Conference on RUINS AND RENEWAL: Art, Memory and Performance in an Evolving World Paradigm

Organizer: PG Department of English In association with IQAC, SREE NARAYANA COLLEGE ALATHUR (Affiliated to the University of Calicut)

About the Conference

• When: 6 - 7 JANUARY 2027
• Call for Papers
• Mode of Presentation: Offline / Online / In absentia
• Selected papers will be published in a book with ISBN.

Concept Notes

Contemporary societies are increasingly shaped by experiences of ecological crisis, technological transformation, displacement, conflict and rapidly changing cultural landscapes. In such contexts, the ideas of ruin and renewal acquire renewed significance. Ruins are not merely remnants of a vanished past; they can become sites of memory, reflection and the imagination of alternative futures.

Artistic practices have long responded to moments of rupture and transformation. Literature, visual art, photography, cinema, theatre, music and ritual performance provide different ways of representing loss, preserving memory and imagining possibilities beyond the present. They can document disappearing worlds, give form to collective anxieties and create spaces in which communities negotiate trauma, identity and cultural change.

“Ruins and Renewal: Art, Memory and Performance in an Evolving World Paradigm” seeks to explore these intersections through an interdisciplinary engagement with literature, visual arts and the performing arts. The conference will enquire how artists and performers represent damaged landscapes, disappearing cultures, altered bodies and fragmented memories, while also considering how art itself becomes a means of remembering, responding to and reimagining that world.

Sub Themes

• Ruins, Rituals and Cultural Memory
• Ecological Catastrophe and Artistic Response
• Theatre as an Archive of Collective Memory
• Disappearing Spaces and Cultural Heritage
• Traditional Performance in a Changing Kerala
• Bodies, Gender and Landscapes of Loss
• Visualising Ruins: Art, Architecture and Memory
• Folk Performance, Resistance and Renewal
• Post-Apocalyptic Landscapes in Literature and Cinema
• From Cultural Ruins to Creative Futures
• (Papers need not be limited to the above-mentioned themes.)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Abstract: 250 words with 4 or 5 keywords
• Full Paper: Minimum 3000 words
• Citation Style: MLA 9th Edition / APA 7th Edition

IMPORTANT DATES

• Abstract submission: December 15, 2026
• Acceptance notification: December 18, 2026
• Full paper submission: January 5, 2027

Submission Mail ID: aetheriasncalathur@gmail.com

Chief Patron: Sri. Vellappally Natesan, Manager, S N Trusts, Kollam

Principal: Dr. Praveena Vijayan

IQAC Coordinator: Dr. S. Dhiva

Head of the Department: Ms. Remya Rajan E.

Coordinators: Ms. Remya Rajan E., Ms. Dana Narayanan

REGISTRATION FEE

(All amounts are in Indian Rupees (Rs.))

FEE PAYMENT: Registration fee can be paid via Google Pay.

GPay Number: 9048215857 (Dr. Poornima P. L.)

CONTACT DETAILS

• Ms. Dana Narayanan: 9847272807
• Ms. Kalyani Shaji: 7306597068