International Conference: Cultural Heritage, Current Challenges and Future Prospects

Minia University
Faculty of Arts’ International Conference
Cultural Heritage: Current Challenges and Future Prospects
November 24-26, 2013


Dear Researchers,
It gives us great pleasure to inform you that the Faculty of Arts- Minia University, Egypt will be organizing an international conference entitled “Cultural heritage: Current Challenges and Future Prospects” in the period November 24-26, 2013. The conference intends to discuss ways to highlight the cultural heritage through addressing its various pillars.
This conference will provide researchers from all over the world, who are interested in the topic of cultural heritage, with the opportunity to exchange knowledge and experience about such topic. It will also be a chance to visit Minia and see the archeological sites that Minia is famous for. We are looking forward to your participation.
For all information regarding the conference, please read the conference bulletin below.
Please accept our warm appreciation and respect…

Conference Coordinator

Professor. Mahmoud Ahmed Darwish




Introduction
Civilization represents a social system that helps humans to increase their cultural production and it consists of four elements: economic resources, political systems, moral traditions and sciences and arts. Civilization depends primarily on scientific research and Arts. Science is best represented in the technological innovations and social sciences, while Arts can be represented in Architecture, Applied Arts and other forms of arts that contribute to the prosperity of the society. Hence, science and Arts are the two integrated elements that can lead any civilization towards progress.
Civilization, therefore, represents arts, traditions, cultural and historical heritage, as well as the scientific and technical progress in any era of history. Comprehensively the customs, traditions, ways of life and adherence to religious and ethical values, besides the ability of the human being to create in the field of arts, literature and sciences are what distinguishes a nation from another. In addition, other various aspects including the economic status, social relations and also the scientific, cultural and urban achievements can be included.
It is for these reasons that there used to be and there is still a continuous interest in the topic of cultural heritage and the challenges that it may face for various communities.
This conference aims at exploring the different concepts of the global cultural heritage through addressing the various pillars of cultural heritage. The conference revolves around a number of various topics which reveal the importance of the cultural heritage and the role that could be played in nations’ progress and its evolution.
Henceforth, the Faculty of Arts- Minia University has decided to hold its international conference entitled Cultural Heritage: Current Challenges and Future Prospects.

About Minia Governorate
Minia Governorate is one of the governorates of Egypt. The capital of Minia governorate is the city of Minia. It is one of the most important provinces of Upper Egypt because of its unique location and its unique archaeological sites. It is famous for its name “Upper Egypt bride” because of its outstanding and unique location between the governorates of Egypt, on the West Bank of the Nile and at a distance of 245 kilometers south of Cairo. It is bounded on the north by the province of Beni-Suef and the province of Assiut from the south and from the east, the eastern plateau and from the west the Western desert.
Minia University is located in the city of Minia, which became independent from Assiut University by the virtue of Presidential Decree in 1976. The campus is located in the north of Minia city and it currently includes 17 faculties in addition to the Higher Institute of Nursing. Three of them are located outside the University campus: the Faculty of Arts, Dentistry and Engineering and the other 14 are located inside the campus which are: the Faculty of Education, Agriculture, Science, Dar Al-Uloum, Medicine, Fine Arts, Tourism and Hotels, Physical Education, Alsun, Nursing, Pharmacy, Specific Education, Computer and IT Science and the School of Kindergarten.

Archaeological and tourist attractions in Minia:
In the Pharaonic era, Minia was including several of the most important regions as Bahnasa which became known Oxyrhynchus in the Greeks era and known as Bahnasa in the Islamic era. And includes ruins of ancient Egyptian installations of the reign of King Ramses III and the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. It was the best known in the Greco-Roman period because of its richness in Greek texts and papyri that shed light on many aspects of life in this period. And the famous tombs of Beni Hassan as carved in the rock, dating to about three thousand years BC.
King Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) was the first to call for oneness of God on the land of Minia, which has seen in his sophisticated in foreign relations between the neighboring countries in the ancient world, but his Akhit Aton town (bright Aton), which now called Tall el-Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile.
Thehna al-Gabal on the east bank of the Nile at a distance of five kilometers east of Minia, the rock tombs in the south of the old state, the modern state, the Ptolemaic and Roman eras. Sheikh Abada area is located (Ontinoboles) at a distance of seven kilometers in the north-east of Malawi, It is the only Greek city in Egypt during the Roman era. Tuna al-Gabal in the western of Ashmunein and at a distance of eighteen kilometers to the north-west of Malawi, combining ancient Egyptian art and Greek art.
After that, when Holy Family came to Bahnasa, Gabal el-Tair east of Samalout and Ashmunein, had a great impact in the eradication of idolatry, when Amr ibn al-Aas opened Egypt, after that dropped of Babylon Fortress and the opening of Alexandria began to crawl towards the Upper Egypt where Copts welcomed of the Arab conquest in order to save them from the oppression of the Byzantine rule

Conference Objectives:
1. Initiating a cultural dialogue about “civilizational heritage” through interaction with the research centers, the universities (local, regional and international) and the civil society organizations that are engaged in the theoretical and applied studies of cultural heritage.
2. Defining the cultural heritage aspects and discussing the different concepts and visions of the” human heritage” and the role that can be played by the nation's heritage in the confirmation and promotion of its development
3. Showing the role of sustainable development in the preservation of cultural heritage.
4. Consolidating the interdisciplinarity of the topic of “civilizational heritage” through addressing it by different fields of knowledge.
5. Studying the policies and strategies of cultural heritage preservation.
6. Discussing the role of the charters and international standards in preserving the cultural heritage and their relevance in the local status.
7. Addressing the role of the cultural heritage in promoting the national identity and cultural awareness, and also the role of cultural and Media institutions in increasing and enriching awareness.
8. Sheding light on the role of decision-makers to embed a culture of maintaining the cultural heritage in the various stages of education.
9. Highlighting the effectiveness of the use of technology in the preservation of cultural heritage.

Conference Topics:
First: the architectural, artistic and historic heritage
1. Architecture, arts and archeological monument throughout the ages.
2. Recent discoveries in the field of archeology.
3. Monuments and heritage as a permanent resource for development.
4. Strategic standards in preserving monuments and historic areas.
5. The role of Orientalists and European travelers in highlighting the Arabic and Egyptian cultural heritage.
6. Recasting history from a cultural perspective.
7. The role of historical documents in the cultural heritage studies.
8. Artistic creativity as an element of cultural heritage.

Second: the literary and linguistic heritage
1. Methods of preserving the Arab identity and cultural specificity .
2. Rhetoric sciences and literary criticism in the Arab-Islamic heritage.
3. Arab interaction with western modern literary criticism.
4. Conflict of Identities and its manifestations in the literary and linguistic texts.
5. Forms of creativity in the Arab literature.
6. The multiplicity of languages and cultures in the context of globalization.
7. Mutual influence between European and Arab civilizations.
8. European cultural heritage.

Third: Religious and intellectual cultural heritage
1. Concepts and visions of the heritage.
2. Pioneers of the Islamic cultural heritage and their achievements in the contemporary human thought.
3. The role of Islamic intellectual renaissance in the development of Applied and Humanities Sciences.
4. Cultural heritage and modernity.
5. Clash of Civilizations
6. Globalization and cultural identities.
7. Cultural community awareness.
8. Culture and future industry.
9. Heritage as a cosmic necessity, historical reading and civilization necessity.

Fourth: Social Heritage
1. Cultural heritage and social change.
2. The impact of urbanization patterns on the formation of the elements of cultural and social life.
3. Popular celebrations as a form of cultural heritage.
4. Colloquial proverbs and folklore.
5. Women perspective of heritage
6. Modernism and postmodernism
7. Cultural anthropology and heritage.
8. Cultural heritage in the political sciences

Fifth: Geographical heritage
1. Cultural geography and spatial variability of the components of human civilization.
2. The role of travelers and explorers in exploring the cultural heritage.
3. Ancient cities from the perspective of historical geography.
4. The foundations of civilizations and the elements of its inception and evolution.
5. Culture and civilization from a geographic perspective.
6. Means of communication between peoples and the transition of cultural features.
7. The development of centers of urbanization and human stability.
8. Urban planning.
9. Industry and its role in enriching the humanitarian cultural heritage.
10. Geographical environment and architectural heritage.

Sixth: Scientific heritage
1. Cultural heritage of basic, medical and applied sciences.
2. “House of Wisdom” in Baghdad and its role in the Arab heritage.
3. Arab heritage as manifested in Arabic scientific manuscripts .
4. Arab and Muslim contributions to the human civilization.
5. The Scientific, philosophical, Arab-Islamic and cultural heritage.

Seventh: The African Cultural Heritage
1. Africa in the light of the writings of travelers and explorers
2. Linguistic cultural heritage of Africa
3. Colonialism and cultural heritage of Africa
4. Geographical environment and the cultural heritage of Africa
5. Egypt and the African cultural heritage
6. Globalization and the cultural heritage of Africa
7. The reality of the African cultural heritage and its future

Submitting abstracts and research papers:
The organizing committee of the international conference " Cultural Heritage: Current Challenges and Future Prospects” which will be held at the Faculty of Arts- Minia University (Egypt) is pleased to receive abstracts and full research via e-mail chdarwishconference2013@gmail.com
All abstracts will be reviewed by the Scientific Committee of the Conference, and the coordinator of the committee will notify the researcher via email of the acceptance of the abstract.
Instructions for authors
Abstracts
Abstracts should be provided on a single sheet of A4 pages containing the name of the researcher and a maximum of 250 words according to the following: the title of the research paper in the middle of the upper part using font 14 Boldface - Time New Romans. In the middle under the title of the research paper, comes the name of the researcher, position, organization or university where he/she works and email using font 12 Plain (Time New Romans) depending on the language of the research.
The word ‘Abstract’ on the left depending on the language using font Time New Romans, 12-points, Boldface. The body of the abstract should be written using Time New Romans, 12-points Plain. The distance between the lines is Single Space.
The abstract should be followed by key words at the bottom of the abstract page using Time New Romans, 12-points, Plain, and no more than ten words to reflect the exact content of the research highlighting the most important issues that the research tackles.
Use the space of a letter between two words, taking into account the space of a letter after the comma in the sentence, and the space of two letters after the full stop between two sentences. Avoid leaving blank lines, and use clear and well known shortcuts. As for the unknown shortcuts and the ones which appear for the first time in context, put them in parentheses immediately after the phrase. Besides the use of plain text and punctuation marks, such as the comma, quotation marks, full stop, etc. and to avoid as much as possible the use of unusual punctuation.
The researcher must attach a short CV, with no more than ten lines.

Instructions for paper Presenters
Paper presentation should not exceed 15 minutes.
The language of presentation can be Arabic or English.

Full-Paper: The paper must be authentic, not published before.
Papers are accepted in either Arabic or English.
Papers should be submitted in its final form as an electronic version in Word copy.
It must be written on Microsoft Word program and printed on white paper size (17.6 cm) and length (25.0 cm).
Paper title: in capitals, bold, centered. Font size 14 Section titles: bold, aligned left. Font size 12, no underline Sub section titles (if used): italics, aligned left. Font size 12.
Tables and diagrams on separate pages

Main Schedule:
The deadline for submission of abstracts is August 31st, 2013
Notice of the accepted abstracts and the start of receiving participation fees September 15th, 2013
Conference date November 24th to 26th, 2013
The deadline for full-paper submission is December 31st, 2013

Registration
Registration fee for participants from Egypt is LE 800 that includes admission to lectures, meals, accommodation, conference bag and paper publication.
Registration fee for participants with a paper from Egypt but not attending the conference is LE 500.
Registration fee for attendant from Egypt with no paper to present or publish is LE 300.
All single author, or joined authored contributions, should not exceed 20 pages in length. For each additional paper, participants from Egypt will be charged an extra LE 10
Registration fee for participants from outside Egypt is $ 500 that includes admission to lectures, meals, accommodation, conference bag and paper publication.
Registration fee for participants with a paper from outside Egypt but not attending the conference is $ 300.
Registration fee for participants from outside Egypt with no paper to present or publish is $ 300.
All single author, or joined authored contributions, should not exceed 20 pages in length. For each additional paper, participants from outside Egypt will be charged an extra $ 5.
Air conditioned bus will transfer the participants from opposite Giza train station (Cairo) to the conference site at Minia University at 7am, 24th November 2013, and back to Cairo in the evening of November 26th.

Correspondence:
All correspondence should be sent by email to:
Professor. Mahmoud Ahmed Darwish, Conference coordinator
or
Professor. Bahaa Darwish, Chairman of the Organizing Committee
At the following address: Chdarwishconference2013@gmail.com

Conference President: Professor Mohamed Elsayed- Dean of the Faculty of Arts - Minia University
Conference Vice President: Professor Mohamed El-sabaawy - Vice Dean for Graduate Studies and Researches



Participation form
Minia University
The Faculty of Arts International Conference
Cultural Heritage: Current Challenges and Future Prospects
November 24th to 26th, 2013
(Please include a brief biography with no more than ten lines)


Name:…………………………..
Title: (professor, Associate professor, Assistant professor)……
Place of work:……………………………………
Country…………………. City………………….
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Email address:……………………….
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Type of participation: presentation only ( ), presentation with paper ( ), paper submission only ( ), no paper or presentation ( ).
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