Review: S.J. Bell, Bonds of Fenris (S.J. Bell, 2012)

This is the second of four reviews of recent female werewolf fiction. You can read the others here:

Part 1: Catherine Lundoff, Silver Moon

Part 3: Allison Moon, Lunatic Fringe

Part 4: L.L. Raand, The Midnight Hunt

Bonds of Fenris is a self-published novel by S.J. Bell. It tells the story of Talia Thornwood, a young woman who has recently been ‘infected’ with lycanthropy and is seeking a way of coming to terms with her new life. She lives with her ‘pack’ – Bo, Leroy, Pierce and Marlene, also young ‘infected’ werewolves – and meets Corwin, a werewolf who can apparently control his lycanthropic side. Talia, keen to be free of her ‘wolf’ and her uncontrollable, bestial transformation at each full moon, allows Corwin to mentor her and teach her more about what it means to be a werewolf.

The novel’s plot falls into two distinct halves – the first being Talia’s life with the ‘pack’ in their “rental on the edge of the woods” (p. 6). The young werewolves squabble amongst themselves, hunt on a monthly basis and try to hold down jobs and go to college. This section of the book was by far the stronger part and had real potential for development. However, tragedy strikes and (to coin a hackneyed phrase), life will never be the same for Talia and her friends.

It’s at this point that the narrator seeks assistance from the mysterious werewolf Corwin, who has apparently found a way to overcome the involuntary transformation occasioned by a full moon. He and Talia retreat to a cabin in the woods, so that he can teach her the important lessons of control that a werewolf must learn.

Sadly, the book loses its momentum at this point. As Corwin begins to mentor Talia, the narrative becomes very exposition-heavy, and the final revelation of what Talia must learn is pretty obvious from the start (if you have read much recent werewolf fiction), meaning that the ‘lessons’ feel overly-dramatic and onerous. I was left unsure as to why Corwin felt the need to put Talia through such an ordeal, and why she submitted so readily.

For fans of werewolf fiction, though, this book has a lot to recommend it. The werewolves are of a recognizable late twentieth-/early twenty-first-century type – infected by a bite from another werewolf, controlled by the full moon, subject to bone-popping, painful metamorphosis, and filled with angst and remorse at what their ‘wolf’ does. Like much recent werewolf fiction, there is a lot of discussion of control, balance and harmony, and lots of reference to two beings inhabiting one skin; however, though the title misleadingly suggests some connection with Northern European legend, the successful werewolf must actually embrace teachings more reminiscent of Eastern philosophy.

There are some interesting passages early in the novel, and some particularly poignant examples of the young ‘pack’ trying to integrate themselves into ‘human’ society – using peppermint soaked rags to disguise the smell of human flesh, for instance. Unfortunately, though, the book suffers from the (sadly) typical under-editing of a self-published novel, and never quite lives up to the potential of its idea.

Characterization, in particular, is a weakness. The protagonist, Talia, is not convincing. Her submission to the males around her was a source of frustration to me throughout the book. One early example sees her in an argument with Marlene, the other female member of the pack. This is interrupted by Leroy who says: “Girls, girls […] Chill out, okay?” Rather than react or respond to this patronizing tone, Talia (the first-person narrator) describes him as speaking “diplomatically” (p. 9). Elsewhere, Talia is the victim of physical assault by Pierce (who wants to have sex with her) and intense emotional blackmail by Bo (who also wants to have sex with her). Her reaction to both is to lock herself in her bedroom and decide that the men might have a point and muse on whether or not she should sleep with one of them. Not only is this an unusual reaction for a woman, it is almost completely unheard of for a female werewolf – the tradition of ‘she-wolves’ avenging sexual assault is a long one, but, seemingly, not one to which Talia belongs.

As a side note, I would also say that small, frustrating details seem to undermine Talia’s presentation. For instance, though she is apparently twenty-one, she uses a mobile phone that is a “beaten-up relic of the late 1990s” (p. 28) (i.e. she is still using the same phone that she had when she was seven). I don’t wish to come across as being pedantic or overly critical, but rather to offer an example of under-editing that had an impact on character. A robust critique prior to publication would have tidied up these minor inconsistencies.

Perhaps (and I always like to be self-aware in my reviews), this is also down to my own tastes. Talia was a little too submissive and hopeful for my liking. I like my female werewolves in the mould of Emson’s Laura Greenacre or Miller’s Kalix MacRinnalch. Hell – I think Leah Clearwater was Meyer’s finest creation, and was genuinely pleased when she ended the Twilight series still brooding, angry and isolated. As a result, I was much more drawn to Bell’s grumpy, intellectual Marlene than Talia, and would love to see this character developed further in future books. I think my favourite part of Bonds of Fenris was when Marlene explained just how stupid Corwin’s lessons were!

For a self-published, debut novel, Bonds of Fenris is a decent read. It is certainly head and shoulders above some self-published works.* There are few grammatical or spelling errors, and the paragraphing and chapter divisions are well done. This indicates to me that Bell is a proficient writer who is in the process of developing his craft – and I will look forward to seeing this development as he progresses. I wouldn’t normally bring what I know of authors personally to a review, but I have to admit that I know Bell is a huge werewolf fan, and I think this enthusiasm shows in his writing. Bonds of Fenris is a book about getting to know werewolves from the inside out, and Bell’s strong knowledge and passion for all things lycanthropic give him a good starting point for this.

In conclusion, then, Bonds of Fenris is a recommendation for werewolf fans. It is the work of a novelist at the start of his career, and there are some teething problems, but it will definitely appeal to fans of the lycanthropic, and I will certainly look forward to seeing where he goes in his next book.

For more information about Bonds of Fenris, please see S.J. Bell’s website.

Part 1: Catherine Lundoff, Silver Moon

Part 3: Allison Moon, Lunatic Fringe

Part 4: L.L. Raand, The Midnight Hunt

*Please don’t take this the wrong way – I really, really want to like self-published novels, and always approach them with optimism and an open mind. However, I am inundated with books for review that were published way before they were ready, and it’s weakening my resolve a little.

Review: Catherine Lundoff, Silver Moon (Lethe Press, 2012)

Since I haven’t reviewed any female werewolf fiction for a while, I thought I would do a bumper quadruple review today. This is Part 1, but you can also read:

Part 2: S.J. Bell, Bonds of Fenris

Part 3: Allison Moon, Lunatic Fringe

Part 4: L.L. Raand, The Midnight Hunt

I’ll start, though, with Catherine Lundoff’s recent title, Silver Moon.

Published by Lethe Press, Silver Moon promises to be the first in a new series, and tells the story of the werewolves of Wolf Point – a small US town. The main character, Becca Thornton, discovers that she is becoming a werewolf, that many of her neighbours are also werewolves, and that their town is under threat from hunters.

While this may sound fairly standard lycanthropic fare, Lundoff’s book offers an interesting twist on the formula. In fact, it was the unusual concept that drew me to the book in the first place.

Becca Thornton is not a teenaged girl going through puberty, nor has she recently been bitten. She is a middle-aged women going through the menopause. The book starts with her experiencing a hot flash, and other changes follow… but not all of her symptoms can be so easily explained. She discovers that she is also becoming a werewolf. For Becca, then, the change really is the change. As she says herself “some days it was hard to say which change was worse”. (p. 83)

I really enjoyed this idea. When you read as much female werewolf fiction as I do, the lycanthropy = puberty metaphor gets old really quickly. Lundoff’s menopausal werewolves were a really refreshing change. More than this, the book is a paranormal romance/adventure – a genre that rarely places middle-aged women on centre stage. If anything, Lundoff’s creations seemed to make more sense than teenaged werewolves. Her descriptions of lycanthropy (which are not so dissimilar to those found in other werewolf texts) seemed to resonate more clearly with menopause than with menarche:

“Despite her fears, she could feel that same wildness building in her. Something was clawing its way to the surface inside her, racing beneath her skin and preparing to break through. She wanted to run and hunt and feel the wind outside. It made her impatient and her feet and hands tapped the floor and the chair in time to her pulse.” (p. 24)

So an A+ to Lundoff for concept – but how is the execution?

The book’s plot revolves around Becca’s transformation into a werewolf, and the revelation that Wolf Point has long been protected by a band of female werewolves – all ‘women of a certain age’. There is some indication that the town’s foundation was the result of a mingling of Native traditions and the magic of white colonizers. It’s a somewhat utopian fantasy of the best of both worlds, but it allows for a mixing of European werewolf traditions and shamanistic magic without too much jarring.

After discovering her lupine/earth magic heritage, Becca also finds that Wolf Point is under threat from a group of hunters, who are both aware of, and hostile to, the werewolf presence in the town. She must work with her fellow she-wolves to keep the town safe from these interlopers.

Without revealing too much about the plot, the arrival of these hunters stirs up old tensions and rivalries. The promise of a ‘cure’ to werewolfism is given, and Becca finds herself playing a dangerous game, never totally sure who she can trust.

The plot, in this respect, was reasonably engrossing. My investment in the central characters (and more on that in a moment) was strong enough for me to care about what happened to them. However, I didn’t feel the same engagement with the ‘villains’, and, in one case in particular, this was a shame. I felt that I could’ve done with more of them, to heighten the complexity of the choices Becca had to make. As it was, there never seemed to be any real suggestion that Becca would turn her back on the ‘pack’, and I would’ve liked a little more uncertainty here.

The final climactic showdown, too, was something of a disappointment. This is not because of what happened, but rather because it didn’t feel pacy enough. The strength of this novel lies in its characters, but the denouement is led more by the ritual they enact, and I felt it dragged a little. I would’ve liked it to be tighter – and possibly shorter. [Self-aware disclaimer] The shamanistic ‘earth magic’ element added to a lot of (mostly North American) werewolf fiction is not generally to my taste, so this criticism says as much about me as a reader as Lundoff as a writer.

Nevertheless, the book as a whole had me gripped, and this was down to Lundoff’s creation of character. Becca Thornton is engaging and likable. Though her relationship with her ex-husband – who has left her for a younger women, and now wants to sell their house to provide for his new family – threatened to become a bit ‘First Wives Club’, Lundoff’s writing avoids descending into cliché.

Perhaps my favourite aspect of the book was Becca’s blossoming relationship with her neighbour Erin, which was sweet and tender, but also believable. Becca finds herself attracted to her neighbour – an out lesbian – but doubts the basis for her feelings. With a light touch, Lundoff has her character muse on whether her attraction has been occasioned by her being menopausal, being a werewolf or being a lesbian. Her confusion and awkwardness is nicely summed up by Becca: “She tried to remember everything she’d ever seen about coming out on Oprah while a tiny voice inside screamed Not that too!” (p. 74)

Like the wolf ‘alpha’, Shelly, Erin is a well-drawn character. As I noted above, it is rare to get one middle-aged woman in a novel of this genre, let alone a sympathetic love interest and a strong supporting cast as well. I enjoyed the slow development of Erin and Becca’s relationship, and look forward to seeing more of this in the subsequent books in the series. I would have liked more of Shelly – I am always drawn to well-written and conflicted female ‘alphas’ – and I hope she will continue to play a role in future books.

All in all, then, this is a strong recommendation. The concept is great – and a real antidote to all those adolescent she-wolves – and the writing, on the whole, is very strong. I will certainly be looking forward to future Women of Wolf Point books. And if the series lives up to its strong start, Becca Thornton will be high on my list of favourite female werewolves.

[Without wanting to be too self-promoting here, if you’re interested in the rise of the menopausal she-wolf, Helen Cross’s story ‘Fur’, in the Wolf-Girls anthology also uses this premise… though it is a quite different tale to Lundoff’s. Cross has written a blog post on female monsters and the menopause on the Playing God with Monsters blog.]

For more information about Silver Moon, please visit Catherine Lundoff’s website.

My female werewolf fiction reviews continue...

Part 2: S.J. Bell, Bonds of Fenris

Part 3: Allison Moon, Lunatic Fringe

Part 4: L.L. Raand, The Midnight Hunt

GUEST POST: J.K. Coi and Sarah Peacock on Wolf-Girls

Wolf-Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny is a new collection of short stories about female werewolves. Edited by Hannah Kate and published by Hic Dragones, this collection features seventeen new stories about dark, dangerous and (above all) female lycanthropy.

As part of the Wolf-Girls Blog Tour, I'm happy to host a joint guest post from two of the writers, J.K. Coi and Sarah Peacock, who talk about their experiences of writing female werewolf fiction...

JK Coi is the author of 'Run Wolf' — part of Wolf Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny, and the award-winning author of more than a dozen novels and short stories about dark, epically tortured characters. She also writes dark fantasy for young adults as Chloe Jacobs.

'Run Wolf' is a short story about a young female werewolf who’s been forced into the fight of her life. Kill or be killed, wolf. What’s it going to be? That’s the voice in her head, the one that won’t let up, won’t set her free, not until the sick humans’ game is over. Except that… the game is never going to be over.

I enjoyed writing this story so much, I still can’t get Gwen out of my head. Her strength and determination have inspired a greater storyline that I’m excited to start writing about soon.

But what is it that makes her such a compelling character? Why are werewolves so fascinating in fiction right now, and female werewolves in particular? Well, I think the great thing about seeing more books featuring female wolf protagonists is the fact that it’s fairly new and fresh. Sure, werewolves have been around about as long as vampires, but they’re usually male. Not all, but predominantly. And why is that? Because like vampires, werewolves are traditionally dark characters with lots of brooding badassery and baggage.

Personally, I would love to see more female werewolf characters. I think it’s about time that readers experienced strength and power from a female perspective! And you know what, I think the authors in Wolf Girls are the perfect ones to start writing those books!

Sarah Peacock's contribution to the collection is entitled 'Exiled'. Having a degree in Archaeology and Pre-history, Sarah now divides her time between writing and looking after her children. Fascinated by traditional tales of the supernatural, ‘Exiled’ was inspired by the mention of ‘cú glas’ (grey wolf) in the Ulster Cycle to describe a person wholly without ties, a foreigner, or someone who doesn’t belong.

In 'Exiled', Cassie isn't your normal everyday werewolf. But then again, I don't suppose any of the lycanthropes in 'Wolf Girls' are. For a start, they're all female. For me, the concept behind a woman transforming or becoming a werewolf is such a fascinating one to explore and one that I really enjoyed writing about.

The first time I came across a female werewolf was in the film 'Ginger Snaps' which portrays female lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty and female sexuality. I love this film; it's one of only a few films that I can watch over and over again. The women as werewolves are strong but remain human in many ways - it says so much about being female.

In 'Exiled', Cassie's transformation is psychological. She becomes a werewolf as she discovers her own strength, finds her own voice in a culture that expects women to behave and look a certain way. As a result she becomes an outsider, she doesn't follow other's expectations and she becomes 'Cǔ Glas' – Grey Wolf. I first came across the idea of the grey wolf in an 11th Century Latin poem – I was researching a novel at the time and looking into Iron age customs and traditions. In the poem 'De Mirabulis Hiberniae' it talks about how those outlawed from the tribe would assume the form of a wolf. This is also mentioned in the stories of Cu Chulainn.

Cassie's story essentially developed from that idea. It was, at first, just a scribbled note in my journal.

The story takes the theme of not belonging and explores what happens when Cassie begins refuses to fit in with the small minded expectations that the people around her have. Her anger is unleashed and so she becomes an outsider. In our culture, Women aren't supposed to get angry and there is an extra special stigma reserved for women who are violent or kill. They are seen as the worst of the worst – a far cry from their idealised roles as care givers and nurturers.

One thing that springs to mind is that Cassie's transformation is not clear – does she change purely because she finds her voice or was the potential for turning there already? I quite like that ambiguity.

What is refreshing about the stories in Wolf Girls is that they explore these themes and more. Female lycanthropy has, at times, been taken and subverted into something to be exploited – a cartoon like portrayal of woman as wolf, but these stories veer sharply away from that and do something much more intelligent. In female lycanthropy, we as writers can explore some fascinating avenues; female sexuality, the body, violence, anger and psychology. Of course, never forgetting that a good story should always be the focus. But then again, all stories, including my own have within them, a subconscious undercurrent, something we might not be quite aware of as we write, only visible from the outside later, themes, ideas, pieces of our own psychology.

Wolf-Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny is available now in paperback from the Hic Dragones website. An eBook edition is coming soon.

CFP: 3rd Global Conference: Femininites and Masculinities

Tuesday 21st May – Friday 24th May 2013

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Presentations:

Gender studies is an interdisciplinary field of academic study on the issues of gender in its social and cultural contexts. Since its emergence from feminism, gender studies have become one of the most deliberated disciplines. The following project aims at an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and perspectives on the issues of femininity and masculinity in the 21st century. It invites ground-breaking research on a plethora of topics connected with gender, to propose an interdisciplinary view of the frontiers and to stake out new territories in the study of femininity and masculinity.

Papers, presentations, performances, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

1. Representations of Femininity and Masculinity

~ Femininity and masculinity in history and the history of gender
~ The representation of gender in culture, art, film, literature
~ The representation of gender in popular culture and media
~ Gender in the relation to politics, law and social studies

2. Gender Borders and Transgressions

~ Performativity of gender
~Female masculinities / male femininities
~ Androgyny
~ Transgender issues
~ The body and its transgressions

3. New Directions in Femininity and Masculinity Studies

~ New perspectives in masculinity and boyhood studies
~ Men in feminism
~ Third wave feminism, womanism
~ Postfeminism, post-feminism and postfemininity
~ Lesbian feminism
~ Eco-feminism
~ Cyberfeminism
~ Individual feminism
~ Feminist disability studies

4. Global and Regional Perspectives on Gender

~ Gender and race
~ Gender and nationality
~ Gender and (post)colonialism
~ Case studies of gender issues in local/regional/national perspectives
~ Global masculinity/ femininity

5. Gender in Relationships

~ Motherhood/fatherhood
~ Gender and family
~ Matriarchy/ patriarchy
~ Sororophobia and matrophobia
~ Misogyny and misandry
~ Female genealogy
~ Gender and maturity

6. Gender in Experience

~ Gender in visual and performance arts
~ Gender in advertisement
~ Gender mainstreaming
~ Gender in psychotherapy
~ Gender equality education
~ Gender in religion
~ Gender and NGOs

Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th November 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 15th February 2013.

300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 key words

E-mails should be entitled: FM3 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:

Barbara Braid 

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. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

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: Urban Popcultures

Sunday 12th May – Tuesday 14th May 2013

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Presentations:

This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with issues related to urban life. The project will promote the ongoing analysis of the varied creative trends and alternative cultural movements that comprise urban popcultures and subcultures. In particular the conference will encourage equally theoretical and practical debates which surround the cultural and political contexts within which alternative urban subcultures are flourishing.

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

1. Urban Space and the Landscape of the City

Urban Aesthetics and Architecture, Creative Re-imagining and Revitalization of the City. Brown Fields Reborn. The Metropolis and Inner City Life: Urban Boredom vs. Creativity.

2. The City as Creative Subject/Object

Urban Life and Urban Subculture Considered in Music, Literature, Art and Film, Urban Fashion and Style. Mobile Gaming. Alternate Realities. Urban Visual Styles, Street Art, Graffiti and Tagging. City Festivals.

3. Urban Codes

Alternative Popular Culture and Ideology, Politics of Alternative Popcultures, D.I.Y, Alternative Ethics of the City. Urban Religion and Religious Expressions. The Language and Urban Slang. The Avantgarde and Urban Codes.

4. Alternative Music Cultures

Histories, Representations, Discourses and Independent Scenes. Popular Music Theory. The Visual Turn. Urban and Alternative Classes, Intertextualities and Intermedialities. Postmodernity and Beyond. Clubbing and Scenes. Hip Hop and Rap. Dark Wave Scenes – EMO, Post-Gothic, and Underground Electronica.

5. The Urban Underground

The Rise and Fall of the Experimental Subcultures, Scenes, Fashions and Styles. Alternative and Underground Dance, Electronica, Hip Hop, and Punk and Post-Rock Scenes.

6. Queer Theory and Urban Alternative Cultures

Gendered Music and Fashion. The Role of the City in Gendered Freedom and Libertine Lifestyles. Pride Parades.

7. The City, Fashion, and Identity

Identity Creation. Style and Branding. Politics of Cool. Pretties, Freaks and Uglies.

8. Visions of Alternative Sound Cultures in Massmedia

The Visual Aspects of Alternative Entertainment. The Evolution of Music and Thematic Television. Media Structure of Music Video. Explicit TV and Censorship. Urban Styles and Extreme Sports.

9. Urban Subcultures in Online World

Urban Identity and Global/Glocal Membership. Globalization/Localisation of Underground Music Experience. Copyright/Copyleft. The Role of Internet in the Transformation of Music Industry. The Impact of User-generated Content.

What to send:

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th November 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 15th February 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: Urban Popcultures 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

Jordan Copeland 

Daniel Riha 

Rob Fisher 

The conference is part of the ‘Critical Issues’ 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. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

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: 11th Global Conference: Violence

Thursday 9th May – Saturday 11th May 2013

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Presentations:

This conference is one of a continuing series that aims to bring together people from a wide range of disciplines to focus on Violence. Our intention is to contribute to the body of thought which seeks to understand the nature and causes of this endemic feature of society. Such a complex phenomenon has many faces, a multitude of contexts (real or imagined), and many possible explanations in relation to causation and to the role Violence has played and still plays in societies all over the world and at every stage of development. Perpetrators may be states, political or religious factions within states, military groups, state or private institutions, communities, gangs, families or individuals. The range of possible victims is equally diverse and possible explanations range across historical, cultural, political, ethical, literary, functional, psychological, criminological, sociological, biological and economic sources. We therefore invite contributions from any and all of these disciplinary areas.

Our inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach seeks to do justice to the richness of this theme at a conference where fruitful dialogue between and across disciplines is highly valued.

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

What to send:

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th November 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 15th February 2013. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Violence 11 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.

Joint Organising Chairs:

Diana Medlicott 

Rob Fisher 

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

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: 4th Global Conference: Experiencing Prison

Sunday 12th May – Tuesday 14th May 2013

Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Presentations:

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference marks the continuation of a project dedicated to the study of the experience of imprisonment.

Imprisonment has become the dominant form of punishment in most societies across the world. It may occur prior to trial, or as a result of sentencing by a properly constituted court. Imprisonment without trial or due process occurs in various forms in most societies across the world, mostly sanctioned by the state itself, sometimes used as a political strategy by military, ideological, political or religious groups within a state, or by groups desirous of becoming a state.

We welcome contributions about the experience of incarceration across the entire range of perspectives, including legal, criminological, historical, fictional, phenomenological, biographical and autobiographical. Contributions are welcomed from former prisoners, detainees, incarcerated asylum seekers, former prisoners of war, political prisoners or those detained because of nationalist, religious or other convictions. All genres and media will be considered, in order to examine the widest possible range of representations, past and contemporary, which communicate the experience and nature of imprisonment. Contributions will be welcome from those who are involved with the delivery of incarceration, as well as those who seek to ameliorate incarceration by providing therapeutic drama, literacy, education, counselling, religious support and other services.

Presentations will also be considered on any related theme.

What to send:

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4 30th November 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 15th February 2013. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.

E-mails should be entitled: Prison 4 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

Diana Medlicott 

Rob Fisher 

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s).

For further details of the conference, please click here. 

Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.

GUEST POST: 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.