Manchester Metropolitan University

Texting Obama: Poetics/Politics/Popular Culture

This international, interdisciplinary conference and its related programme of readings, workshops and screenings will address both Obama's presidency and the diverse range of representational forms attached to him (and his family) in contemporary world culture.

The conference will map and explore the specific historical, political and cultural climates in which Obama's texts operate.

Hosted by the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences Research (IHSSR) at MMU and the Manchester Writing School,  speakers and performers will interrogate the signifiers, signs and processes that circulate around Barack Obama, and explore his own contributions and interventions across diverse media. A range of speakers also assess the possibilities and questions created by his tenure for a 'post-racial' politics more generally.

Keynote speakers include Ato Quayson, Simon Gikandi, Patricia J Williams, David Theo Goldberg, Bonnie Greer, Carl Pederson and Anna Hartnell. Readers include Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, Su Andi, Lemn Sissay.

For fee information, registration and further programme details, visit  www.mmu.ac.uk/textingobama or email textingobama@mmu.ac.uk

Please note the final closing date for registration is 23rd August 2010.