CFP: 5th Global Conference: Hope

Sunday 10th March – Tuesday 12th March 2013

Lisbon, Portugal

Call For Presentations:

When Pandora’s box was emptied of all the ills that would plague the world, one small winged creature still remained: hope. The project inquires into the nature of this gift. Is hope, in fact, a good, encouraging us to do or be good? Or is it an evil; an illusion, perhaps an impossible fantasy? How does hope manifest itself in the world, in language, literature, and the arts? How – should – hope be encouraged? Is hope individual or collective in nature? Or both? What does hope contribute to individual or national identity?

This inter- and multi-disciplinary research and publications project seeks to explore the multi-layered ideas, actions, and cultural traditions regarding hope. The project aims to explore the nature of hope, its relationship with other emotions or movements, and its manifestation in the actions of individuals, cultures, communities and nations. The project will also consider the history of hope, its philosophical or scientific ‘legitimacy’, the meaning(s) of hope – especially in the nascent field of future studies, and the distinctions between hope and optimism. Representations of hope in film, literature, television, theatre and radio will be analysed; cultural traditions of hope will be considered.

Presentations, papers, performances, reports, works-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

● Theories of Hope

● Pedagogies of Hope

● Hope in Literature/Literature as Hope

● Hope in Art/Art as Hope

● Hope in Music/Music as Hope

● Hope and Religious Teaching

● Hope and the Beginning of Life

● Hope and Despair

● Hope and Reconciliation

● Hope and Illness

● Hope and Loss

● Hope and the End of Life

● Hope and Oppression

● Consciousness and Hope

● Between Hopelessness and Hope

● Hope vs. Illusion

● Hope and Media

● Psychologies and Hope

● Philosophies of Hope

● Hope and Forgiveness

● Remarriage Following Divorce: ‘The Triumph of Hope over Experience’

● Love and Hope

● Good Works as Hope

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals.

What to Send

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 12th October 2012. All submissions are minimally double blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 18th January 2013. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the 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 key words

E-mails should be entitled: HOPE 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). We acknowledge receipt and answer 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

John L. Hochheimer 

Nancy Billias 

Rob Fisher 

The conference is part of the Persons 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 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.