Conference on Minority Cultures and Travel 2015

This interdisciplinary conference interrogates the concept of ‘minority’ culture through the prism of travel and travel writing. In this context, the complex and often controversial notion of ‘minority’ might be defined as linguistic, cultural, ethnic or geopolitical. The conference theme emerges from work undertaken as part of the AHRC-funded project ‘European Travellers to Wales: 1750-2010’ and seeks to broaden the scope of the project to encompass encounters involving so-called ‘minority’ cultures from across the globe. The topic has particular currency in the light of events unfolding in Scotland and Catalonia, where cultural identities are being renegotiated in relation to the hegemonic hierarchy of power, as well as those in Ukraine where competing minority identities continue to struggle for cultural recognition against a backdrop of oppression and political disenfranchisement.

This conference will probe the nature of the relationship between ‘minority’ cultures and travel. Its central concern is the engagement of travellers with the places they visit and their documented responses to experiences in the ‘contact zone’ (Pratt 1992) or ‘translation zone’ (Apter 2006). How do travellers conceptualise and engage with ‘minority’ cultures? How do their works reflect the shifting dynamics of centre-periphery relationships and address the potential invisibility and perceived immobility of ‘minority’ cultures? To what extent do they reinforce or challenge hegemonic/‘minor’ dichotomies, or consider the relationship between ‘minority’ cultures? Equally, how does the cultural identity/status of travellers from ‘minority’ cultures influence their experiences and representations of travel? To what extent can travel and the genre of travel writing be used as vehicles to call for the cultural and political recognition of