Chair: Ene Kõresaar (University of Tartu)
Opening remarks: Prof. Valter Lang (University of Tartu, head of CECT)

The Sixth Autumn Conference of the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (CECT) focuses on the issues of embodiment, personhood, subjectivity, and experience, as well as on the connection of these concepts with the understanding of cultural identity. The notion of identity is often treated in the framework of controversial efforts of dialogic interpretation. Recognising the individuality of the studied subjects, it becomes tricky to merge a variety of self-understandings into a coherent whole. Identity appears to us as an interconnected play of superficial and fundamental, ideological and physical, essentialised and dialogic. The conceptual initiative of our conference is inspired by these controversial cognitive dimensions. We encourage our colleagues to develop theoretical and empirical approaches through a conceptual matrix that focuses primarily on the proposed concepts of understanding and interpreting cultural identity.
Billy Ehn is Professor of Ethnology at the Department of Culture and Media Studies at the Umeå University, Sweden.
His research interests include ethnographic and cultural studies, based on field work in various environments, in the former Yugoslavia, in Poland, at a pharmaceutical plant and at various preschools in and around Stockholm. He has published books in different fields of research, for example immigration and ethnicity, work and leisure, family life and socialization and the culture of Academia. He is the co-author of the book The Secret World of Doing Nothing (2010, with Orvar Löfgren).