GUEST POST: Andrew Quinton (Wolf-Girls Blog Tour)

As part of the Hic Dragones Wolf-Girls blog tour, I'm happy to host a guest post from Andrew Quinton, one of the book's contributors...



Hello! I’m Andrew Quinton, Wolf-Girls contributor and writer of The Librarian. I find it difficult to write about myself, so for the purposes of this article, I’ve asked Alexis LaPierre — werewolf, peer-pressured vegetarian and protagonist of The Librarian — to conduct an informal interview with me. This interview makes some oblique references to scenes in the story, but contains no spoilers.



Illustration by Tandye Rowe

Alexis LaPierre: Really? Interviewed by your own character? I’d love to cite some examples illustrating just how gimmicky this is, but I can’t think of any other cases where a writer was shy enough to try it. I’ll find something when I’m back at work.

Andrew Quinton: Do you think you’ve still got a workplace to go back to? You took some unannounced time off, didn’t you? A long weekend that sort of –

AL: I don’t want to talk about it. Besides, I wasn’t strictly responsible, given how hard you worked to put me in that situation.

AQ: Well, yes, I did guide you there, but I didn’t know how it was going to turn out. I thought you were going to end up on Grouse Mountain in the middle of the night. I didn’t know much at all, really. Your story is the first piece of fiction I’ve completed since high school. That was in 1999. I haven’t had any formal writing instruction at all since then, so this story just carried me along with it. I didn’t think you were going to miss any time at work. I know that’s important to you.

AL: I’m the creation of someone who got a B+ in Creative Writing 12? How fortunate for both of us. Being relatively new to it, then, I take it that you don’t have a set process for writing?

AQ: For The Librarian, it was more of an anti-process. When I really started work on it, there were less than seven weeks before the submission deadline, so I was in a hurry. Most of the first two drafts were written on an iPod Touch or an iPhone, using WriteRoom and Dropbox to keep things organized. I wrote in little sprints, 5 minutes here, 20 there. On the bus, standing in line at a hockey game, in bed, once even during a meeting at work (not smart).

AL: Everything you’re telling me is making me feel like a child born healthy despite the fact that her mother drank and smoked through the pregnancy.

AQ: Yeah, it wasn’t ideal, but I made it work. It was convenient, being able to pull out a device and start writing wherever I was. Working like that also removed the framework of habits that I think a lot of rookie writers like me get tangled in. No rituals, no lucky coffee cups or special pens.

AL: Was it difficult to concentrate, writing like that? I often find it… difficult… to concentrate.

AQ: Headphones were the key. Every word of your story was written to music. Anything that takes places in the woods was written to Loscil’s gorgeous, glacial “Coast / Range / Arc”. For the non-flashback scenes, I listened to Cliff Martinez’s “Solaris” score, all tranquil bells and pensive strings.

AL: I see. What about the climax of the story?

AQ: Just one song, on repeat. “Demon Seed”, by Nine Inch Nails. I think that’s your theme song in this story. Particularly the last 90 seconds of it.

AL: “Demon Seed”? Are you sure you’re not still in high school?

AQ: Hey, it worked for you.

AL: That “my theme” can be expressed by such a song is profoundly disturbing on a number of levels. Next question. What made you want to write something — and then submit it for publication, which was a first for you — after over a decade of inactivity?

AQ: In early 2010 I set myself a few self-improvement goals, and one of them was to finish a piece of writing and have it accepted for publication before my 30th birthday, in May 2011. I wound up ignoring that writing goal in favour of the other things I’d set out to do, but when I heard about the Wolf-Girls anthology in January 2011, I knew I’d never find a better excuse to get started writing again. Dark short stories about female werewolves? To my family and friends it probably sounded like a vanity project I made up for myself.

AL: And yet you didn’t actually start writing the story until late February.

AQ: Yeah, despite the self-improvement kick, I’m still a consummate procrastinator.

AL: Clearly. Were you at least able to make your “accepted for publication by 30” deadline?

AQ: I got the acceptance email less than 12 hours before I turned 30. That was a good night.

AL: I’m so happy for you.

AQ: Really?

AL: Maybe. Moving on. I have a clear sense of my own history, but I can sense faint echoes of “previous versions” of myself. I get the feeling that I was iterated a few times during the writing process.

AQ: That’s right. I did quite a lot of re-writing. Originally you were going to be a court reporter, but I decided that you being a part of the justice system would create a premise too much like Showtime’s “Dexter”. I think Dexter Morgan is a terrific anti-hero, but he’s comfortable in his disguise. You’re never truly comfortable, are you? Even after seven years of relative domesticity.

AL: Let’s talk about something else, please. You run Werewolf News, and you’ve also created the SRA, a fake government agency that tracks “non-human” entities, including lycanthropes. Why do werewolves hold such fascination for you?

AQ: The short answer is that werewolves are awesome. The longer, more articulate answer is that I’m intrigued the concept of metamorphosis, especially when it’s mixed up with the construction of one’s personal identity. If you ignore how long a werewolf stays in either shape, how would you be able to tell which is his or her “real” body?

AL: How nice that you have the luxury of pondering that as an intellectual exercise. I know precisely which is my “real” body, thank you very much.

AQ: See, that’s why I usually go with the short answer.

AL: Speaking of “real” bodies… since I’m a character you made up, are you visualizing me as being physically there, across from you, asking these questions?

AQ: When we began this interview I tried to visualize you, yes, but the mental image of you sitting across from me on this train is very much at odds with the last scene of The Librarian. The latter keeps bleeding into the former. No pun intended.

AL: That pun was absolutely intended, and for that reason, we’re done here.

AQ: Hey, am I going to get to write about that other secret you have? The one I cut from the story becau–

AL: WE’RE DONE HERE.

Read 'The Librarian' in Wolf-Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny, edited by Hannah Kate and published by Hic Dragones.

CFP: Devils and Dolls: Dichotomous Depictions of 'The Child'

Wednesday 27 March 2013
University of Bristol, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities

Confirmed plenary speaker: Professor George Rousseau, (Magdalen College, University of Oxford) Co-Director of the Oxford University Centre for the History of Childhood.

Second plenary to be confirmed.

An inter-disciplinary conference open to both postgraduates and academics at any stage of their career, seeking to examine the contrasting images and representations of children as angels or devils, innocent or evil, light or dark in fiction and culture and the field of Humanities. Why are children offered little dimension in representations? What is the significance of representing the child either as innocent or evil – to both the originating discourse and in a wider context? Is such polarization detrimental to our understanding of what it means to be a child and how we respond to real children?

The “humanities” is intended as a fluid term; depictions from any period of history, any social or cultural context, fictional or media representations are encompassed. In light of this, submissions are invited from a range of disciplines and topics may include, but are certainly not limited to, depictions of the child as:

* A devil, demon, monster, wicked/sinful (for instance Heathcliff, Damien from The Omen, the child Sir Gowther)
* As angelic, child-saints or martyrs, innocent (paintings of putti, Romantic child figures, Little Nell)
* Contrasting images of the two in various fields; e.g. philosophical thought, religious doctrine
* The child as “uncanny”
* The child in art (Blake’s illustrations, Millett’s Bubbles, the Virgin and child)
* Televisual, cinematic or dramatic depictions
* The Freudian child as depicted by psychoanalysts or psychoanalytic readings of figures
* The child in horror/gothic fiction
* Monstrous births
* Supernatural children; vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies
* Contrasting images as represented in adult fiction and/or children’s literature * Children in Victorian chapbooks – models of religious virtue?
* The sexualised child – innocent or corrupt?
* The child in myths, fairy and folk tales
* The “foreign”, tribal, refugee or postcolonial child
* Media representations of children.

We invite abstracts of 250-300 words for 20 minute (previously unpublished) papers, sent in Word format to the conference convenors by Friday 31st August 2012 with the “subject” of the email as ‘Devils and Dolls abstract’.

Please ensure your abstract appears in the following format:

* Paper title
* 250 – 300 word abstract in plain text
* Name of author and affiliation
* Email address
* Up to ten keywords (these can be compound terms)
* Please also indicate whether, if required, you would be happy to chair a panel.

All abstracts will be acknowledged by email receipt, and you should therefore receive an acknowledgement within 5 working days.

Once the deadline has passed, a panel will review the abstracts anonymously and a draft conference plan will be constructed. We will reply to all submissions to offer both a decision and some feedback. If your paper is not selected at this time, we hope you are still able to attend the conference and contribute to the discussion.

Some papers may be selected to comprise a collection of essays in the first edition of the Bristol Journal of HARTS following the conference.

For more information about the conference, please click here.

Culture, Disability, Theory - Encounters Between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies

University of Cologne, October 25 – 27, 2012

In Cooperation with the English Seminar of the University of Cologne, Institute for American Literature and Culture, Prof. Hanjo Berressem.

Disability Studies conceptualizes disability as a social and cultural construction that can be traced throughout a multiplicity of cultural practices. Cultural Studies, however, has yet to fully incorporate disability as an object of inquiry and a framework for critical analyses. A continuing dialogue between Disability Studies and Cultural Studies paves the way for insightful resonances and demonstrates ways to critically consider the conceptual pair of normalcy and disability with respect to strategies of cultural interpretation and production.

The systematic understanding of disability as ‘naturalized construction’ promises insights not only for those who are currently subsumed under the label ‘disabled.’ How is cultural knowledge about embodiment and subjectivity produced, transformed and reinforced? What are the political consequences for an analysis of ‘disability’ that arise from a critique of neoliberal mechanisms of differentiation and exclusion? How are individual and social identities, self-conceptions, and body-images (trans-)formed through the reflection of cultural representation? Which theoretical frameworks of contemporary cultural criticism can be employed to rethink disability in terms of an affirmative conceptualization of socio-cultural difference?

This conference brings together scholars who are working at the interface of Disability Studies and Cultural Studies. Presentations will be complemented with comments by researchers and graduate students of, among others, sociology, literature, art history and philosophy based at the University of Cologne. The conference will address the multitude of possible overlaps between both disciplines and aims to contribute to the thriving discourse of ‘Cultural Disability Studies.’

Confirmed keynote speakers are:
•Dr Ria Cheyne, Liverpool Hope University
•Professor Lennard Davis, University of Illinois, Chicago
•Professor Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Emory University, Atlanta
•Professor Dan Goodley, Manchester Metropolitan University
•Katerina Kolarova Ph.D., Charles University, Prague
•Professor Robert McRuer, George Washington University, Washington DC
•Professor Nicholas Mirzoeff, University of New York, NYC
•Dr Heike Raab, University of Innsbruck
•Professor Margrit Shildrick, Linköping University
•Professor Tobin Siebers, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

There is no conference fee, but registration is necessary (until October 10, 2012). Please fill out the registration form. For any other inquiries send an email to the conference organizers.

CFP: The Lady Doth Protest... Mapping Feminist Movements, Moments and Mobilisations

Biennial FWSA Conference, 21-23 June, 2013
University of Nottingham

Keynote Speakers

Professor Nadje Al-Ali (University of London)
Professor Diane Elson (University of Essex)
Dr Nirmal Puwar (Goldsmiths University)

This conference theme seeks to critically explore the concept of protest – its discourse, image and impact, and to examine the possibility of creative feminist engagement across a spectrum of moments, movements and mobilisations. Women have always participated in and led a wide variety of protests, feminist and otherwise. Their historical participation in movements for equal rights and civil liberties has routinely thrown up questions about feminist knowledge and political praxes. However, the visibility of women in a range of contemporary protests on a global scale - the ‘Arab spring’, the North American ‘occupy’ movement and activist marches like the ‘Slut Walk’ and ‘Muff March’ phenomena - makes revisiting debates on women and protest apposite. At the same time, the ‘war on terror’, the so-called death of multiculturalism in Europe, and women’s global participation in fundamentalist mobilisations and armed struggle raises new questions concerning the interstices between race, religion, class, sexuality and citizenship.

We conceive of the term ‘protest’ in its widest sense existing in a variety of practices including activism, critical pedagogies, literature, film, technologies, art and aesthetics – all of which coalesce around the challenge they mount to multiple hegemonies. By unpacking the concept of protest and expanding existing notions of the political through a feminist lens, we seek to understand how feminist protest, in particular, responds to and emerges in spite of, the challenges of our contemporary world. We invite papers from across the arts, humanities and social sciences. Topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

• Women and protest: theoretical, historical, and contemporaneous concerns;
• Sexual and gendered economies of neo-liberalism, recession, and austerity;
• Gender, securitization, counterterrorism, and nationalism(s);
• New forms of trans-national activism and feminist politics;
• Critical feminist pedagogy in times of continuity and change;
• Protest literature, music, film, and art;
• The language/rhetoric of feminist movements and mobility;
• Non or anti-feminist protest and politics.

To submit:
Please send 250 word abstracts for twenty minute papers by 30 October 2012 or 600 word panel proposals by 30 September 2012 to the conference organisers : Claire O’Callaghan, Trishima Mitra-Kahn and Srila Roy 

To visit the conference website, please click here.

CFP: 2nd Global Conference: Celebrity

Sunday 10th March – Tuesday 12th March 2013

Lisbon, Portugal

Call For Presentations:

'To be known for your personality actually proves you a celebrity. Thus a synonym for “celebrity” is “personality”'

(Boorstin, ‘From Hero to Celebrity’, 83)

The dream to be famous is as old as humanity itself. Celebrities are born every day and they often disappear after their Warholian fifteen minutes. Tina Turner was mistaken, singing that ‘we don’t need another hero’ – ours is a hero-worshipping culture. One can look at celebrities as an extension of societies’ dreams of heroes and the embodiments of the Zeitgeist of a given era. And more often than not, it seems that each century has the celebrities it deserves. Among the star-wannabies and individuals known for being known, there are celebrities with whom we seem to connect in a way that transcends any other relationship pattern. They inspire, we aspire, and the processes of spectatorship and consumption allow for a merging of our self with the phantasmagorical ideal some cultural icons represent.

Celebrity culture itself has long ceased to be of interest only to tabloids and merchandisers and the people that consume them. Its analysis permeates all disciplines of study, making celebrity a multifaceted concept. Academics have continually called for a broader programme of celebrity studies; anthropologists have been identifying connections between celebrity status and religion (shamanism; idolatry; reliquaries); psychologists have been discussing the consequences of ‘celebrity worship’ and warning about the fate of those who rose to questionable fame within a fortnight; sociologists have been describing new ways of representing, producing and, most importantly, consuming celebrity; more recently, economists have pointed to the entertainment sector to find areas which have not been drastically touched by recession.

This call for presentations, papers and performnces addresses a serious, interdisciplinary and multicultural analysis of the phenomenon of celebrity. We encourage both an in-depth criticism of the state of contemporary culture as well as a legitimate recognition of celebrities’ cultural value. Scholars, artists, writers, media representatives, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and medical and law specialists are invited to send papers, reports, research studies, work-in-progress, works of art, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to the following themes:

Definitions of celebrity-hood, stardom, fame, iconicity, charisma, uniqueness/singularity, mass culture/pop-culture, popularity, across cultures
The history of celebrity: the idols in the past and now
From zero to hero: ‘ordinary celebrities’
The modern celebrity culture: its status, benefits, etc.
Ideological conditions of celebrity culture
Celebrities as commodities
Representation of celebrities; ‘celebrification’ processes; the making of the ‘star’
Celebrity and identity formation; authenticity; national identity
Celebrities: empowerment or objectification; self-fashioning (public vs private self)
Celebrities and the discourse on the body
Celebrities and fashion
Celebrity culture and the audience (i.e. fandom; celebrity worship; stalking; role models; franchising)
Good and bad PR
Celebrities as cultural fabrications
Celebrity and power; political function of celebrity status
Politics and celebrities; celebrities in politics; politicisation of celebrity
Mass media and the formation of celebrity culture
Rhetoric of fame
Celebrity in the media: news, shows, tabloids
Celebrity and the law, accountability, morality, crime, transgressions
Celebrity status and gender
Notorious celebrity/fame: The anti-heroes and anti-stars; ethics of fame
Celebrities and their personnel
Child celebrities: Too young for fame?
Celebrity status as a burden; The weight of stardom
Forgotten celebrities: What happens when fame disappears? Celebrities and ageing; Posthumous fame
Unwanted fame
Intercultural perspective on celebrity: i.e. Bollywood vs Hollywood
(Post)colonialism and celebrity
Celebrity as ‘Other’
(Auto)biographies of/by stars and idols: (self-)representation, truth/biofiction
Celebrity as educators; their positive impact; celebrities and humanitarian actions; awareness-raising
Celebrity confessional literature; Self-help books by celebrities
Teaching about celebrity culture

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

What to Send

Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 12th October 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 18th January 2013. 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: Celebrity 2 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 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

Katarzyna Bronk 

Dr Rob Fisher 

The conference is part of the Critical Issues series of research projects. The aim of the conference is 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.

CFP: 14th Global Conference: Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness

Sunday 10th March – Tuesday 12th March 2013

Lisbon, Portugal

Call For Presentations:

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues surrounding evil and human wickedness. In wrestling with evil(s) we are confronted with a multi-layered phenomenon which invites people from all disciplines, professions and vocations to come together in dialogue and wrestle with questions that cross the boundaries of the intellectual, the emotional and the personal. Underlying these efforts there is the sense that in grappling with evil we are in fact grappling with questions and issues of our own humanity.

The complex nature of evil is reflected in this call for presentations: in recognising that no one approach or perspective can adequately do justice to what we mean by evil, so there is an equal recognition that no one form of presentation ought to take priority over others. We solicit contributions which may be

~ papers, panels, workshops, reports

~ case studies

~ performance pieces; dramatic readings; poetic renditions; short stories; creative writings

~ works of art; works of music

We will also consider other forms of contribution. Successful proposals will normally be given a 20 minute presentation space. Perspectives are sought from all academic disciplines along with, for example, those working in the caring professions, journalism, the media, the military, prison services, politics, psychiatry and other work-related, ngo and vocational areas.

Key themes for reflection may include, but are not limited to:

what is evil?
the nature and sources of evil and human wickedness
evil animals? Wicked creatures?
the places and spaces of evil
crimes, criminals and justice
psychopathic behaviour – mad or bad?
villains, wicked characters and heroes
vice and virtue
choice, responsibility, and diminished responsibility
social and cultural reactions to evil and human wickedness
political evils; evil, power and the state
evil and gender; evil and the feminine
evil children
hell, hells, damnation: evil and the afterlife
the portrayal of evil and human wickedness in the media and popular culture
suffering in literature and film
individual acts of evil, group violence, holocaust and genocide; obligations of bystanders
terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing
fear, terror, horror
the search for meaning and sense in evil and human wickedness
the nature and tasks of theodicy
religious understandings of evil and human wickedness
postmodern approaches to evil and human wickedness
ecocriticism, evil and suffering
evil and the use/abuse of technology; evil in cyberspace

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

What to Send

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 12th October 2013. All submissions are minimally double blind peer reviewed. 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: Evil14 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 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

Stephen Morris 


Rob Fisher 

The conference is part of the At the Interface 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.

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.

CFP: 2nd Global Conference: Sins, Vices and Virtues

Wednesday 13th March – Friday 15th March 2013

Lisbon, Portugal

Call For Presentations:

Not every culture recognises the notion of sin but all of them recognise the idea of a religious or spiritual transgression. All or nearly all the ‘Christian’ vices-virtues were those espoused by Greek-Roman philosophers first and are, therefore, not exclusively Christian in the origin. The Judaic idea of ‘sin’ varies considerably across time and the accountability of society/group vs. individual fluctuates as well. Also, the (Latin) idea of sin as ‘transgression’ or ‘breaking of the (divine) law’ is at variance with the (Greek) idea of sin as ‘missing the mark’ and ‘mistake/error.’

The idea of virtues likewise does not seem to be universal, though all offer guidelines to what they consider ‘right living. Actions that violate rules of morality and the guidelines concerning virtuous living have been the foundations of every culture across centuries.

However, due to civilisational progress and secularisation, the ideas and definitions behind the variously understood concepts of ‘sin’, ‘vice’ and ‘virtue’ have changed. For instance, in Christian culture the traditional list of the Church Fathers was unofficially updated to include social sins prevalent in what is called the era of ‘unstoppable globalisation’ and these DO not necessarily embrace Christians only.

Thus, apart from the familiar: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth, which individuals were to test their conscience for, the Roman Catholic Church now cautions the whole of humanity inter alia about: Genetic modification and human experimentations; Polluting the environment; Social injustice; Causing poverty; Paedophilia, contraception, abortion; Taking drugs; and Financial gluttony. Not only are the ‘new sins’ not necessarily Christian in nature but they seem inter- and transcultural, disregarding religious persuasion. It seems no longer the matter of individual transgression that has spiritual repercussions, but rather the sin whose subject is the entire, global and transcultural society. Furthermore, the question that arises is whether the notions of virtue are changing their meaning in the commercially-driven ‘dog-eat-dog’ modern world as well, and whether to be ‘good’ or ‘virtuous’ means the same for all cultures.

Are we then to talk about a completely new culture-blind hamartiology or new schematization of virtues? What are the real changes between medieval and today’s religious/moral doctrines preached across the modern world and its diverse cultural make-up? What about non-Christian cultures with different categories of religious/spiritual transgressions? May one actually still talk about ‘sin’ at all or is it an obsolete word in a multicultural world? Are all Western Christian sins, vices and virtues recognised and shared by other cultures as well?

This interdisciplinary conference seeks a new, provocative, intercultural perspective on some enduring truths concerning virtues and vices, sins and transgressions. Do we need a new list of moral commandments in the globalised, multicultural 21st century? Should they be religious or secular in nature? Who are these aimed at? And, finally, is it possible, reaching back to the origins of humanity, to find common denominators between religious/spiritual definitions of vices and virtues of all belief systems? Can discussions of ‘sin’ not introduce theology and religion into the contemporary discussion?

We are inviting scholars, theologians, anthropologists, artists, teachers, psychologists, therapists, philosophers, teachers of ethics, etc. to present papers, reports, works of art, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels on issues related but not limited to the following themes:

The genealogy of the idea of sin or religious transgression around the world
Anthropology of transgression
Sinful/Transgressive actions, evil thoughts, religious taboos in Christian and non-Christian cultures
What are the pre-Islam Arabic ideas of sin? How do these influence Islamic thought and how do they shape or not shape fundamentalist Islamic political thought?
Lexicon of sinfulness/transgression and virtuousness in Christian and non-Christian cultures
Social functions of sins and virtues
Modern sins and vices: Individual and social; religious and secular; intercultural
Social ‘sins’: ‘Institutional’ and ‘structural’; their social ramifications
‘-isms’ in religious and spiritual discourse
Communal versus individual sins/transgressions: Do societies sin? How are societies policing them?
The concept of sin or spiritual transgression/deviation and philosophy
The notions of ‘sins’, vices and virtues on the political arena (secular morality or no morality)
Psychology of sin (‘sinful’ or ‘abnormal’?; the concept of sin after Darwin, Nietzsche and Freud)
Emotions and moral decision-making
How to represent evil and morality in art: Representation of sins and sinners, vices, transgressions and virtues in art, literature, movies in Christian and non-Christian cultures
Genderisation of sins, vices and virtues in Christian and non-Christian cultures
Ideology of sin/religious transgression and technological progress: G/god or the Machine; ‘sins’ of productive necessity
Theologies and Nature: Environmental studies and the notions of ‘sin’, transgression and virtue
Sins/Vices and/in the Media (ie adveritising)
Medieval crusades and modern (holy) wars
Sinless, non-transgressive life in 21st century: Possibility or wishful thinking?
Fear of the confessional or ‘McDonald-isation’ of spiritual life; is confession needed at all?
Public and penitential practices across the ages and cultures
Punishment for sin/transgression and rewarding virtue across the ages and cultures: individual and collective
Visions of Hell, Paradise and other afterlife Realms across cultures
Virtues in the modern times; virtues in a modern man

What to Send

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 12 October 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 18th January 2013. 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

E-mails should be entitled: Sins and Virtues 2 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 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

Katarzyna Bronk 

Rob Fisher

The conference is part of the At the Interface series of research projects. The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. 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 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: Body Horror: Contagion, Mutation, Transformation

Monday 11th February – Wednesday 13th February 2013

Sydney, Australia

Call for Presentation:

The body. My body. This thing which is with me all day, every day, from my birth to my death. This flesh which is me. My intimate life-long friend.

In our day-to-day living we have no reason to question or to doubt our bodies. Until the bond of trust is shaken or broken. Something happens. To my body. Something inside: going wrong. A betrayal: a turning against: an unwelcome and unwanted change. From which there is no escape, no running away, nowhere to hide. This is happening to me.

This inter- and transdisciplinary forum aims to explore the many layers and levels of body horror, and the ways in which bodies can become horrifying. Given the diversity and scope of this theme we welcome

~ papers, panels, workshops, reports

~ case studies

~ performance pieces; dramatic readings; poetic renditions; short stories; creative writings

~ works of art; works of music

Key aspects for discussion will include, but not be limited to:

Biological horror. Organic horror
Betrayal; the body turns against you
Something inside; no escape
Change and transformation: the role of time
Pain, suffering, agony, the scream, contortion, mutation and mutilation
Obscene bodies
Disease. Infection, contagion, invasion, virus, the parasite
Surgery, cosmetic surgery, body sculpture; huffing, tattooing, piercing; body art
Pleasure, perversion, fetish
Deformity; disability, affliction
Hybridity
Violence, brutality, torture
Rape
Innards, guts, organs
Dismemberment; instruments of the body’s destruction
Wounded bodies, dying bodies
Post body horror

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers and presentations will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted by Friday 14th September 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper, if appropriate, should be submitted by Friday 23rd November 2012.

What to Send:

300 word abstracts or presentation proposals 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.

E-mails should be entitled: Body 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 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 Chair


Rob Fisher

The conference is part of the At the Interface 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.

CFP: 3rd Global Conference: The Patient

Saturday 16th March – Monday 18th March 2013

Lisbon, Portugal

Call for Presentation:

A significant focus for this interdisciplinary project is an annual conference which provides valuable opportunities for participants to become involved in, perhaps, the first of many thoughtful, unique, and creative dialogues with one another. In this engaging and responsive forum presenters are encouraged to share their discipline with enthusiasm and to foster new working relationships through the exploration, examination and discussion of their work with colleagues.

Through its research and publications, and from a number of health and therapeutic care perspectives, this project began by characterising the patient as a liminal figure in an unstable landscape. As a result conference participants have begun discussions that explore the positioning of patients, families and institutions, helping professionals and clinicians, the nature of practice and the significance of theory in terms of: quality of care; professional and personal expectations; reluctance and resistance; institutional and individual needs; and, the value and role of education.

In this next stage of the project we would like to warmly encourage participants to consider the patient in terms of collaborative therapeutic relationships – to site the patient in a place of care where she might be defined by the quality and strength of her relationships rather than her liminality. In addition, this project invites a critical examination of those therapeutic approaches, roles, skills, and conditions of relationship that make agency possible, establish collaboration, and assist in mutually helpful outcomes. Often the practice of these approaches is narrowly defined in terms of the curative benefits to the patient or client. However, this conference will add to the scope of previous discussions by capturing and examining the myriad roles that relationships play in effectively assisting individual patients and client groups toward the achievement of their therapeutic goals.

Presentations, papers, workshops, presentations and pre-formed panels are all invited on any of the following themes:

The patient/helper relationship – theory and practice: past; present; and, future;
Re-visioning patient experience through a humanist lens;
On the ground – therapeutic relationships from patients’, helpers’, and organisational perspectives;
Identifying and supporting patients’ relational needs in different settings;
Projects that assist patients to help themselves;
Patient-centred education and training;
Key philosophical, ethical, and legal issues in the organisation and management of patient and helper relationships across the lifespan;
Cultural perceptions of relationship in patient care;
Changing states – from person to patient – accounts of experience and representations from literature, the Arts, film, and the digital media;
Preserving and nurturing relationships in a therapeutic setting – case studies, personal accounts, and institutional facts;
The present and future roles of new global technologies in patient care.

Please note that presentations that deal with related themes will also be considered.

It is our aim that a number of these interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary dialogues will be ongoing and that they will ultimately develop into a series of related cross context research project. It is also anticipated that these will support and encourage the establishment of useful collaborative networks, and the creation, presentation, and publication of original research. Through such richness and diversity it is expected that a body of knowledge and expertise will be established that serves both individuals and organisations.

What to Send

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 12th October 2012. 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 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: THE PATIENT 3 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

Peter Bray 

Rob Fisher 

The conference is part of the Persons series of ongoing research and publications projects conferences, run within the Probing the Boundaries 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.

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: Trauma: Theory and Practice

Tuesday 19th March – Friday 22nd March 2013

Lisbon, Portugal

Call for Presentation:

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues surrounding individual and collective trauma, both in terms of practice, theory and lived reality. Trauma studies has emerged from its foundation in psychoanalysis to be a dominant methodology for understanding contemporary events and our reactions to them. Critics have argued that we live in a ‘culture of trauma.’ Repeated images of suffering and death form our collective and/or cultural unconscious. The third global conference seeks papers on a variety of issues related to trauma including: the function of memory, memorial, and testimony; collective and cultural perspectives; the impact of time; and the management of personal and political traumas.

Whilst we continue to warmly welcome research papers of theoretical and clinical interest, we would also encourage papers that address: critical questions of practice; practical projects; first-hand survivor/bystander reports of individual and collective experiences; and, those that interrogate, critique, represent, or create works that deal with fictional and actual traumatic events.

Case studies, papers, performance pieces, reports, works of art, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes: 1. Public and Political Trauma
~ War and trauma, both past and present
~ Captivity and torture
~ Public disasters and trauma including environmental catastrophes
~ Disease, public health and trauma
~ Political trauma, silencing dissent/voicing dissent
~ Social trauma
~ Traumatic displacement and cultural uprooting
~ Inherited intergenerational trauma

2. Personal and Individual Trauma
~ Bereavement: parent; sibling; partner loss
~ Abandonment
~ Betrayal
~ Peer pressure and bullying
~ Murder and assault
~ Domestic violence
~ Child abuse and childhood trauma
~ Survivor guilt
~ Disability
~ Witnessing trauma and secondary trauma
~ Coping strategies – stress management and reduction

3. Diagnosing and Treating Trauma
~ Medical, therapeutic, and holistic approaches to trauma management
~ Non-medical therapies/approaches – the uses of drama, dance, narrative, bibliotherapy and scriptotherapy, music, art, and digital technologies
~ Vicarious traumatisation, secondary stress, and compassion fatigue
~ From person to survivor – perspectives of change

4. Theorising Trauma
~ Trauma and post colonialism
~ Memory
~ National identity
~ Trauma studies
~ Individual versus collective trauma
~ Socio-cultural perspectives on traumatic experience
~ Gender
~ The body from the inside and out
~ Psychic trauma

5. Representing Trauma
~ Affect, trauma, and art
~ Trauma on stage, screen, and in cyberspace
~ Traumatic expression
~ Media images: reality and fiction
~ Literature and poetry
~ Eyewitness testimony
~ Gaming and violence
~ New technologies
~ Reporting on trauma
~ Aesthetics and experience
~ Fear and horror
~ Otherness, spirituality, and trauma

What to Send

The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 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: Trauma 3 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 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

Peter Bray 

Rob Fisher

The conference is part of the ‘At the Interface’ 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.

CFP: Football and Communities Across Codes

Monday 4th February – Wednesday 6th February 2013

Sydney, Australia

Call for Presentation:

The word “football” conjures up images of very different types of games depending on where one happens to be in the world. But no matter whether players kick a goal, score a try, or score a touchdown on the field, each football code is underpinned by the dynamic interplay between clubs, players, governing institutions, fan communities, individual supporters and the broader social context in which they exist. The resulting relationships are characterised by complexity, conflict, controversy, commodification, and the perhaps most importantly, the (in)constancy of fans. The Global Project on Football and Communities aims to produce a more robust understanding of those dynamics by bringing together scholars, practitioners, fans and other members of sporting communities at the Communities Across Codes conference event in Sydney, Australia. The Antipodean location offers a prime opportunity to explore the dynamics of community with reference to the local codes of football: soccer, Aussie Rules Football, rugby league (NRL) and rugby union. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

From the local to the global – impact of sporting communities?
What is the changing nature of supporter demographics and fan culture?
Branding and marketing – is it all about global expansion?
How are clubs and their supporters engaging with equality and diversity?
What strategies are clubs deployed for engaging with their communities?
How traditional and new media technologies are shaping communities/how communities are shaping media technologies
To what extent do clubs contribute to urban and economic development within local communities?
How can football play a role in community building in terms of social cohesion and circumstances involving peace and conflict?
What sorts of communities are fostered by football—real, virtual, imagined, concepts of authenticity?
How are football communities understood and represented in media, film, television, literature, drama?
How are football communities represented in the press and news media?
How have the dynamics of football communities changed across historical and cultural contexts?
What might the future of football and community look like?

In order to facilitate inter-, cross- and multi-disciplinary dialogue, we welcome proposals for talks, academic papers, workshops, panel debates, fan community and practitioner interactions, performances, and exhibitions of creative work with a view to providing a platform for discussion and an opportunity to build a knowledge base in the field of sports and communities.

The Global Project on Football and Communities is a joint research project between Inter-Disciplinary.Net and the Manchester Metropolitan University (UK) Football Cluster.

Abstracts and proposals not exceeding 300 words should be submitted jointly to the Organising Chairs by Friday 14th September 2012. Submissions 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.
E-mails should be entitled: FCAC 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 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

Deirdre Hynes, Annabel Kiernan, Steve Millington
Football Cluster, Manchester Metropolitan University

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. 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 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: Time, Space and Body

Monday 11th February – Wednesday 13th February 2013

Sydney, Australia

Call for Presentations:

While the categories of space and time have been ways of understanding and analysing humanity, the body has often been an ‘absent presence’ (Shilling, 2003). Moreover, in shaping a ‘natural’ attitude about our existence we have been preoccupied with the role of the mind. We have tended to organise our perception of the world by dividing not only the ability to acquire knowledge away from bodily awareness but also the embodied lived being away from its death. This form of organising knowledge acquisition tends to hide the multi-faceted nature of space, time and the body as it is ‘suspended in webs of significance’ (Geertz, 1973). However, by observing humans existence and interaction within these ‘webs’ it becomes apparent that societies consist of people who are embodied, ‘enselved’ and constantly participating in interactive rituals in time and space which include, for example, forms of power, inspiration and elimination. These rituals, be they individualised or participatory, can be explored within specific tasks. As Turner (2004:38) argues ‘every society is confronted by four tasks: the reproduction of populations in time, the regulation of bodies in space, the restraint of the interior body through disciplines and the representation of the exterior body in social space.’

This new conference project focuses on inter- and multi-disciplinary discussion and seeks to explore these tasks in order to open up a dialogue about the beliefs, representations and socio-political practices, of space, time and the body. We encourage presenters to use their own research interests as the foundation to explore inter-connections between their topic and its relationship(s) with time, space and/or the body. We are not expecting papers from experts in all three areas of space, time and the body, but presenters will be expected to discuss how their research relates to at least two out of the three ways of understanding humanity. We seek submissions from a range of disciplines including social geography and anthropology, literary studies, religious studies, archaeology, media and audience studies, architecture and planning, the visual and creative arts, classics and philosophy, social and natural sciences, business studies and politics.

Recognising that different disciplines express themselves in different mediums, we welcome traditional papers, workshop proposals and other forms of performance (as can be accommodated in the space provided). Submissions are sought on different aspects and/or relationships between any combination of space, time or the body or on how space and time are constructed in order to affect, effect, order and/or control the body or vice versa.

Topics could include, but are not limited to:

Cyclical, spiral, dreamtime, memory or linear time and its relation to space and the body
Representations of time, space and the body in popular culture, literature, art and language
How changing attitudes to time, space or the body effect attitudes toward pain, death, suffering, religion, family, gender, sexuality, disability or fashion
Non-human bodies in space and time
The ‘body politic’ or the political body in space and time
Time, ‘performativity’ and identity
Technology and futurology
Time and the spatiality of movement
Monstrosity in space and the body
Body modification and maintenance: past, present and future
Architecture: its adaption to changing attitudes towards the embodiment of time
City planning and change over time or terrain
Time and Space as Everyday Life
Film, theatre and TV: music and mis-en-scene in relation to time and/or space
Language and embodied/disembodied characters in novels, films, theatre and TV
Working and/or power relations in time and space
Space, time and the body in computer games
Altered consciousness, spirituality and ritual
Indigenous cultures and cosmologies of space, time and the body
The impact of space and time upon the body
Monetising/economics of production between time, space and body
Legislative/legal constructions as related to time, space, body

We actively encourage participation from practitioners and non-academics with an interest in the topic as well as pre-formed three paper panels.

What to Send:

300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs by 14th September 2012; 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.

E-mails should be entitled: TS+B1 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 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

Shona Hill and Shilinka Hill

Rob Fisher

The conference is part of the making Sense Of: 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.

CFP: 3rd Global Conference: Spirituality in the 21st Century

Thursday 7th March – Saturday 9th March 2013

Lisbon, Portugal

Call for Presentations:

The contemporary study of spirituality encompasses a wide range of interests. These have come not only from the more traditional areas of religious scholarship — theology, philosophy of religion, history of religion, comparative religion, mysticism — but also more recently from management, medicine, and many other fields.

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to expand the range of ideas, fields, and locales of Spiritual work for the 3rd Global Conference. Perspectives are sought from those engaged in the fields of Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation, Business, Counseling, Ecology, Education, Healing, History, Management, Mass/Organisational/Speech Communication, Medicine, Nursing, Performance Studies, Philosophy, Psychiatry, Psychology, Reconciliation/Refugee/Resettlement Projects, Social Work, and Theatre. These disciplines are indicative only, as papers are welcomed from any area, profession and/or vocation in which Spirituality plays a part.

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

Conceptualizations of Spirituality
Social and/or Cultural Aspects of Spirituality
History(ies) of Spirituality
Interpreting elements and examples of Spirituality
The Liminal elements and facets of Spirituality
Research and/or Pedagogical Approaches to Spiritual Work
Social and cultural aspects of Spirituality
Spirituality and Children
Spirituality in Education, Curriculum Development and/or Pedagogy
Spirituality Compassion and Reconciliation
Spirituality and Cultural Identity
Spirituality and Healing
Spirituality and Addiction, Health Care, Medicine, and/or Nursing
Spirituality in Counseling, Healing, Hospice Care, Psychology, Psychiatry, Social Work, Therapy and/or Wellbeing
Spiritual and Ecological Maintenance of Health and Life of Human Beings
Spirituality as Therapy
Development of Personality as a Process of Spirit Creation
Cultural Expressions of Spirituality via Art, Dance, Film, the Internet, Literature, Music, Radio, Television and/or Theatre
Spirituality and Communication
Spirituality and the Environment
Spirituality in Business and/or Management
Spirituality and Gaia
Teaching Spirituality
Theology and Spirituality – use and/or abuse
Teleology and Spirituality
Comparisons and/or Contrasts between Spiritual Theory, Praxis and Pedagogy

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Presentations, Papers and performances will be considered on any related theme.

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: S21-3 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 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

John L. Hochheimer 

Rob Fisher 

The conference is part of the Ethos 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.

CFP: 1st Global Conference: Hollywood and the World

Thursday 7th February – Saturday 9th February 2013

Sydney, Australia

Call for Presentations:

The popularity in Western culture of all things Hollywood reflects the eternal fascination with the world of Hollywood cinema. This inter-disciplinary research conference seeks to explore issues of Hollywood films and their international influence across historical periods and within cultural, political and social contexts both in the US and abroad. We are also interested in exploring this cinema in personal experience and interpersonal relationships and across a range of critical perspectives.

Seeking to encourage innovative inter-, multi- and post-disciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers from all disciplines, professions and vocations which illustrate both traditional and newer, under-explored directions into which the Hollywood film extends from its beginnings to contemporary offerings in North America and internationally. Potential categories include but are not limited to:

Presentations, performances, papers, art-pieces, workshops, and pre-formed panels are invited on any of the following themes:

● Silent cinema

● Hollywood history

● The major and minor studios

● Representations of minorities and ethnicities

● The Golden Era of Hollywood from 1930 to 1960

● Hollywood/International remakes and adaptations

● International Actors/Directors/Writers/Producers in Hollywood

● International co-productions

● Technologies

● Star studies

● Wartime cinema and propaganda

● American ideologies in Hollywood cinema

● Genre studies

● The rise of independent cinema

● Production histories

● Advertising, media representations and manipulations, and product licensure

● The 1940s ‘Red Scare,’ HUAC, and the blacklist

● Gender limitations, expectations, and liminalities

● LGBT representations

● Mise-en-scene in Hollywood films (to include music, art direction, costuming, etc.)

● Cinematography/cinematographers

● Red carpet fashion

● Economics of filmmaking (including but not limited to international/foreign trade agreements, quotas, tariffs, and historical elements such as vertical integration, distribution monopolies, etc.)

● Legal frameworks

● Hollywood’s visions of the world vs. the world’s visions of Hollywood

● Historical representations and reconfigurations

● Hollywood as simulacra

● Hollywood and tourism

● Hollywood and politics

● Hollywood and scandal, gossip, and resultant media

● Regulation and censorship

● Hollywood and nostalgia (i.e. recollections and representations)

Please note that presentations that deal with related themes will also be considered.

What to Send: 300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs by Friday 14th September 2012; 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.

E-mails should be entitled: HW1 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 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

Victoria Amador.

Rob Fisher.

The conference is part of the Diversity and Recognition 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.

CFP: 2nd Global Conference: Queer Sexualities

Monday 11th February – Wednesday 13th February 2013

Sydney, Australia

Call for Presentations:

Following the success of the inaugural conference for this project, we are pleased to announce a second conference, to be held in Sydney in February 2013. Our first conference saw global representation from a variety of areas of study, including sociological studies, queer literary studies, queer art, music, performativity and identity. This conference aims to extend that interdisciplinary dialogue and gather voices from underrepresented areas of the globe. 20 years since the reclamation of the word ‘queer’ by the LGBTQIA community, this conference would like to take a closer look at broad themes of queer sexualities through time and space, non-normative sexual constructions, and queer sexual identities from a diverse range of perspectives by scholars working in various academic disciplines. Yet our meaning of the word queer is not limited to non-mainstream sexuality, as we opt for inclusion of ‘unusual’ heterosexual practices into the ‘queer domain’ in order not to discriminate but understand, include and accept.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on any aspect of Queer or LGBTQIA Studies, including issues related to the following themes:

1. Queer space, place, time and visibility: queer geographies, queer spaces, queer places, queer venues, queering institutions, queering language practices, occupation of space, heteronormative practice in space/place, queer globalization, queer futurity, queer temporalities

2. Queer being and identities: LGBTQIA identities, queer bodies, queer embodiment, queering age, queer intersectionality, queer race, queer class, queer disability, queer performativity, queer subjectivity, queer bioethics

3. Queer emotions and feelings: queer families, queer bonds/bonding/legacies, LGBTIQIA parenting, public vs. private feelings, affective economies

4. Queer theories and theoretical approaches: queer theory, gender studies, straight queer theory, sexuality studies, disability studies, queer postcolonial theory, queer ecocriticism, queer critical whiteness studies, queer race studies, queer multiculturalism, queering ethnicities, queer epistemologies, queer pedagogies, etc.

5. Queer Arts: queer art, queer architecture, queer media, queer film, queer TV, queerotica/queerporn, queer music, queer performances (not performativity), queer literature, queer speech/language/linguistics, queering museums/galleries/archives

6. Queer histories and social scientific studies: history, historiography, historical shapings of queer, queer shaping of history, queering history, queer sociological and anthropological studies, queering religion, etc.

7. Queer politics and crisis: Movements, activism, advocacy, politics, emancipation, pride, liberation, queer hate, oppressive queer societies and states, queer social reform, homonationalism, biopolitics, queer secularity, queering ethics, queertopias, politics of gender, representations and resistances of non-normative corporeality

The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers and presentations will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted by Friday 14th September 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper, if appropriate, should be submitted by Friday 23rd November 2012.

What to Send:

300 word abstracts or presentation proposals 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.

E-mails should be entitled: QS2 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 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 Anne-Marie Cook and Rob Fisher.

Gregory Luke Chwala.

The conference is part of the At the Interface 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.

CFP: 1st Global Conference: Digital Interfaces: Creative Industries and Arts

Monday 4th February – Wednesday 6th February 2013
Sydney, Australia

Call for Presentations:

This project approaches videogames from a multi-, inter- and cross-disciplinary perspective that seeks to blend theoretical discussions with concerns of the industry in order to benefit both groups. We therefore welcome papers that explore how games work in society, how they are made, how they are analysed and discussed and current industrial trends. More importantly, because these concepts are often discussed separately, this is an opportunity to examine interrelationships and improve understanding of games across the board. It is of great importance for the industry to contribute to the development of games education just as it is important for the growing education sector to be more informed about production and industry practices.

Presentations, papers, performances and artworks are called for, but not limited to, the following themes:

The Games Themselves

Game studies of the games themselves, this track invites analysis and criticism of videogames as texts, games and cultural objects. Current analyses that reflect the progress made in modern game studies over the past few years could focus on, but not be limited to, the following topics:

Videogame theory, analysis, criticism
Art, fiction, story, literature writing etc.
Music audio and performance (voice, physical mo-cap etc.)

Videogames in the World

This track invites discussion of the videogames in a cultural context.

How are videogames integrated in the world? How are videogames represented in wider society?

Where are they discussed?
By whom and in what terms?
What is their relationship to other media?
Games in society, game culture
Videogames media & journalism, rhetoric and politics of/around games
Player relationships and communities
"Serious" games, instructive, educational and training games

Production of Games

There are growing opportunities for game production non-entertainment fields, such as education, science, health and engineering.

This track seeks to expand the discussion of Videogames beyond the entertainment market and promote closer alignment between commercial practicalities and academic concerns.

We invite practitioners, artists, professionals, developers and educators to share their experiences.
Works in progress, post-mortems
Linkage diaries: academia, industry and independent projects, models, experiments etc.
Approaches, methods and practices
Technology, programming, design, innovations
Performance notes (as above, music, voice, physical etc.)

The Creative Industry

The videogames industry is a creative industry, full of unique opportunities and constraints. This track invites discussions of game development in the real world, and especially in Australia.

How can great game designs become great games that players can buy?
What opportunities exist in Australia that could be capitalised on?
Where are there obstacles that could be avoided?
What is the global context in which the Australian game industry finds itself?

Business models, practice and progress

Games Marketing and Gamers as a market
Intellectual Property
Showcase and/or Workshops
We welcome: Games for exhibition
Workshops in design, analysis and production

What to Send:

300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs by Friday 14th September 2012; 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.

E-mails should be entitled: DI1 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 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:

Adam Ruch. 

Rob Fisher. 

The conference is part of the Ethos 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.

CFP: 1st Global Conference: Travel: Practice, Process & Product

Wednesday 30th January – Friday 1st February 2013
Sydney, Australia

Call for Presentations:

Having become an integral component of many countries GDP and a means of employment for numerous communities and a point of concern regarding social and environmental issues, the concepts of travel and tourism have become a serious focus of discussion across numerous disciplines. Questions regarding ‘what is travel, what does it mean to travel, why we travel and how we travel?’ have become a central core of this discussion. However, the notion of travel is not a new phenomenon. Historically, the human race has traveled for a myriad of specific purpose often related to simply ‘seeing what was over the next hill.’ Other historical aspects also included changing living conditions, a sense of adventure or expansion of domains. While these aspects still exist, new motivational factors have arisen such changing working conditions, business, pleasure, relief or aid work, the need to understand new cultures, religious or spiritual pilgrimages, personal or familial responsibilities, educational opportunities and economic advancement or refuge from oppressive political governments. All of these aspects have generated research and practitioner related discussion on numerous specific areas including the travel industry, internet, adventure tourism, travel writing, town planning, history of travel, photography of place and space, transportation, environmental science and sustainability, diasporas, advertising, space travel, hotel design, religious studies of iconic spaces, spirituality, cognitive science, architecture, philosophy, business, business leadership and management, educational travel and management, outdoor education, adventure therapy, school based education and. sociology. While many see Alvin Toffler’s concept of ‘future shock’ as the catalyst for serious research, when he stated that our desire for travel is a form of reaction to the pressures of modernity, the notion of travel also affords people the opportunity to connect their present to a past not fully understood, and has most certainly become an increasing area of interdisciplinary need for academics and practitioners across the globe. Given the economic, environmental, physiological, psychological and socio-emotional concerns and pressures humans face in this current era, this project seeks to give research and practical voice to an important aspect of global concern.

Presentations can deal with any of the previous travel elements, but are not limited to these focal areas. Other questions and points are more than welcomed, as well as answers to questions such as:

What are the historical constructs of travel?
Where and when did travel start?
How do specific disciplines define ‘travel’?
Why do we travel?
What is the nature of ‘travel’ within specific cultures, or across cultures?
What impact does travel have on diverse environments around the globe?
What is the impact of tourism on specific cultures and societies?
How does travel impact on the social, emotional or physical health of travelers?
Does travel create health and wellbeing concerns?
How are governments at all levels dealing with the rapid growth of the travel industry?
Where, why and how did the 21st century’s concept of ‘travel’ start?
Why does our current notion of travel exist?
What does the future hold for travel?
How does travel writing parallel the actual notion of travel?
Why has travel writing become such a popular form of reading?
How does the backpacker industry fit into the travel industry?
What are the benefits and concerns of the backpacker industry?
What are the theoretical bases for travel?
Where does travel fit into the concept of “travel” at the personal, local and national levels?
Is travel a ‘spiritual’ endeavor?
What is the intersection between cognitive, psychological and psychological areas as they relate to travel?
Where does ‘self, and the notion of identity fit with the idea of traveling?

What to Send:

300 word abstracts or presentation proposals should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs by 14th September 2012; 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.

E-mails should be entitled: TRAVEL 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 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.

The conference is part of the Diversity and Recognition 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.

MonsterLibrarian Press Release: July is Monster Movie Month!

Monster Librarian
166 Harrowgate Drive
Camel, IN 46033



July 1 will mark the beginning of Monster Movie Month at MonsterLibrarian.com. Monster Movie Month will celebrate the connections between books and movies in the horror genre. The site will offer lists of movies horror fiction lovers might enjoy, reviews, and suggestions for readers advisory and marketing horror in the library. Our blog, Musings of the Monster Librarian, will cover related topics and offer guest posts, including a contribution from Becky Siegel Spratford, author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror Fiction. Come visit to find out what the horror genre has to offer readers and libraries this July at MonsterLibrarian.com!

Visit the Monster Movie Month page and the Musings of the Monster Librarian blog.


About MonsterLibrarian.com: MonsterLibrarian.com is a review website for horror fiction dedicated to helping librarians in collection development and readers advisory in the horror genre and helping horror readers find another good book to read since 2005.

For more information on MonsterLibrarian.com, contact Dylan and Kirsten Kowalewski. 

OUT NOW: Wolf-Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny

lycogyny, n., the assumption by women of the form and nature of wolves

New title from Hic Dragones, edited by Hannah Kate
Price: £8.99

Feral, vicious, fierce and lost… the she-wolf is a strange creature of the night. Attractive to some; repulsive to others, she stalks the fringes of our world as though it were her prey. She is the baddest of girls, the fatalest of femmes – but she is also the excluded, the abject, the monster.

The Wolf-Girls within these pages are mad, bad and dangerous to know. But they are also rejected and tortured, loving and loyal, avenging and triumphant. Some of them are even human…

Seventeen new tales of dark, snarling lycogyny by Nu Yang, Mary Borsellino, Lyn Lockwood, Mihaela Nicolescu, L. Lark, Jeanette Greaves, Kim Bannerman, Lynsey May, Hannah Kate, J. K. Coi, Rosie Garland, R. A. Martens, Beth Daley, Marie Cruz, Helen Cross, Andrew Quinton and Sarah Peacock.

To order, please go to the Hic Dragones website. 

For more information, please contact the publisher.

Call for Submissions: Impossible Spaces...

and the things we find there.

Submissions wanted for a new anthology of short stories set in impossible spaces. From the conceptual impossibilities of China Mièville’s worlds, to the ludic illogicality of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, the retro-futurism of steampunk and the Kafka-esque repetitions and restrictions of dystopia – we love fiction set in places that could not (or should not) be. We’re looking for new and established writers to contribute dark and weird fiction for a new collection of stories set in places that bend the mind.

Editor: Hannah Kate
Publisher: Hic Dragones

What we want: Edgy, dark and weird fiction. While setting is very important, we’re also looking for compelling characters and original plots. Any interpretation of the theme is welcome – and we have no preconceptions about what ‘place’ and ‘space’ might mean. Any genre considered: dark fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, sci fi, steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk, dystopian, slipstream. We’re looking for original and fresh voices, that challenge and unsettle. (And, please remember, we do not publish misogyny, misandry, homophobia, transphobia or racism.)

Word Count: 3000-7000

Submission Guidelines: Electronic submissions as .doc, .docx or .rtf attachments only. 12pt font, 1.5 or double spaced. Please ensure name, title and email address are included on the attachment. Email submissions to the editor. Submissions are welcome from anywhere, but must be in English.

Submission Deadline: Thursday 13th December 2012

Payment: 1 contributor copy (how we wish it could be more… and one day, perhaps, it will be!)

For more information, visit the Hic Dragones website or email the editor.

CFP: Cannibals: Cannibalism, Consumption and Culture

25-26 April 2013
Manchester, United Kingdom

From contemporary horror film to medieval Eucharistic devotions, from Freudian theory to science fiction, cannibals and cannibalism continue to repel and intrigue us in equal measure. This two-day interdisciplinary conference will explore humanity’s relationships with, and attitudes towards, cannibalism, whether fascination, horror or purely practical considerations.

Papers are sought from all disciplines, including but not limited to literature, film studies, history, anthropology, archaeology, psychology and medicine.

Call for Papers:

Proposals are sought for 20 minute papers. Possible topics may include:

• Cannibalism in popular culture
• Cannibalism as cultural metaphor
• Theorizations of cannibalism
• Taboos, socialization and psychoanalysis
• Survival and necessity
• Maternal infanticide
• Vampires, werewolves and zombies – a question of species?
• Eating the enemy
• Rites, rituals and sacrifice
• Serial killers (in life and in fiction)

Please send 300 word abstracts to the conference convenors by 31st December 2012.

For more information, please see the conference website.