Wednesday 7th November – Friday 9th November 2012
Salzburg, Austria
Call for Papers:
What is the experience of war and what does it mean to us? Is war an extension of politics by other means? The locomotive of technology? Does a state of peace truly exist, or do we perpetually live in absentia bello? Is humankind at war in its most natural state; or is human society – despite perceptions and ongoing conflict around the world today – actually moving toward an aversion to war and toward a state of peace? Are Human Rights illusory and is the quest for Human Security achievable?
This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to provide a challenging forum for the examination and evaluation of the nature, purpose and experience of war, and its impacts on all aspects of communities across the world. Viewing war as a multi-layered phenomenon, this conference series invites committed academics, non-academic based professionals from all walks of life, including those from Military forces, serving or retired, Emergency, Aid and Development Organisations (IOs, International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs), NGOs and other Non-State Actors (NSAs) or Trans-National Social Movement (TNSMs), Commercial companies and corporate institutions, the public services, Faith based institutions, charities, the media, the medical professions, the arts and students in all related fields of interest, to explore the historical, legal, social, human, religious, economic, and political contexts of conflicts, and assess the place of nations, alliances, politics, the military, peace activism, science, academia, faith, the humanitarian sector, art, journalism, literature, music, the media and the internet in representation and interpretation of the experience of warfare. In particular papers, workshops, reports, formed panels and presentations are invited on any of the following themes;
1. How do we Talk about War? Portrayal, awareness, language and expression. How do we come to understand war in contemporary and historical cultures?
* The Language of modern contemporary warfare, the language of war in society, in the work space and popular culture; obscuration of conditions of being at ‘war’ and the condition of 'peace’.
* Militarization of society, propaganda, war toys, computer gaming; in fashion - ‘military chic’.
* Representing the realities of war versus ‘national interest’ – images of the heroism, glory, tacit and explicit justifications of war; the horror of war and societal responses.
2. Representations and Experiences Viewing War as a multi-layered social phenomena.
* The individual experience of war, the impact of war, in protest; in the alleviation of the impacts of war and in peace building.
* Nations, Communities and individuals recovering from war, trauma, rehabilitation and nation building.
* The experience of war; art, literature, music, poetry, cinema and the theatre; the role of the
media – journalism, radio, television, the internet; propaganda.
* The representations and experiences of protest.
3. History and Development of Warfare and War Fighting. How have we fought and why. Lessons learned, mistakes repeated.
* Warfare in human history, revisionism and post-revisionism.
* The sources, origins, and causes of war; why and how do wars begin?
* Means and methods in war – land, sea, air, space, nuclear, chemical, biological; terror and terrorism; conventional and guerrilla warfare; civil war; ‘total’ warfare’. Where are the new ‘battlespaces’?
* The nature of warfare; strategy and strategic thought; changes and the implications of changes in the ways wars are fought; the influenceand effect of technologies; nuclear deterrence/compellance; changes in the nature and role of military personnel; information and information warfare.
* New and perceived ‘Revolutions in Military Affairs’.
4. Extent, Conduct and Morality. Can war even be distinguished from peace, combatant from non-combatant, who are legitimate targets? The totalisation of war in modern society and culture.
* Where are we now? How has war pervaded our society and culture in everyday life?
* The extent of war; geo-political, physical; blockades, sanctions, defence expenditure and the impact on social and public policy; on social and human capital.
* The regulation and control of warfare; how is and should warfare be conducted? What are the limits of conflict? Are there any prohibitions in fighting a war?
* Globalization; the human, geographic, social and economic boundaries of war in the modern era.
* Resource warfare, food, water, oil and mineral wealth, challenges in the 21st century.
* International Humanitarian Law and Conflict.
5. Human Rights and Human Security. Have the means and methods in war, finally outpaced International law and norms of behaviour? What protection is available? If truth is the first casualty in war, is human rights the second?
* Human security issues; protection, shelter, economic security; public health.
* Human rights; protection, promotion and abuses; genocide, ethnic cleansing; terrorism; scorched earth; war crimes; crimes against humanity.
* The Humanitarian space in conflict.
* Armed non-state actors, roles, practices and regulation.
* Gender and Race in War and Peace.
6. The Boundaries of War. How far will humankind push the limits of acceptable behaviour and practice in war?
* The ‘morality’ and the ‘ethics’ of war; just war; deterrence; pre-emptive war; defence and self-defence; the influence of nationalism; the place of human rights; societies and the military; increases in moral sensibilities – qualms about carpet bombing, collateral damage; the status of combatants in warfare, the impact of civilians; neutrality.
* War and religion; the important role of religion, the church, and the intellectual elite in multi-ethnic conflict specifically and in war in general; just war, jihad and crusade.
* War and gender; women in war; impact, abuses, role in war as combatants and in peace building. Gender equality issues and peacebuilding, cultures of violence in society propagating conflict.
* Children and war, child soldiers, trauma, exposure, conditioning, propaganda, bereavement, expression though play, art and behaviour.
* Slavery and war; past, present and future; unwilling combatants, from janissaries to mamelukes, to conscripts and child soldiers.
* Resistance under occupation, where collaboration ends and resistance begins? Forms of resistance.
7. Prevention and Peacebuilding. Can we give peace a chance? Viewing war as un-natural, preventable within a variety of frameworks. The legal mechanisms and the trans-national social movements ‘waging peace’.
* Peace building; means and methods; negative peace and building apositive peace; war-termination and nation-building.
* The prevention of war; the role of conflict resolution; avoiding war; peace-keeping; the role and importance of law and international legal order; the rise and impact of non-violent movements.
* The effectiveness of Supra-National, Trans-National and International organsiations in conflict prevention, mediation and resolution.
* Peace and Balances of Power.
* Disarmament and Arms Control.
* Conscientious objection, alternative service.
* The Peace Movement.
8. The Role of Non-state Actors and NGOs in War and Post-conflict. Breaking the state conundrum, participation in relief from the depredations of war, alleviating the suffering, advocacy from theatres of war. Or compromising humanitarian Aid? Force multipliers?Abrogating combatants' responsibilities toward their populations.
* History: The Quakers to the Red Cross and beyond.
* NGOs, the ‘third space’ actors in the relief of the impact of warfare, aid and development programmes, refugees and IDPs, childsoldiers, landmines/cluster munitions; small arms light weapons (SALW/DDR), Depleted Uranium (DU), NGOs prolonging conflict by abrogating state and combatants responsibilities in time of conflict.
* Armed non-state actors. Terrorists? Freedom fighters? Private security companies and forces. Mercenaries in the modern world.
9. Future War: Revolutions in Military Affairs – Emerging Types of Warfare. Be afraid, be very afraid. Are there no limits to man's inhumanity to man?
* Cyber-war Virtual war; cyber-terrorism; cyber-power, cyber-war; computer technologies in the conduct of war.
* Technology leaps – acquiring WMD.
* Space war – fantasy or an emerging reality? Issue in the militarisation and weaponisation of space.
* Bio-warfare: gene warfare; the genetic codes of agriculture and livestock as targets in war
* Economic warfare in a Globalised world.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4thMay 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: WAR Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Graeme Goldsworthy Webster
University and the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS),
The Netherlands
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader,
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Saturday, 25 February 2012
CFP: 2nd Global Conference: Writing: Paradigms, Power, Poetics, Praxis
Saturday 10th November – Monday 12th November 2012
Salzburg, Austria
Call for Papers:
This global research and publications project on Writing will explore the many facets of writing from an interdisciplinary perspective. It seeks to explore the many intertextual and intersemiotic facets of writing as they exist in the digital age but also taking into account the historical forces, process and mechanisms, their relationships to contemporary writing forms, and the possibilities of future directions. ‘All writing comes from somewhere’ and with this axiom in mind this project will not only examine the pragmatic elements of writing but also the complex issues concerning the metafunctions of writing as a creative and purposeful process across various disciplines.
Papers, presentations, reports, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on, but not limited to any of the following focus areas;
1. Writing as a Creative Process: Theory and Practice
* What are the origins and forms of creative writing?
* What are the personal and interpersonal relationship between creativity and writing?
* How is effective and creative writing developed and nurtured?
* How do various disciplines understand the pragmatic elements of writing and the thought processes that underpin writing?
* What are the similarities/differences in understanding between the related research disciplines?
* How can creative writing be fostered in a world dominated by measurement, outcomes and benchmarks?
* How do authors actually write?
2. Writing across the Disciplines: Theory and Practice
* How do various disciplines define writing?
* The psychology, philosophy and pedagogy of writing of various fields of thought
* What is creativity in theory and practice in the business world?
* Can writing be taught?
* How do readers engage with writing?
* What does engagement with writing and the writing process mean for adults and for children?
* How does writing develop in all age groups or across age groups?
* What are the various forms of Inter-disciplinary approaches to teaching writing?
* Historical and contemporary representations of writing as art, in film and literature?
* The future role of writing?
* How will the visual media be related to writing in the next decade or beyond?
* The relationships between children’s engagement with television, film, visual literacy and writing?
* Traditional forms of writing: what are they and how do they fit in the visual age?
* The role and nature of learning theories and their view of writing
3. Critical and Cultural Thinking
* How is writing linked to critical thinking? Is it the same ascritical literacy?
* Where does this writing ability come from?
* What is the role of the 'significant other' in developing critical engagement with writing at home, school and beyond?
* What are the conditions that foster critical thinking and critical writing?
* How is writing engendered and produced in different contexts of cultural contexts?
* Developing writing as life skills, social issues and education for citizenship in the 21st century
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: Writing2 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Phil Fitzsimmons
Faculty of Education,
Avondale College of Higher Learning
New South Wales, Australia
Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Education Hub series of research projects, which in turn belong to the At the Interface programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume or volumes.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Salzburg, Austria
Call for Papers:
This global research and publications project on Writing will explore the many facets of writing from an interdisciplinary perspective. It seeks to explore the many intertextual and intersemiotic facets of writing as they exist in the digital age but also taking into account the historical forces, process and mechanisms, their relationships to contemporary writing forms, and the possibilities of future directions. ‘All writing comes from somewhere’ and with this axiom in mind this project will not only examine the pragmatic elements of writing but also the complex issues concerning the metafunctions of writing as a creative and purposeful process across various disciplines.
Papers, presentations, reports, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on, but not limited to any of the following focus areas;
1. Writing as a Creative Process: Theory and Practice
* What are the origins and forms of creative writing?
* What are the personal and interpersonal relationship between creativity and writing?
* How is effective and creative writing developed and nurtured?
* How do various disciplines understand the pragmatic elements of writing and the thought processes that underpin writing?
* What are the similarities/differences in understanding between the related research disciplines?
* How can creative writing be fostered in a world dominated by measurement, outcomes and benchmarks?
* How do authors actually write?
2. Writing across the Disciplines: Theory and Practice
* How do various disciplines define writing?
* The psychology, philosophy and pedagogy of writing of various fields of thought
* What is creativity in theory and practice in the business world?
* Can writing be taught?
* How do readers engage with writing?
* What does engagement with writing and the writing process mean for adults and for children?
* How does writing develop in all age groups or across age groups?
* What are the various forms of Inter-disciplinary approaches to teaching writing?
* Historical and contemporary representations of writing as art, in film and literature?
* The future role of writing?
* How will the visual media be related to writing in the next decade or beyond?
* The relationships between children’s engagement with television, film, visual literacy and writing?
* Traditional forms of writing: what are they and how do they fit in the visual age?
* The role and nature of learning theories and their view of writing
3. Critical and Cultural Thinking
* How is writing linked to critical thinking? Is it the same ascritical literacy?
* Where does this writing ability come from?
* What is the role of the 'significant other' in developing critical engagement with writing at home, school and beyond?
* What are the conditions that foster critical thinking and critical writing?
* How is writing engendered and produced in different contexts of cultural contexts?
* Developing writing as life skills, social issues and education for citizenship in the 21st century
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: Writing2 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Phil Fitzsimmons
Faculty of Education,
Avondale College of Higher Learning
New South Wales, Australia
Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Education Hub series of research projects, which in turn belong to the At the Interface programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume or volumes.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
CFP: 3rd Global Conference: Making Sense Of: Suffering
Tuesday 13th November – Thursday 15th November 2012
Salzburg, Austria
Call for Papers:
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to explore if, or to what extent, meaning can be found in suffering. During the course of living our lives, we are invariably forced to stop and question why we suffer – be it through illness, pain, loss, grief or the multitude of distressing circumstances which we encounter. Problems arise in a variety of contexts and due to a bewildering variety of conditions. And because our lives are constant streams of experience, the nature of suffering and consequently the ‘meaning’ of such suffering continually varies and changes. The conference aims to raise and assess a variety of questions related to the nature of suffering, the origins of suffering, the ‘meaning’ of suffering, explanations for suffering and responding to suffering.
Papers, workshops, presentations and pre-formed panels are invited on any of the following themes:
I. What is Suffering?
• Defining ‘suffering’. What is ‘suffering’? How do we approach ‘suffering’?
• Is suffering unique or exclusive to human beings?
• Non-human suffering
• Categories of suffering. Suffering as – a problem; a condition; an expression; an experience; a position of powerlessness; a consequence of meaninglessness; a result of affliction.
II. The Roots of Suffering
• The origins of suffering
• Suffering as universal; as international; as national; as local; as particular
• Suffering and history
• The contexts and conditions of suffering
• Producing suffering
III. The Meaning of Suffering
• Suffering and meaning
• Suffering and language
• What is at stake when dealing with suffering?
• The ‘limits’ of suffering
• The dangers of suffering
IV. Explaining Suffering
• suffering and explanation
• theories of suffering: the work of the disciplines
• theories of suffering: the work of the professions
• theories of suffering: the work of the vocations
• silence and suffering
V. Suffering and Practice
• suffering, apathy and indifference
• alleviating suffering
• practices causing, prolonging, truncating, overcoming, relieving or resolving suffering
• suffering, hope and despair
VI. Suffering and Religion
• Suffering from the perspective of religious traditions
• Suffering and sacred texts
• Portraits of suffering and sufferers
• Suffering and ‘redemption’
• Suffering and atheism
VII. Representing Suffering
• suffering and representation
• suffering in literature
• suffering in the media
• suffering in tv, film, theatre and radio
• suffering in cybercultures
VIII. Confronting Suffering
• meaning, suffering and action
• overcoming suffering
• should suffering be overcome?
• case studies
• practice(s), resolution(s), settlement
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: Suffering 3 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Nate Hinerman
Nursing/Theology and Religious Studies
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Making Sense Of: series of research projects, which in turn belong to the Probing the Boundaries programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Salzburg, Austria
Call for Papers:
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to explore if, or to what extent, meaning can be found in suffering. During the course of living our lives, we are invariably forced to stop and question why we suffer – be it through illness, pain, loss, grief or the multitude of distressing circumstances which we encounter. Problems arise in a variety of contexts and due to a bewildering variety of conditions. And because our lives are constant streams of experience, the nature of suffering and consequently the ‘meaning’ of such suffering continually varies and changes. The conference aims to raise and assess a variety of questions related to the nature of suffering, the origins of suffering, the ‘meaning’ of suffering, explanations for suffering and responding to suffering.
Papers, workshops, presentations and pre-formed panels are invited on any of the following themes:
I. What is Suffering?
• Defining ‘suffering’. What is ‘suffering’? How do we approach ‘suffering’?
• Is suffering unique or exclusive to human beings?
• Non-human suffering
• Categories of suffering. Suffering as – a problem; a condition; an expression; an experience; a position of powerlessness; a consequence of meaninglessness; a result of affliction.
II. The Roots of Suffering
• The origins of suffering
• Suffering as universal; as international; as national; as local; as particular
• Suffering and history
• The contexts and conditions of suffering
• Producing suffering
III. The Meaning of Suffering
• Suffering and meaning
• Suffering and language
• What is at stake when dealing with suffering?
• The ‘limits’ of suffering
• The dangers of suffering
IV. Explaining Suffering
• suffering and explanation
• theories of suffering: the work of the disciplines
• theories of suffering: the work of the professions
• theories of suffering: the work of the vocations
• silence and suffering
V. Suffering and Practice
• suffering, apathy and indifference
• alleviating suffering
• practices causing, prolonging, truncating, overcoming, relieving or resolving suffering
• suffering, hope and despair
VI. Suffering and Religion
• Suffering from the perspective of religious traditions
• Suffering and sacred texts
• Portraits of suffering and sufferers
• Suffering and ‘redemption’
• Suffering and atheism
VII. Representing Suffering
• suffering and representation
• suffering in literature
• suffering in the media
• suffering in tv, film, theatre and radio
• suffering in cybercultures
VIII. Confronting Suffering
• meaning, suffering and action
• overcoming suffering
• should suffering be overcome?
• case studies
• practice(s), resolution(s), settlement
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: Suffering 3 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Nate Hinerman
Nursing/Theology and Religious Studies
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Making Sense Of: series of research projects, which in turn belong to the Probing the Boundaries programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
CFP: 1st Global Conference: Immersive Worlds and Transmedia Narratives
Tuesday 13th November – Thursday 15th November 2012
Salzburg, Austria
* The Novel
* The Film
* The Television Series
* The Graphic Novel
* The Facebook Page
* The Tweets
* The Fan-Sites
* The Video Game
* The You-Tube Clips
* The Smart Phone
* The Convention
* The Theme Park
* The Merchandising
THE CALL
This call for papers is about where the story starts and where it ends, about who writes the story and who reads it and whether any of these definitions apply when we are in the story itself. This then is about world making and about the media, mediums and machinery that converge to make it possible. The rhizomic qualities of a smart phone that enmesh us into the real world also connect and implicate large parts of ourselves in imaginary and virtual spaces; with people we have never met and places we will never see other than through the app, the blog or the social networking site.
“In the final decade of the 21st Century, men and women in rocketships landed on the moon. By 2200 AD, they had reached the other planets of our solar system. Almost at once there followed the discovery of hyperdrive through which the speed of light was first obtained and later greatly surpassed. And so, at last, mankind began the conquest and colonization of deep space”
(The Forbidden Planet)
THE EXAMPLE
True Blood. Originally from Charlene Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels. Now a hit television show. It has a facebook page and characters from the series produce You Tube videos (Jessica- Baby Vamp). The stars from the show share tweets with fans and each other but not as themselves but the characters they play. Viral marketing spreads adverts and teasers for products that come from the show, not just simple merchandising but items such as Tru-Blood, the synthetic blood substitute that bases the premise of the show where vampires can become part of society. The graphic novel,written by the television series creator Allan Ball and which extends storylines from the show. Fangtasia, the vampire bar from the series is recreated in actual real life venues and where people can dress as vampires. At each point of entry the “reader’ can choose which parts and to what level they want to engage, or participate, in the narrative enabling various levels of immersion and ways to influence and change the world that one is entering. Who writes the story and what story are they writing and who consumes what and who and is everyone welcome?
“Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!”(Dracula)
But who can enter this world and how does it impinge on our own? Is it only for the wealthy, the westernised, the capital-ised? How does it purposely exclude and include certain groups and why? What is the future of the technologies and the types of narratives involved? Will it become a world that people never want to leave or one that will expand to consume our former notions of what constituted reality. Where does the story end and real life begin? (Keywords: Transmedia, Convergence, Participatory, Affinity, ReMix, Hypersociability, Technologies, Medium, Narrative, Story, Play, Interaction, Immersive, Virtual)
THE WHAT?
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals, works in progress, performances, literary and visual presentations and practitioner case studies. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. All other significant dates, please see Details page.
THE WHO?
Those that study, research or take part in transmedia narratives or convergence cultures, film and media studies, gaming and virtual worlds, literature and fandom, marketing and advertising, graphic novels and animation, artists, writers… SHOULD APPLY
THE HOW?
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: TM1 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs:
Phil Fitzsimmons
Rob Fisher
Simon Bacon
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a
position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Salzburg, Austria
* The Novel
* The Film
* The Television Series
* The Graphic Novel
* The Facebook Page
* The Tweets
* The Fan-Sites
* The Video Game
* The You-Tube Clips
* The Smart Phone
* The Convention
* The Theme Park
* The Merchandising
THE CALL
This call for papers is about where the story starts and where it ends, about who writes the story and who reads it and whether any of these definitions apply when we are in the story itself. This then is about world making and about the media, mediums and machinery that converge to make it possible. The rhizomic qualities of a smart phone that enmesh us into the real world also connect and implicate large parts of ourselves in imaginary and virtual spaces; with people we have never met and places we will never see other than through the app, the blog or the social networking site.
“In the final decade of the 21st Century, men and women in rocketships landed on the moon. By 2200 AD, they had reached the other planets of our solar system. Almost at once there followed the discovery of hyperdrive through which the speed of light was first obtained and later greatly surpassed. And so, at last, mankind began the conquest and colonization of deep space”
(The Forbidden Planet)
THE EXAMPLE
True Blood. Originally from Charlene Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels. Now a hit television show. It has a facebook page and characters from the series produce You Tube videos (Jessica- Baby Vamp). The stars from the show share tweets with fans and each other but not as themselves but the characters they play. Viral marketing spreads adverts and teasers for products that come from the show, not just simple merchandising but items such as Tru-Blood, the synthetic blood substitute that bases the premise of the show where vampires can become part of society. The graphic novel,written by the television series creator Allan Ball and which extends storylines from the show. Fangtasia, the vampire bar from the series is recreated in actual real life venues and where people can dress as vampires. At each point of entry the “reader’ can choose which parts and to what level they want to engage, or participate, in the narrative enabling various levels of immersion and ways to influence and change the world that one is entering. Who writes the story and what story are they writing and who consumes what and who and is everyone welcome?
“Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!”(Dracula)
But who can enter this world and how does it impinge on our own? Is it only for the wealthy, the westernised, the capital-ised? How does it purposely exclude and include certain groups and why? What is the future of the technologies and the types of narratives involved? Will it become a world that people never want to leave or one that will expand to consume our former notions of what constituted reality. Where does the story end and real life begin? (Keywords: Transmedia, Convergence, Participatory, Affinity, ReMix, Hypersociability, Technologies, Medium, Narrative, Story, Play, Interaction, Immersive, Virtual)
THE WHAT?
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals, works in progress, performances, literary and visual presentations and practitioner case studies. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. All other significant dates, please see Details page.
THE WHO?
Those that study, research or take part in transmedia narratives or convergence cultures, film and media studies, gaming and virtual worlds, literature and fandom, marketing and advertising, graphic novels and animation, artists, writers… SHOULD APPLY
THE HOW?
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: TM1 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs:
Phil Fitzsimmons
position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
CFP: Journal Announcement: Monsters and the Monstrous
Volume 2, Number 1, Special Issue on Monstrous Memory
The Editors welcome contributions to the journal in the form of articles, reviews, reports, art and/or visual pieces and other forms of submission on the following or related themes:
Monstrous Memory
Sethe: "It's so hard for me to believe in . Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. . . But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place - the picture of it - stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world".
Denver: "If it's still there, waiting, that must mean that nothing ever dies."
Sethe: "Nothing ever does." (Morrison, Beloved)
Monsters of memory, monstrous memories, monsters as memories.
Keywords: memory, remembrance, history, trauma, the past, undead, re-memory, undying, haunting, unheimlich, spectres, monsters, ghosts.
Call for Articles:
This special issue of Monsters and the Monstrous is looking for articles and reviews that are based around the idea of Monstrosity and Memory.
Memories of the past, whether individual, societal or national constantly invade our everyday lives. Sometimes as the remembrance of monstrous past events that can, and should, never die or be forgotten but also as disruptive and destructive presences that upset, intrude and invade our equilibrium and sense of self.
EXAMPLES:
Monstrous events and people that live on today:
-the holocaust and national geneocides, hiroshima etc.
-natural disasters, tsunamis, eartquakes and volcanic eruptions.
-monstrous figures from the past such as Rasputin, Jack the Ripper, Stalin.
-the national and cultural disparities in the conceptions of all of the above.
Monstrous entities from the past in fiction and film:
- Manifestations of the national past and political extremism, The Grudge, Godzilla, Dead Snow, Frostbite
- Representation of monsters that lived before humans, Cthulhu (Lovecraft), Jurassic Park, Starship Troopers, Priest.
Ghosts and Spirits that Haunt the Present:
-Popular series such as Medium, The Ghost Whisperer, Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
-Discontented figures that want justice or revenge, Woman in Black, Death Watch, Ringu, Nightmare on Elm Street
- traumatic events that cannot be escaped, Silent Hill, Triangle, Inception
Whether Proustian flashbacks or actual embodiments , metaphorical, psychological, or phantasical the monsters of the past will not relinquish their hold on our times, lives and imaginations.
Submissions for this Issue are required by 31st March 2012 at the latest.
Contributions to the journal should be original and not under consideration for other publications at the same time as they are under consideration for this publication. Submissions are to be made electronically wherever possible using either Microsoft® Word or .rtf format.
Length Requirements:
Articles - 5,000 – 7,000 words.
Reflections, reports and responses - 1,000 – 3,000 words.
Book reviews - 500 – 4,000 words.
Other forms of contributions are welcome.
Submission Information:
Send submissions via e-mail using the following Subject Line:
‘Journal: Contribution Type (article/review/...): Author Surname’ and marked "Monstrous Memory".
Submissions E-Mail Address
Submissions will be acknowledged within 48 hours of receipt.
Contributions are also invited for future issues of the journal which will include: "Twilight and Teaching the Monstrous", "Monstrous Spaces".
We also invite submission to our special features on Non-English Language Book Reviews, and Monstrous Pedagogy. Please mark entries for these topics with their title.
For more information about the journal, please click here.
The Editors welcome contributions to the journal in the form of articles, reviews, reports, art and/or visual pieces and other forms of submission on the following or related themes:
Monstrous Memory
Sethe: "It's so hard for me to believe in . Some things go. Pass on. Some things just stay. I used to think it was my rememory. . . But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place - the picture of it - stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world".
Denver: "If it's still there, waiting, that must mean that nothing ever dies."
Sethe: "Nothing ever does." (Morrison, Beloved)
Monsters of memory, monstrous memories, monsters as memories.
Keywords: memory, remembrance, history, trauma, the past, undead, re-memory, undying, haunting, unheimlich, spectres, monsters, ghosts.
Call for Articles:
This special issue of Monsters and the Monstrous is looking for articles and reviews that are based around the idea of Monstrosity and Memory.
Memories of the past, whether individual, societal or national constantly invade our everyday lives. Sometimes as the remembrance of monstrous past events that can, and should, never die or be forgotten but also as disruptive and destructive presences that upset, intrude and invade our equilibrium and sense of self.
EXAMPLES:
Monstrous events and people that live on today:
-the holocaust and national geneocides, hiroshima etc.
-natural disasters, tsunamis, eartquakes and volcanic eruptions.
-monstrous figures from the past such as Rasputin, Jack the Ripper, Stalin.
-the national and cultural disparities in the conceptions of all of the above.
Monstrous entities from the past in fiction and film:
- Manifestations of the national past and political extremism, The Grudge, Godzilla, Dead Snow, Frostbite
- Representation of monsters that lived before humans, Cthulhu (Lovecraft), Jurassic Park, Starship Troopers, Priest.
Ghosts and Spirits that Haunt the Present:
-Popular series such as Medium, The Ghost Whisperer, Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
-Discontented figures that want justice or revenge, Woman in Black, Death Watch, Ringu, Nightmare on Elm Street
- traumatic events that cannot be escaped, Silent Hill, Triangle, Inception
Whether Proustian flashbacks or actual embodiments , metaphorical, psychological, or phantasical the monsters of the past will not relinquish their hold on our times, lives and imaginations.
Submissions for this Issue are required by 31st March 2012 at the latest.
Contributions to the journal should be original and not under consideration for other publications at the same time as they are under consideration for this publication. Submissions are to be made electronically wherever possible using either Microsoft® Word or .rtf format.
Length Requirements:
Articles - 5,000 – 7,000 words.
Reflections, reports and responses - 1,000 – 3,000 words.
Book reviews - 500 – 4,000 words.
Other forms of contributions are welcome.
Submission Information:
Send submissions via e-mail using the following Subject Line:
‘Journal: Contribution Type (article/review/...): Author Surname’ and marked "Monstrous Memory".
Submissions E-Mail Address
Contributions are also invited for future issues of the journal which will include: "Twilight and Teaching the Monstrous", "Monstrous Spaces".
We also invite submission to our special features on Non-English Language Book Reviews, and Monstrous Pedagogy. Please mark entries for these topics with their title.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
GUEST POST: Bryan Sitch
The Heronbridge Skeletons at The Manchester Museum
The human skeletons from Heronbridge near Chester have attracted a lot of interest recently. Some of this is thanks to Hannah with whom I discussed the remains last year. Within a matter of hours it seemed Hannah had arranged for me to speak about the discovery at a conference she was organising about Gender and the Middle Ages. In just over five weeks’ time on 29th March there will be another opportunity to explore what the bones mean when the Manchester Museum holds a day school on the Heronbridge skeletons. This is to coincide with a Manchester Anglo-Saxon Studies Colloquium which is being held on 28th March. Hopefully people will find it worthwhile to stay over. What is it that makes the skeletons so interesting?
The skeletons were found during excavations at Heronbridge during the early 1930s. Many of the finds were of Roman date and it was assumed that the skeletons were also of Roman date. In the excavation publication it was stated that the remains would be deposited at the Manchester Museum and that a detailed report had been presented to the university librarian. On the basis of this statement a number of enquirers had contacted the Museum to ask about the skeletons but no-one was able to find them. It was just over a year ago that the penny dropped.
As Curator of Archaeology I had gone through the human remains in the collection to find out what was known about them. I noticed that many of the bones had no associated information. Some, however, had distinctive labels on which Greek characters were written such as alpha, beta, gamma, delta and so on. At the time this meant nothing to me but it quickly became clear when I re-read the brief report about the Heronbridge skeletons published in 1933. In a table at the back of the report the skeletons were listed but half way across the table the numbering changed and the skeletons had dual numbering using Greek characters. On its own this might not be sufficient to tie down the provenance but the bone report also referred to wounds on the skulls. When I checked the skulls I saw large impact trauma, injuries made by long edged weapons. Dr Elwyn Davies who wrote the bone report speculated the injuries were caused by Roman cavalry swords. This conclusion was based on the presence of Roman finds on the Heronbridge site. However, in 2005 further archaeological work was carried out at Heronbridge and two of the skeletons were recovered and radiocarbon dated. The range of dates suggested a time somewhere around the early 7th century AD.
This was extremely interesting because in his 'Ecclesiastical History of the English People' Bede gave an account of the Battle of Chester. A Northumbrian army led by King Aethelfrith fought a smaller force of northern Welsh Britons and defeated it. Bede's account said that Aethelfrith, seeing British Christian monks praying for the defeat of the Northumbrians, ordered his men to cut them down. Many of the monks were killed. The Northumbrians retreated having suffered heavy casualties in their turn and with British reinforcements on their way.
Could the skeletons in the Manchester Museum be casualties of the Battle of Chester in or about 616 AD? None have been radiocarbon dated but they come from very similar contexts to the skeletons lifted in 2005. As the latter have been radiocarbon dated it seems reasonable to infer that the skeletons from the 1930s excavations are of the same date. As the dead were buried in significant numbers in pits (laid out respectfully like sardines in a tin), it must have been a significant battle. The wounds on some of the bones are very similar to those seen on skeletons from Anglo-Saxon cemeteries. And they are all men. I conclude that the skeletons in the Museum must be from the Battle of Chester. To have a sizeable group of human remains showing trauma from a 'Dark Age' battlefield together with an historical account is really exciting.
But who are the skeletons? Which side were they on? Could they be the remains of the monks? Perhaps tidied away respectfully by the Welsh reinforcements that arrived too late to take part in the battle? Prof. Nick Higham of the University of Manchester has argued that we must take what Bede has to say with a large pinch of salt. Bede isn't a reliable guide to events on the battlefield. He was writing providential history and trying to justify the slaughter of Christians by the pagan Anglo-Saxons who would later become Christian. Bede was serving a religious agenda. For instance no early medieval monastery in this country can have had the numbers of monks ascribed to it by Bede. Bu'Lock argued the monks were former warriors who had retired to the cloister to pass their twilight years only to be pressed back into military service in an emergency when the Northumbrians attacked Chester. Again this seems unlikely. Whether we can find out from isotopic studies which part of the world these men came from remains to be seen.
We will explore aspects of the story in the day school at the Manchester Museum on 29th March. Six speakers have confirmed their titles and it looks like a fascinating date.
Bryan Sitch
Deputy Head of Collections and Curator of Archaeology
The Manchester Museum
For more information about the Heronbridge skeletons, see the Ancient Worlds blog from The Manchester Museum.
CFP: 4th Global Conference: Bullying and the Abuse of Power
Sunday 4th November – Tuesday 6th November 2012
Salzburg, Austria
Call For Papers
Bullying is a global problem. Whether it takes place in the schoolyard; the board room; the corridors of academe; a detention centre for alleged terrorists; a government office, or cyber space; and whether it involves insult, physical assault or manipulation of the environment with the intention of making another person’s life intolerable, bullying involves the abuse of power. Everyone is affected by it, whether directly or indirectly.
All of us know people who are bullied, and all of us know bullies, though we may be unaware that we do. After all, bullies may seem, on the surface, to be kind, caring and supportive human beings, interested in nurturing others. And if they have been kind to us, we may fail to perceive their unkindness to others.
Bullying goes on at every level, often goes on behind closed doors; inside private emails, and in actions that might appear innocuous. It grows out of the ability that many (and perhaps most) people have, to find enjoyment and fulfilment in exerting power over others. It depends for its existence either on a lack of empathy and human feeling, or on the developed ability to suspend empathy. It can ruin lives, and it can end lives. We should not allow ourselves to believe that because it is not open to view, bullying is not present.
In the first three years of Bullying and the Abuse of Power, a number of themes have emerged. Two of these – bullying in schools and bullying in the workplace (including universities) are unsurprising and have featured strongly in both earlier conferences. Alongside these, and other themes with a practical focus, such as cyberbullying, participants have wrestled with the problem of saying exactly what is to count as bullying, and how far its boundaries extend.
Abstracts are now invited for Bullying and the Abuse of Power 4, for individual contributions or for symposia of three papers. Abstracts that illuminate and comment on more than one sphere in which bullying manifests itself, are especially welcomed, as are abstracts that draw together insights from more than one academic, professional or vocational area, or that draw from more than one cultural or theoretical perspective. Abstracts are also especially welcomed that focus on bullying in areas where the abuse of power is less commonly thought of in this way, including the ill treatment of elders; genocide; human trafficking, and bullying in international relations and international trade.
1. Bullying in School/in the Workplace
~ Bullying of older people/disabled people
~ Sexual bullying
~ Racial bullying
~ Religious intolerance
2. From Playground Bullying to Genocide/Bullying: How Far Can it Go?
~ Human Rights abuses
~ Genocide
~ The Holocaust
~ Human trafficking
3. International Relations
~ Cultural intolerance
~ Terrorism as a means of persuasion
~ Imposition of the wishes of the developed world on developing countries
~ Bullying of Indigenous people
4. Multinationals, Impoverished Nations and Corner Shops
~ The effects of globalisation on business
~ Changing patterns of shopping: corner shops vs superstores
~ Advertising and vulnerable consumers
~ Cut price goods and low pay for workers
Papers will be considered on any related theme. Abstracts should be written in simple language and for individual contributions should beno longer than 300 words, while for symposia they should include a 150 word overview for each contribution and a 200 word overview for the whole session (please take these word limits seriously). Abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. Abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract,e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: BULLY4 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Gavin J Fairbairn
Professor of Ethics and Language
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds
United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House,
Wroslyn Road,
Freeland,
Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
The conference is part of the Ethos Hub series of ongoing research and publications projects conferences, run within the Critical Issues domain which aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore innovative and challenging routes of intellectual and academic exploration. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network andwe are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Salzburg, Austria
Call For Papers
Bullying is a global problem. Whether it takes place in the schoolyard; the board room; the corridors of academe; a detention centre for alleged terrorists; a government office, or cyber space; and whether it involves insult, physical assault or manipulation of the environment with the intention of making another person’s life intolerable, bullying involves the abuse of power. Everyone is affected by it, whether directly or indirectly.
All of us know people who are bullied, and all of us know bullies, though we may be unaware that we do. After all, bullies may seem, on the surface, to be kind, caring and supportive human beings, interested in nurturing others. And if they have been kind to us, we may fail to perceive their unkindness to others.
Bullying goes on at every level, often goes on behind closed doors; inside private emails, and in actions that might appear innocuous. It grows out of the ability that many (and perhaps most) people have, to find enjoyment and fulfilment in exerting power over others. It depends for its existence either on a lack of empathy and human feeling, or on the developed ability to suspend empathy. It can ruin lives, and it can end lives. We should not allow ourselves to believe that because it is not open to view, bullying is not present.
In the first three years of Bullying and the Abuse of Power, a number of themes have emerged. Two of these – bullying in schools and bullying in the workplace (including universities) are unsurprising and have featured strongly in both earlier conferences. Alongside these, and other themes with a practical focus, such as cyberbullying, participants have wrestled with the problem of saying exactly what is to count as bullying, and how far its boundaries extend.
Abstracts are now invited for Bullying and the Abuse of Power 4, for individual contributions or for symposia of three papers. Abstracts that illuminate and comment on more than one sphere in which bullying manifests itself, are especially welcomed, as are abstracts that draw together insights from more than one academic, professional or vocational area, or that draw from more than one cultural or theoretical perspective. Abstracts are also especially welcomed that focus on bullying in areas where the abuse of power is less commonly thought of in this way, including the ill treatment of elders; genocide; human trafficking, and bullying in international relations and international trade.
1. Bullying in School/in the Workplace
~ Bullying of older people/disabled people
~ Sexual bullying
~ Racial bullying
~ Religious intolerance
2. From Playground Bullying to Genocide/Bullying: How Far Can it Go?
~ Human Rights abuses
~ Genocide
~ The Holocaust
~ Human trafficking
3. International Relations
~ Cultural intolerance
~ Terrorism as a means of persuasion
~ Imposition of the wishes of the developed world on developing countries
~ Bullying of Indigenous people
4. Multinationals, Impoverished Nations and Corner Shops
~ The effects of globalisation on business
~ Changing patterns of shopping: corner shops vs superstores
~ Advertising and vulnerable consumers
~ Cut price goods and low pay for workers
Papers will be considered on any related theme. Abstracts should be written in simple language and for individual contributions should beno longer than 300 words, while for symposia they should include a 150 word overview for each contribution and a 200 word overview for the whole session (please take these word limits seriously). Abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. Abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract,e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: BULLY4 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Gavin J Fairbairn
Professor of Ethics and Language
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds
United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House,
Wroslyn Road,
Freeland,
Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
The conference is part of the Ethos Hub series of ongoing research and publications projects conferences, run within the Critical Issues domain which aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore innovative and challenging routes of intellectual and academic exploration. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network andwe are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
CFP: 9th Global Conference: Making Sense Of: Dying and Death
Saturday 10th November – Monday 12th November 2012
Salzburg, Austria
Call For Papers:
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference explores dying and death and the ways culture impacts care for the dying, the overall experience of dying, and ways the dead are remembered. Over the past three decades, scholarship in thanatology has increased dramatically.This particular conference seeks a broad array of perspectives that explore, analyze, and/or interpret the myriad interrelations and interactions that exist between death and culture. Culture not only presents and portrays ideas about “a good death” and norms that seek to achieve it, culture also operates as both a vehicle and medium through which meaning about death is communicated and understood. Sadly, too, culture sometimes facilitates death through violence.
Submissions might be imagined in any (or none) of the following ways:“death” as an expression of doctrinal beliefs and/or core values,death and dying as an on-going movement between an individual or community and a larger socio-cultural matrix, or death as essentiallya cultural construction. Investigations that engage cultural studies from a variety of perspective are certainly encouraged. We also welcome perspectives that interrogate the stability of meaning(s)assigned to such terms (“culture,” “death,” “dignity,”“care,” etc.) and their complex inter-relations.
Specifically, submissions should be framed with at least one of the following four rubrics in mind: death/dying within culture, culture within death/dying, death/dying as popular culture (and vice versa), or death/dying in tension with culture.
We welcome submissions that produce conversations engaging historical, ethnographic, normative, literary, anthropological, philosophical, artistic, political or other terms that elaborate a relationship between death and culture. For example, submissions might investigate death and dying in relation to any of the following realms of culture:
* music
* literature
* film
* broadcast media
* religious broadcasting
* journalism
* athletics
* comic books
* novels / poetry / short story
* television
* radio
* print media
* internet / technology
* popular art / architecture
* sacred vs. profane space
* advertising
* consumerism
* new religious movements/religious subcultures
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this
order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract,e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: DD9 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics orunderline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Nate Hinerman
Nursing/Theology and Religious Studies
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland,
Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Making Sense Of: series of research projects, which in turn belong to the Probing the Boundaries programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Salzburg, Austria
Call For Papers:
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference explores dying and death and the ways culture impacts care for the dying, the overall experience of dying, and ways the dead are remembered. Over the past three decades, scholarship in thanatology has increased dramatically.This particular conference seeks a broad array of perspectives that explore, analyze, and/or interpret the myriad interrelations and interactions that exist between death and culture. Culture not only presents and portrays ideas about “a good death” and norms that seek to achieve it, culture also operates as both a vehicle and medium through which meaning about death is communicated and understood. Sadly, too, culture sometimes facilitates death through violence.
Submissions might be imagined in any (or none) of the following ways:“death” as an expression of doctrinal beliefs and/or core values,death and dying as an on-going movement between an individual or community and a larger socio-cultural matrix, or death as essentiallya cultural construction. Investigations that engage cultural studies from a variety of perspective are certainly encouraged. We also welcome perspectives that interrogate the stability of meaning(s)assigned to such terms (“culture,” “death,” “dignity,”“care,” etc.) and their complex inter-relations.
Specifically, submissions should be framed with at least one of the following four rubrics in mind: death/dying within culture, culture within death/dying, death/dying as popular culture (and vice versa), or death/dying in tension with culture.
We welcome submissions that produce conversations engaging historical, ethnographic, normative, literary, anthropological, philosophical, artistic, political or other terms that elaborate a relationship between death and culture. For example, submissions might investigate death and dying in relation to any of the following realms of culture:
* music
* literature
* film
* broadcast media
* religious broadcasting
* journalism
* athletics
* comic books
* novels / poetry / short story
* television
* radio
* print media
* internet / technology
* popular art / architecture
* sacred vs. profane space
* advertising
* consumerism
* new religious movements/religious subcultures
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th May 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 3rd August 2012. 300 word abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this
order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract,e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: DD9 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics orunderline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Nate Hinerman
Nursing/Theology and Religious Studies
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland,
Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Making Sense Of: series of research projects, which in turn belong to the Probing the Boundaries programmes of Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
GUEST POST: Bryan Sitch (The Manchester Museum)
Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory
When Hannah contacted me about contributing a paper to a conference she is organising on the subject of Monsters, I immediately thought of the presentation I gave - or rather a colleague gave on my behalf - at a conference a year or so ago. In the paper I made a brief survey of objects in the Manchester Museum archaeology collection depicting monsters, including Odysseus in the Cyclops’ cave on an ancient Greek vase and figurines of the chimera or chimaera, the sirens and the sphinx.
At that time I was very interested in sacrificial theory, but I was only able to touch upon the topic in passing because most of the paper was devoted to monstrous objects in the Museum collection. One of the questions I posed was if, as has been argued by Adrienne Mayor in her fascinating book The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (2001), some of the monsters in ancient Greek myths were inspired by discoveries of fossilised bones from long-extinct Mediterranean megafauna, then how do we explain weird composites or hybrids like the chimaera or the sphinx in which the bodies of completely different creatures are mixed together? The former animal had the body of a lioness with a snake for a tail and a goat’s head sticking out of its back. It's like one of those books for children in which you turn a page and the head of one person is superimposed upon the body of someone else who is in turn superimposed over the lower body of another person. Reading Rene Girard's books about sacrificial theory seemed to offer a solution. Girard is a French academic who has worked for many years in the USA
His argument goes something like this: in the distant past members of a community that facing a flood or a famine or pestilence might experience into a state of collective anxiety such that the members of that community become progressively more agitated to the point where a total break-down of order and respect for social distinction is threatened. Girard compares the situation to a pan of milk about to boil over. What prevents the pan boiling over and a collective descent into anarchy – what Girard calls the ‘sacrifical crisis’- is the selection of a victim or scapegoat who acts as a lightning rod, exorcising the communal frenzy and bringing about a return to normality. Typically the victim is accused of having committed horrendous crimes and suffers a violent death in which all the members of the community take part. The victim is selected on the basis of disabilities or blemishes (and sometimes being unblemished is the excuse). Think of the myth of Oedipus with his club foot for example. Once order has been restored the community rationalises its violent treatment of the victim, who undergoes a change of status. Girard calls this the ‘mythic crystallisation’. Instead of being held responsible for the break-down of social order the victim is seen as having brought about its resolution and becomes a sanctified figure.
There are a number of things here that are relevant. Firstly, people who suffer from a disability or a blemish can be perceived as monstrous as well as being accused of monstrous crimes by other members of the community. Think of Oedipus who murdered his father and married his mother. Secondly Girard characterises the descent into chaos as a lack of respect for order and degree and social hierarchies. The people involved become so agitated that they can no longer make sense of what they are seeing. In the collective madness their perceptions are confused, resulting in the mixing of different categories, such as animal and human, and the creation of monstrous compilations and hybrids.
Monstrosity, therefore, is an important part of Rene Girard’s work on scape-goating. This offers potentially a way of understanding monsters, of which hybrids like the chimaera and the sphinx in Greek mythology are such memorable examples.
Bryan Sitch
Deputy Head of Collections and Curator of Archaeology
The Manchester Museum
Images:
1. Bronze Figurine of a Sphinx
2. Terracota Depicting Medusa
Bryan Sitch will be speaking on 'Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory' at the Hic Dragones Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject Conference, to be held at the Manchester Museum on 12-13 April 2012. For more information about the conference, please visit the Hic Dragones website.
When Hannah contacted me about contributing a paper to a conference she is organising on the subject of Monsters, I immediately thought of the presentation I gave - or rather a colleague gave on my behalf - at a conference a year or so ago. In the paper I made a brief survey of objects in the Manchester Museum archaeology collection depicting monsters, including Odysseus in the Cyclops’ cave on an ancient Greek vase and figurines of the chimera or chimaera, the sirens and the sphinx.
At that time I was very interested in sacrificial theory, but I was only able to touch upon the topic in passing because most of the paper was devoted to monstrous objects in the Museum collection. One of the questions I posed was if, as has been argued by Adrienne Mayor in her fascinating book The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (2001), some of the monsters in ancient Greek myths were inspired by discoveries of fossilised bones from long-extinct Mediterranean megafauna, then how do we explain weird composites or hybrids like the chimaera or the sphinx in which the bodies of completely different creatures are mixed together? The former animal had the body of a lioness with a snake for a tail and a goat’s head sticking out of its back. It's like one of those books for children in which you turn a page and the head of one person is superimposed upon the body of someone else who is in turn superimposed over the lower body of another person. Reading Rene Girard's books about sacrificial theory seemed to offer a solution. Girard is a French academic who has worked for many years in the USA
His argument goes something like this: in the distant past members of a community that facing a flood or a famine or pestilence might experience into a state of collective anxiety such that the members of that community become progressively more agitated to the point where a total break-down of order and respect for social distinction is threatened. Girard compares the situation to a pan of milk about to boil over. What prevents the pan boiling over and a collective descent into anarchy – what Girard calls the ‘sacrifical crisis’- is the selection of a victim or scapegoat who acts as a lightning rod, exorcising the communal frenzy and bringing about a return to normality. Typically the victim is accused of having committed horrendous crimes and suffers a violent death in which all the members of the community take part. The victim is selected on the basis of disabilities or blemishes (and sometimes being unblemished is the excuse). Think of the myth of Oedipus with his club foot for example. Once order has been restored the community rationalises its violent treatment of the victim, who undergoes a change of status. Girard calls this the ‘mythic crystallisation’. Instead of being held responsible for the break-down of social order the victim is seen as having brought about its resolution and becomes a sanctified figure.
There are a number of things here that are relevant. Firstly, people who suffer from a disability or a blemish can be perceived as monstrous as well as being accused of monstrous crimes by other members of the community. Think of Oedipus who murdered his father and married his mother. Secondly Girard characterises the descent into chaos as a lack of respect for order and degree and social hierarchies. The people involved become so agitated that they can no longer make sense of what they are seeing. In the collective madness their perceptions are confused, resulting in the mixing of different categories, such as animal and human, and the creation of monstrous compilations and hybrids.
Monstrosity, therefore, is an important part of Rene Girard’s work on scape-goating. This offers potentially a way of understanding monsters, of which hybrids like the chimaera and the sphinx in Greek mythology are such memorable examples.
Bryan Sitch
Deputy Head of Collections and Curator of Archaeology
The Manchester Museum
Images:
1. Bronze Figurine of a Sphinx
2. Terracota Depicting Medusa
Bryan Sitch will be speaking on 'Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory' at the Hic Dragones Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject Conference, to be held at the Manchester Museum on 12-13 April 2012. For more information about the conference, please visit the Hic Dragones website.
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Heronbridge - an Early Battlefield Assemblage Rediscovered
Thursday 29 March 2012 10.00am – 4.30pm
Kanaris Theatre, The Manchester Museum, Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL
10.30 - 11.15am Bryan Sitch ‘The Manchester Museum and a long lost collection’
11.20 – 12.05pm Nick Higham 'Bede and the Battle of Chester'
12.05 – 12.50pm Mark Zumbuhl ‘The Battle of Chester in Welsh and Irish Texts’
Lunch, Tea and Coffee provided
2.00 – 2.45pm Ian Uzzell of Vikingasaga ‘Re-enactment of early Medieval weapons and armour’
2.50 – 3.35pm David Mason 'Heronbridge Excavations 2002-05: The Battle of Chester Located (?)’
3.45 – 4.15 Bob Stoddart ‘Life, Violence, Death and Decay. The Identification of pathological information in battlefield remains’
The registration fee for this event is £20. For more information, or to book a place on the day school, please email Phyllis Stoddart.
Kanaris Theatre, The Manchester Museum, Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL
10.30 - 11.15am Bryan Sitch ‘The Manchester Museum and a long lost collection’
11.20 – 12.05pm Nick Higham 'Bede and the Battle of Chester'
12.05 – 12.50pm Mark Zumbuhl ‘The Battle of Chester in Welsh and Irish Texts’
Lunch, Tea and Coffee provided
2.00 – 2.45pm Ian Uzzell of Vikingasaga ‘Re-enactment of early Medieval weapons and armour’
2.50 – 3.35pm David Mason 'Heronbridge Excavations 2002-05: The Battle of Chester Located (?)’
3.45 – 4.15 Bob Stoddart ‘Life, Violence, Death and Decay. The Identification of pathological information in battlefield remains’
The registration fee for this event is £20. For more information, or to book a place on the day school, please email Phyllis Stoddart.
The Monster Mash
Friday 13th April 2012
Sachas Hotel
Manchester, United Kingdom
8pm-late
A deliciously decadent and moreishly monstrous costume ball.
Dress code: formalwear, smart Goth, steampunk, cyberpunk, Victorian, fancy-dress
Ticket price: £25 - follow this link for TICKET INFORMATION.
For more information, see the Hic Dragones website. This event is part of a weekend of monster and horror-themed events in Manchester, see the Hic Dragones website for more info.
Sachas Hotel
Manchester, United Kingdom
8pm-late
A deliciously decadent and moreishly monstrous costume ball.
Dress code: formalwear, smart Goth, steampunk, cyberpunk, Victorian, fancy-dress
Ticket price: £25 - follow this link for TICKET INFORMATION.
For more information, see the Hic Dragones website. This event is part of a weekend of monster and horror-themed events in Manchester, see the Hic Dragones website for more info.
Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject
Kanaris Lecture Theatre and Conference Room
Manchester Museum, Oxford Road,
Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Thursday 12th April – Friday 13th April 2012
Conference Programme
Thursday 12th April
9.00-9.30am: Registration
9.30-11.00am: Opening Remarks (Dr. Hannah Priest, University of Manchester) and Session 1: Monsters in Popular Culture (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Matthew Freeman (University of Nottingham): Who’s Monster?: Monsters, Subjectivity, and the Figure of the Child in Doctor Who
(ii) James Campbell (University of Stirling): ‘Welcome to the Madhouse’: The Conflation of Monstrosity, Madness and Mental Illness in DC Comics’ Batman Franchise
(iii) Christina Wilkins (University of Southampton): Transatlantic Differences and the Importance of Religion in Post-9/11 Monsters
11.00-11.30am: Coffee
11.30-1.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 2a: Literary Monsters (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Lisa Tagliaferri (The Graduate Center, CUNY): S’el fu sì bel com’elli è ora brutto: Dante’s Vision of Lucifer
(ii) Imke Heuer (University of Southampton): ‘A brood of monsters like myself’: Joshua Pickersgill’s The Three Brothers, Byron’s The Deformed Transformed and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
(iii) Giulia I. Sandelewski (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham): Vengeful or Revenger? Renaissance Drama as a Lens for Vallgren’s Hercules Barefoot
Session 2b: Making Monsters (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Lisa Temple-Cox (Independant Researcher): Making Myself a Monster: Self-Portraiture as Teratological Specimen
(ii) Rosie Garland (Independent Researcher): ‘The Girl You Never Loved But Always Looked For’: Occupational Therapy and the Development of the Performance Persona Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen
(iii) Susanne Hamscha (FU Berlin): “Gaga, Ooh La La”: Lady Gaga and the Pleasures of Being a Freak
1.00-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00-3.30pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 3a: Embodying Monstrosity (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Tracy Fahey (Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT): Invisible Monsters: Gothic and the Diabetic Body
(ii) Michel Delville (University of Liège) and Andrew Norris (Institut Supérieur des Traducteurs et Interprètes): Monstrosity, Hunger and Resistance
(iii) Lorie Hamalian (California State University): Swans and Prawns: Monster Metamorphoses and Hybrid Identities in Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Blomkamp’s District 9
Session 3b: Monsters of Literature (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Jessica George (Cardiff University): Celtic Subject and Racial Other in Arthur Machen’s ‘The White People’
(ii) Kay Lint (University of Hertfordshire): ‘Mangy fur and red, smouldering eyes’, The Monstrous Dog in Graham Masterton’s Charnel House
(iii) Rick Hudson (Bath Spa University): ‘Their Hand Is At Your Throat, But Ye See Them Not’: Monstrous Absence in the Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
3.30-4.00pm: Coffee
4.00-5.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 4a: Folk Monsters (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Carla Bascombe (University of the West Indies): Monsters of the Caribbean: A Portrait of the Traditional Torturer in the Untraditional Tale
(ii) Alexandra McGlynn (Independent Researcher): Kappa: Buttocks-Ball Eating Monsters of Shintõ Suijin
Session 4b: Monsters of Cinema (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Michael C. Bongiorno (CUNY, College of Staten Island): Another One for the Fire: Spectatorship, Apparatus and Recognition in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
(ii) Joshua Peery (Independent Researcher): Fear the Ma(SHE)ne: Monstrous Female Machines in Sci-Fi Cinema
5.00pm: Close
7.30pm: Conference Dinner at Felicini
*****
Friday 13th April
9.30-11.00am: Parallel Sessions
Session 5a: Old Monsters, New Faces (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Rachel Mizsei Ward (University of East Anglia): Munchkin Cthulhu, My Little Cthulhu and Chibithulu: The Transformation of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu from Horrific Body to Cute Body
(ii) Carys Crossen (University of Manchester): ‘The loup-garou has a duty: justice’: The Law, Justice and Vigilantism in Contemporary Lycanthropic Fiction
(iii) Kim Wilkins (University of Queensland): Writing the Medieval Monstrous
Session 5b: Spaces of Monstrosity
Chair: TBC
(i) Ersi Ioannidou (University of Brighton): Dismembered Domesticity: the House as Monster
(ii) David Allen (Midland Actors Theatre): Expedition Everest
(iii) Garfield Benjamin (University of Wolverhampton): Virtual Monsters: Becoming Death and the Quantum Immortal
11.00-11.30am: Coffee
11.30-1.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 6a: Of Monstrosity and Humanity (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Maria Chatzidimou (Aristotle University of Thessaloni): I am not an elephant! I am not a man! I am a colonized abject! : Re-viewing David Lynch’s The Elephant Man
(ii) Ian Pettigrew (University of Miami): The Monster’s Choice to Be Human: Guillermo del Toro’s Incarnations of a Hitchcockian Theme
Session 6b: More Literary Monstrosity (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Martyn Colebrook (University of Hull): ‘The Last Banned Book in Britain’: David Britton, Michael Butterworth, Lord Horror and Monstrosity
(ii) Eva Bru (Independent Researcher) The Spectacle of the Monstrous: Enforcing Normalcy in Mercè Rodoreda’s Death in Spring
(iii) Kristy Butler (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick): Breaking the Frame: Alternative Histories, Monstrous Ideologies and the Political Gothic
1.00-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00-3.00pm: Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory: Workshop with Bryan Sitch (Manchester Museum) (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
3.00-3.30pm: Coffee
3.30-4.30pm: Session 7: The Monstrous Human (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Abby Bentham (University of Salford): The Monster in Me: On Cultural Fascination with the Fictional Psychopath
(ii) David McWilliam (Lancaster University): Demystifying the Folk Devil: The Humanization of Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’s Monster (2003)
Manchester Museum, Oxford Road,
Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
Thursday 12th April – Friday 13th April 2012
Conference Programme
Thursday 12th April
9.00-9.30am: Registration
9.30-11.00am: Opening Remarks (Dr. Hannah Priest, University of Manchester) and Session 1: Monsters in Popular Culture (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Matthew Freeman (University of Nottingham): Who’s Monster?: Monsters, Subjectivity, and the Figure of the Child in Doctor Who
(ii) James Campbell (University of Stirling): ‘Welcome to the Madhouse’: The Conflation of Monstrosity, Madness and Mental Illness in DC Comics’ Batman Franchise
(iii) Christina Wilkins (University of Southampton): Transatlantic Differences and the Importance of Religion in Post-9/11 Monsters
11.00-11.30am: Coffee
11.30-1.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 2a: Literary Monsters (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Lisa Tagliaferri (The Graduate Center, CUNY): S’el fu sì bel com’elli è ora brutto: Dante’s Vision of Lucifer
(ii) Imke Heuer (University of Southampton): ‘A brood of monsters like myself’: Joshua Pickersgill’s The Three Brothers, Byron’s The Deformed Transformed and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
(iii) Giulia I. Sandelewski (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham): Vengeful or Revenger? Renaissance Drama as a Lens for Vallgren’s Hercules Barefoot
Session 2b: Making Monsters (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Lisa Temple-Cox (Independant Researcher): Making Myself a Monster: Self-Portraiture as Teratological Specimen
(ii) Rosie Garland (Independent Researcher): ‘The Girl You Never Loved But Always Looked For’: Occupational Therapy and the Development of the Performance Persona Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen
(iii) Susanne Hamscha (FU Berlin): “Gaga, Ooh La La”: Lady Gaga and the Pleasures of Being a Freak
1.00-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00-3.30pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 3a: Embodying Monstrosity (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Tracy Fahey (Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT): Invisible Monsters: Gothic and the Diabetic Body
(ii) Michel Delville (University of Liège) and Andrew Norris (Institut Supérieur des Traducteurs et Interprètes): Monstrosity, Hunger and Resistance
(iii) Lorie Hamalian (California State University): Swans and Prawns: Monster Metamorphoses and Hybrid Identities in Aronofsky’s Black Swan and Blomkamp’s District 9
Session 3b: Monsters of Literature (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Jessica George (Cardiff University): Celtic Subject and Racial Other in Arthur Machen’s ‘The White People’
(ii) Kay Lint (University of Hertfordshire): ‘Mangy fur and red, smouldering eyes’, The Monstrous Dog in Graham Masterton’s Charnel House
(iii) Rick Hudson (Bath Spa University): ‘Their Hand Is At Your Throat, But Ye See Them Not’: Monstrous Absence in the Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft
3.30-4.00pm: Coffee
4.00-5.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 4a: Folk Monsters (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Carla Bascombe (University of the West Indies): Monsters of the Caribbean: A Portrait of the Traditional Torturer in the Untraditional Tale
(ii) Alexandra McGlynn (Independent Researcher): Kappa: Buttocks-Ball Eating Monsters of Shintõ Suijin
Session 4b: Monsters of Cinema (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Michael C. Bongiorno (CUNY, College of Staten Island): Another One for the Fire: Spectatorship, Apparatus and Recognition in Night of the Living Dead (1968)
(ii) Joshua Peery (Independent Researcher): Fear the Ma(SHE)ne: Monstrous Female Machines in Sci-Fi Cinema
5.00pm: Close
7.30pm: Conference Dinner at Felicini
*****
Friday 13th April
9.30-11.00am: Parallel Sessions
Session 5a: Old Monsters, New Faces (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Rachel Mizsei Ward (University of East Anglia): Munchkin Cthulhu, My Little Cthulhu and Chibithulu: The Transformation of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu from Horrific Body to Cute Body
(ii) Carys Crossen (University of Manchester): ‘The loup-garou has a duty: justice’: The Law, Justice and Vigilantism in Contemporary Lycanthropic Fiction
(iii) Kim Wilkins (University of Queensland): Writing the Medieval Monstrous
Session 5b: Spaces of Monstrosity
Chair: TBC
(i) Ersi Ioannidou (University of Brighton): Dismembered Domesticity: the House as Monster
(ii) David Allen (Midland Actors Theatre): Expedition Everest
(iii) Garfield Benjamin (University of Wolverhampton): Virtual Monsters: Becoming Death and the Quantum Immortal
11.00-11.30am: Coffee
11.30-1.00pm: Parallel Sessions
Session 6a: Of Monstrosity and Humanity (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Maria Chatzidimou (Aristotle University of Thessaloni): I am not an elephant! I am not a man! I am a colonized abject! : Re-viewing David Lynch’s The Elephant Man
(ii) Ian Pettigrew (University of Miami): The Monster’s Choice to Be Human: Guillermo del Toro’s Incarnations of a Hitchcockian Theme
Session 6b: More Literary Monstrosity (Conference Room)
Chair: TBC
(i) Martyn Colebrook (University of Hull): ‘The Last Banned Book in Britain’: David Britton, Michael Butterworth, Lord Horror and Monstrosity
(ii) Eva Bru (Independent Researcher) The Spectacle of the Monstrous: Enforcing Normalcy in Mercè Rodoreda’s Death in Spring
(iii) Kristy Butler (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick): Breaking the Frame: Alternative Histories, Monstrous Ideologies and the Political Gothic
1.00-2.00pm: Lunch
2.00-3.00pm: Monsters, the Museum and Sacrificial Theory: Workshop with Bryan Sitch (Manchester Museum) (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
3.00-3.30pm: Coffee
3.30-4.30pm: Session 7: The Monstrous Human (Kanaris Lecture Theatre)
Chair: TBC
(i) Abby Bentham (University of Salford): The Monster in Me: On Cultural Fascination with the Fictional Psychopath
(ii) David McWilliam (Lancaster University): Demystifying the Folk Devil: The Humanization of Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’s Monster (2003)
4.30-5.00pm: Closing Remarks
5.00pm: Conference Close
This conference is being run by Hic Dragones, and information on registration can be found on the Hic Dragones website. The registration fee is £75 (including refreshments) or £97 (including a 3-course conference dinner on Thursday 12th), and the deadline for registration in 30th March 2012. Following the conference, there will be a series of public events with a horror/monstrous theme. For more information about the public events, please click here.
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