions to
Fractures in Libyan People’s Identity
Discussion
Lunch
SESSION 4

09:00—09:20

09:40—10:00
10:00—10:20
Chairperson:
10:20—10:40
10:40—11:00
11:00—11:20
11:20—11:40
Chairperson:

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Dr. Sadok Damak
Jonathan Mason (Sousse University): Britain and the European Union:
To Belong or not to Belong?
Sofienne Mellouli (Sfax University): The British and the Scottish
Referendum of 2014: The Framing of Belonging in the Times
Coverage of the Issue
Craig Brown (Leeds Beckett University): The Framing of the ‘Arab
Spring’ in the British Media: Indicators of the Politics of ‘Belonging’ in
Britain
Discussion
Coffee Break
SESSION 5
Dr. Jonathan Mason
Kamel Abdaoui (Sousse University): Hybrid Subjectivity and the
Dilemma of Belonging in J. M. Coetzee’s Youth
Mourad Romdhani (Sfax University): ‘Olfactory Silence’ in William
Faulkner’s Imaginary Yoknapatawpha: A Language of Longing and
Belonging
Fadwa Ben Mohamed(Sousse University): Subjectivity and
(Non)belonging: Cormac McCarthy and the Psychotic Phenomenon in
Child of God
Discussion
Friday 3 April
SESSION 1
Dr. Chokri Smaoui
Mounir Triki (Sfax University): Plenary Speech: Tanaka’s
Territoriality Revisited
Janett Haid (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt): A
Linguistic Strategy of Inclusion? Creating Togetherness through
Code Switching in Political Speeches
Awatef Boubakri (Gabes University): Objectivity vs. Belonging
in Reading Literature: Free Indirect Thought in McEwan’s
Saturday
Discussion
Coffee Break
SESSION 2
Dr. Sofienne Mellouli
Salwa Karoui Elounelli (Tunis University): Literary Space in
American (Meta)fiction and the Mythicizing of Belonging
Hager Ben Driss (Tunis University): Re-Collection: Montage of Self,
Nation and Text in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies
Jawhar Ahmed Dhouib (Gabes University): “Strangers in a Strange
Land”: The Reverie of Belonging in Andrea Levy’s Small Island
Discussion
SESSION 3
Prof. Salwa Karoui Elounelli

11:40—12:00
12:00—12:20
12:20—12:40
12:40—13:00
13:00—14:30
Chairperson:
14:30—14:50
14:50—15:10
15:10—15:30
15:30—15:50
15:50—16:10
Chairperson:
16:10—16:30
16:30—16:50
16:50—17:10
Chairperson:
08:50—09:10
09:10—09:30
09:30—09:50
09:50—10:10
Chairperson:
10:10—10:30
10:30—10:50

Chokri Smaoui(Sfax University): Bi-longing: Identity and the
Language Learner
Nadia Abid (Sfax University): Developing National and
International/Intercultural Identities in Tunisian EFL Classes: A Study
of English Textbooks, Teachers’ and Learners’ Attitudes
Concha Maria Hofler (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt):
Negotiating Language Competence and Belonging: Standard Modern
Greek in the Multilingual Greek Community of Georgia
Discussion
Lunch
SESSION 4
Dr. Nadia Abid
Wafa Abu Hatab (Zarqa University, Jordan): Collective Identity in
Palestinian Folkloric Songs
Lotfi Ben Moallem (Sfax University): Famine Immigrants: A Firm
Commitment to Irish Identity
Maria Klessmann (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt):
Negotiation of Membership in Roma School Mediations
Discussion
Coffee Break
SESSION 5
Dr. Henda Ammar Guirat
Raja Tarzi Brahem (Tunis University): Nadine Gordimer’s Narrative
Politics in Imagining a Harmonious Nation Joining the Self to the
Other
Hadjira Sekhri (Sousse University): On Poetics of Belonging in
Maghrebian Literature: The Plight of Postcolonial Literary Identity
Discussion
Saturday 4 April
SESSION 1
Prof. Mansour Khelifa
Fatma Benelhadj (Sfax University): Authorial Identity in Academic
Writing between the Community and Individuality
Asma Moalla (Sfax University): Developing Relational Identity in
Humour in Intercultural Communication: A Semantic-Pragmatic
Approach
Rim Ben Ali (Sfax University): The Art of Belonging in Discourse:
Between the Myth of European Identity and Othering: Exploring the
Factors of Turkey’s Delayed Accession to the EU
Discussion
SESSION 2
Prof. Tahar Labbesi
Mansour Khelifa (Sousse University): D. H. Lawrence’s Debatable
Non/belonging: Does the Artist Belong?
Abdennebi Ben Beya (Tunis University): The Hyphen, her Excision:
Reading after Suheir Hammad’s “Intimate Enmity”

10:50—11:10
11:10—11:30
11:30—11:50
Chairperson:
11:50—12:10
12:10—12:30
12:30—12:50
12:50—13:10
13:10—13:20
13:20—15:30

Wajih Ayed (Sousse University): Once an Alien, Always an Alien?
Scapegoating the Saracen in Le Morte D’Arthur and Othello
Discussion
Coffee Break
SESSION 3
Prof. Mohamed Jabeur
Lamia Jaoua (Sfax University): To be Longing for Belonging: Robert
Frost’s “The Self-seeker” and the Quest for Belonging
Ikram Hili Affes (Sousse University): “Oh, Only Left to Myself, What a
Poet I Will Flay Myself into”: Identity, Subjectivity and Culture in Sylvia
Plath’s “Hospital Poems”
Zeineb Derbali (Kairouan University): Be-Longing for Belonging:
Chinese-American Diaspora and the Dilemma of Americanness in
Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey
Discussion
Mounir Guirat: Closing Statement
Lunch

Thanks are Due to the Following Sponsors:

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