Sunday 15th July 2012 – Tuesday 17th July 2012
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Papers:
Revenge, so we are told, is a dish best served cold: a ‘sweet’ wreaking of vengeance on those who have – either in reality or in our minds – slighted, wronged or in some way ‘injured’ us and who are now ‘enjoying’ their just deserts by an avenging angel (or angels) on the great day of reckoning.
This inter- and multi-disciplinary research and publications project seeks to explore the multi-layered ideas, actions, and cultural traditions of vengeance or revenge. The project aims to explore the nature of revenge, its relationship with issues of justice, and its manifestation in the actions of individuals, cultures, communities and nations. The project will also consider the history of revenge, its ‘legitimacy’, the ‘scale’ of vengeful actions and whether revenge has (or should have) ‘limits’. Representations of revenge in film, literature, television, theatre and radio will be analysed; cultural ‘traditions’ of retaliation and revenge will be considered. And the role of mercy, forgiveness and pardon will be assessed.
Papers will be consider the following indicative themes:
~ philosophies of revenge
~ vengeance in history, literature, and popular culture
~ revenge cross-culturally
~ is there any proper and improper time for revenge? Can an act of revenge be carried across generations?
~ revenge, vengeance, retaliation: to avenge
~ justice and revenge; redressing the balance, just deserts
~ betrayal, humiliation, shame, resentment and revenge
~ revenge and the individual; revenge and the group; revenge and the nation
~ revenge in music and the arts
~ revenge in television, film, radio and theatre
~ relationship between revenge and mercy, forgiveness, pardon
~ revenge case-studies: individual, cultural, and historical
Papers on any other topic related to the theme will also be considered.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 13th January 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 11th May 2011. 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: REV3 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Charles W. Nuckolls
Department of Anthropology,
Brigham Young University,
USA
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s)
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.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Friday, 7 October 2011
CFP: Thinking Though Time and History in Feminism Colloquium
Birkbeck, University of London, 23 March 2012
Keynote Speakers:
Rebecca Coleman (Sociology, Lancaster University) & Lynne Segal (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck)
There has been an emergent call within the field of gender and feminist studies to consider themes that might be broadly situated under the umbrella term of “temporality”. Nostalgic and apocalyptic narratives of feminism abound in both popular culture and academic writing, with feminism’s death or out-datedness being the dominant narrative. Countering these narratives is crucially about unravelling the logic that makes them viable as well as interrupting their production. Explorations of alternative narratives have productively emerged from work in the field of collective and personal memory, new technologies as they impact feminist organizing, and creative activism and archival practices. There is a continued political need to explore alternative mechanisms of telling feminist time, alternative relationships to be forged with the recent and historical past and alternative means for considering how feminism might forge a future for itself both in and out of the academy.
This colloquium aims to provide the opportunity for an interdisciplinary, creative and exploratory approach to time and history in feminism. We welcome contributions from academics, artist and activists working in the area. Contributions could include but are not limited to, paper presentations, digital media, photography, film, poetry and performance.
Contributions could consider, but are by no means limited to, some of the following questions:
- How does the personal, social and collective memory of the feminist past create, sustain, or challenge feminism in the present?
- How might we forge relationships between temporal periods that resist generational affects of duty or shame?
- How might remembering and forgetting occur not only within the spaces of activism and the institution, but also between them?
- How can we think critically about how, for example, citing, course building, and curating are practices of remembering and forgetting?
- How might feminist activists, artists and theorists respond to the narratives of ‘the death of feminism’ or the ‘post-feminist’ era?
- How does time, and the various ways we think of it, both enable and constrain politics?
- Is the time of activism the same as the time of the institution?
- What are the theoretical and methodological challenges of working within feminist archives?
- How can we account for the multiple and diverse voices that comprise ‘feminism’ and the relationships between these voices? How can the use of creative methodologies enable the exploration of these issues?
Please submit a 200 word abstract by 25 November 2011 to Carly Guest and Sam McBean. If you have any questions, please contact us.
Keynote Speakers:
Rebecca Coleman (Sociology, Lancaster University) & Lynne Segal (Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck)
There has been an emergent call within the field of gender and feminist studies to consider themes that might be broadly situated under the umbrella term of “temporality”. Nostalgic and apocalyptic narratives of feminism abound in both popular culture and academic writing, with feminism’s death or out-datedness being the dominant narrative. Countering these narratives is crucially about unravelling the logic that makes them viable as well as interrupting their production. Explorations of alternative narratives have productively emerged from work in the field of collective and personal memory, new technologies as they impact feminist organizing, and creative activism and archival practices. There is a continued political need to explore alternative mechanisms of telling feminist time, alternative relationships to be forged with the recent and historical past and alternative means for considering how feminism might forge a future for itself both in and out of the academy.
This colloquium aims to provide the opportunity for an interdisciplinary, creative and exploratory approach to time and history in feminism. We welcome contributions from academics, artist and activists working in the area. Contributions could include but are not limited to, paper presentations, digital media, photography, film, poetry and performance.
Contributions could consider, but are by no means limited to, some of the following questions:
- How does the personal, social and collective memory of the feminist past create, sustain, or challenge feminism in the present?
- How might we forge relationships between temporal periods that resist generational affects of duty or shame?
- How might remembering and forgetting occur not only within the spaces of activism and the institution, but also between them?
- How can we think critically about how, for example, citing, course building, and curating are practices of remembering and forgetting?
- How might feminist activists, artists and theorists respond to the narratives of ‘the death of feminism’ or the ‘post-feminist’ era?
- How does time, and the various ways we think of it, both enable and constrain politics?
- Is the time of activism the same as the time of the institution?
- What are the theoretical and methodological challenges of working within feminist archives?
- How can we account for the multiple and diverse voices that comprise ‘feminism’ and the relationships between these voices? How can the use of creative methodologies enable the exploration of these issues?
Please submit a 200 word abstract by 25 November 2011 to Carly Guest and Sam McBean. If you have any questions, please contact us.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
CFP: Fifty Years of A Clockwork Orange
28 June - 1 July 2012
Manchester, United Kingdom
WITTY : FUNNY : SATIRIC : MUSICAL : EXCITING : BIZARRE : POLITICAL : THRILLING : FRIGHTENING : METAPHORICAL : COMIC : SARDONIC : BEETHOVEN
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1962), the International Anthony Burgess Foundation is organising a multi-disciplinary conference to examine its profound and enduring impact on literature, film, music, theatre and society.
The conference will assess the history and reception of A Clockwork Orange in all its manifestations. Papers of 20-30 minutes in length are invited on any aspect of A Clockwork Orange and its legacy. Possible topics might include the linguistic and/or musical aspects of Burgess’s novel; invented languages; the film versions directed by Andy Warhol and Stanley Kubrick; the stage adaptations by John Godber, Anthony Burgess and Ron Daniels; translations into other languages and media; the history of book design; the political and Cold War contexts of the book and films; and the continuing influence of Burgess’s text on popular music, fashion, or other aspects of youth culture and counter-culture.
The conference will be supported by, a new Burgess/Kubrick exhibition at the John Rylands Library (in collaboration with the Stanley Kubrick Archive), a film season at the Cornerhouse cinema, new commissions of contemporary classical music, and more.
If you would like to submit a paper, please send an abstract of 200-300 words to the International Anthony Burgess Foundation.
Manchester, United Kingdom
WITTY : FUNNY : SATIRIC : MUSICAL : EXCITING : BIZARRE : POLITICAL : THRILLING : FRIGHTENING : METAPHORICAL : COMIC : SARDONIC : BEETHOVEN
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange (1962), the International Anthony Burgess Foundation is organising a multi-disciplinary conference to examine its profound and enduring impact on literature, film, music, theatre and society.
The conference will assess the history and reception of A Clockwork Orange in all its manifestations. Papers of 20-30 minutes in length are invited on any aspect of A Clockwork Orange and its legacy. Possible topics might include the linguistic and/or musical aspects of Burgess’s novel; invented languages; the film versions directed by Andy Warhol and Stanley Kubrick; the stage adaptations by John Godber, Anthony Burgess and Ron Daniels; translations into other languages and media; the history of book design; the political and Cold War contexts of the book and films; and the continuing influence of Burgess’s text on popular music, fashion, or other aspects of youth culture and counter-culture.
The conference will be supported by, a new Burgess/Kubrick exhibition at the John Rylands Library (in collaboration with the Stanley Kubrick Archive), a film season at the Cornerhouse cinema, new commissions of contemporary classical music, and more.
If you would like to submit a paper, please send an abstract of 200-300 words to the International Anthony Burgess Foundation.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
CFP: Identity and Image
18th Annual Postgraduate Medieval Studies Conference
24th‐25th February, 2012
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, UK
The University of Bristol hosts the longest‐running international medieval postgraduate conference in the UK. This annual event offers medievalists the opportunity to present their research and discuss ideas in an interdisciplinary setting. The conference is now in its 18th year, and proposals are invited for papers from postgraduates and early career scholars on the theme of Identity and Image.
The aim of this year’s conference is to explore how identity was formed, expressed and understood in the Middle Ages. We are interested in the way individuals and groups constructed images of themselves and others, and how identity was affected by religious, racial, political and other social factors on an international, national or local scale. The theme ‘Identity and Image’ invites consideration of how, and if, we can interpret medieval notions of identity from the textual, visual, musical and material sources that have survived to the present day. We welcome a wide range of discussion from issues of religious and artistic patronage, devotional practice, language choice and material culture to considerations of how the self or the other is presented in literary and visual culture.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Religious identities
- National identity
- Linguistic choice or identity
- Autobiography and biography
- Representation of outsiders
- Artistic and religious patronage
- Architecture
- Material culture
- Images of the self and others
Papers must be no more than 20 minutes long
Abstracts of 250‐300 words should be sent by email (by preference) to:
Hannah Walters or to Hannah Walters, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, 7 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, UK
Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 10th December, 2012
Registration deadline: 21st January, 2012
For further information please visit our website.
Bursaries may be available for travel.
24th‐25th February, 2012
Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, UK
The University of Bristol hosts the longest‐running international medieval postgraduate conference in the UK. This annual event offers medievalists the opportunity to present their research and discuss ideas in an interdisciplinary setting. The conference is now in its 18th year, and proposals are invited for papers from postgraduates and early career scholars on the theme of Identity and Image.
The aim of this year’s conference is to explore how identity was formed, expressed and understood in the Middle Ages. We are interested in the way individuals and groups constructed images of themselves and others, and how identity was affected by religious, racial, political and other social factors on an international, national or local scale. The theme ‘Identity and Image’ invites consideration of how, and if, we can interpret medieval notions of identity from the textual, visual, musical and material sources that have survived to the present day. We welcome a wide range of discussion from issues of religious and artistic patronage, devotional practice, language choice and material culture to considerations of how the self or the other is presented in literary and visual culture.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Religious identities
- National identity
- Linguistic choice or identity
- Autobiography and biography
- Representation of outsiders
- Artistic and religious patronage
- Architecture
- Material culture
- Images of the self and others
Papers must be no more than 20 minutes long
Abstracts of 250‐300 words should be sent by email (by preference) to:
Hannah Walters or to Hannah Walters, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Arts and Humanities, 7 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, UK
Deadline for receipt of abstracts: 10th December, 2012
Registration deadline: 21st January, 2012
For further information please visit our website.
Bursaries may be available for travel.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Review: Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders, Issue 1 (July 2011)
Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders is a new steampunk magazine, available in digital and print formats. Aimed at steampunk enthusiasts of all types, the magazine includes articles, reviews, new fiction and advertisements.
Issue One (now available here) contains reviews of Nickel Children, a film by Kevin Eslinger, and Alison DeLuca's The Night Watchman Express. I was particularly pleased to see Ren Cummins' review of Nickel Children, as I saw this short film at last year's Bram Stoker Film Festival and was pleased to see that Eslinger's work is continuing to get the attention it deserves. Cummins' review includes a brief interview with Eslinger, in which they discuss the genesis of the film and the reasons why the filmmaker chose to work within the steampunk/Weird West genre.
The articles included in this first issue of the magazine cover a number of steampunk-related topics. Adam Heine offers advice to writers on creating believable slang, and Sophie Playle offers a guide to airships. As steampunk is often criticized for its obsession with empire, colonial life and Victorian England, it is refreshing to also see articles on writing multi-cultural steampunk worlds (by Alison DeLuca) and recent offerings from an Italian publisher (by Lorenzo Davia). Davia's article was particularly interesting for its insights into Italian history, which explored the ways in which steampunk might have specific resonances with the Italian cultural psyche.
On the whole, the article content of the magazine is more geared towards the steampunk writer, rather than 'lifestyle steampunks', though I'm sure there is a crossover between the two. The inclusion of short fiction in the second half of the magazine suggests that this is more of a magazine for readers and writers than self-styled steampunks. It will be interesting to see how this balance pans out in future issues.
As noted, the magazine contains four pieces of new fiction. Two of these - Steamsteel (by Walter Shumate) and Calliope Strange's Aeryn Daring and the Scientific Detective - are the first installments of serialized novels. I felt that this was a nice touch, as serial fiction was such a staple of the Victorian literary diet, and the inclusion of these stories was a nod to the culture that inspires so many steampunks and steampunk writers. The other pieces included in Issue One are the first chapter of Alison DeLuca's The Night Watchman Express and a standalone short story, 'The Hand of Fate' (by Prof. Cayne Armand). Of the writing offered, I would say that I prefered Armand's short story; however, this is personal taste and other readers might feel differently.
If I have one criticism of this first issue of Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders, it would be that it is not quite varied enough in its content. This is not a reflection of the scope of the magazine, but rather its infancy as a print publication. For instance, the question of airships is a constant companion throughout this issue: not only do we have Playle's article, but three of the four pieces of fiction feature airships of some sort or another. While airships are fairly ubiquitous in steampunk fiction, they are becoming something of a cliche, and I would like to see the magazine address this in future issues. I hope, though, that as the magazine expands its 'reporter' base, and attracts submissions from the wider steampunk world, we will see less reliance on the genre standards and more innovation of ideas.
Overall, I recommend Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders for anyone interested in steampunk fiction and film. It's an enjoyable, informative read and well put-together. I'm looking forward to seeing future issues.
For information about subscriptions to Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders, please click here.
Thursday, 8 September 2011
CFP: Kings and Queens: Politics, Power, Patronage and Personalities in Medieval and Early Modern Monarchy
To be held at Corsham Court in conjunction with Bath Spa University on April 19th & 20th, 2012
The institution of Monarchy was absolutely central to the political developments and events of the medieval and Early Modern world. This conference aims to celebrate monarchy in all of its various aspects, from examining the institution itself to assessing the impact of particular monarchs in their own realms and beyond. Historic Corsham Court, located just outside of Bath, is a beautiful and appropriate setting for this conference, with its origins as a summer palace for the Kings of Wessex.
We welcome papers and/or panels on any theme which connects to monarchs or monarchy in any way including (but not limited to):
Kingship/queenship/rulership
The relationship between monarchs and consorts
The relationship between monarchs and their subjects
The involvement of monarchs in politics, religion and war
The patronage and representation of monarchs
The monarch and their court
We encourage a multi-disciplinary approach including papers which draw on gender studies, art, military, political and/or cultural history. Graduate students and early career researchers are particularly invited to submit a proposal. We hope to produce a published volume of the papers generated by the conference.
Please submit a proposal of approximately 250 words for a paper OR a panel of three papers to the organizers by October 31, 2011.
The institution of Monarchy was absolutely central to the political developments and events of the medieval and Early Modern world. This conference aims to celebrate monarchy in all of its various aspects, from examining the institution itself to assessing the impact of particular monarchs in their own realms and beyond. Historic Corsham Court, located just outside of Bath, is a beautiful and appropriate setting for this conference, with its origins as a summer palace for the Kings of Wessex.
We welcome papers and/or panels on any theme which connects to monarchs or monarchy in any way including (but not limited to):
Kingship/queenship/rulership
The relationship between monarchs and consorts
The relationship between monarchs and their subjects
The involvement of monarchs in politics, religion and war
The patronage and representation of monarchs
The monarch and their court
We encourage a multi-disciplinary approach including papers which draw on gender studies, art, military, political and/or cultural history. Graduate students and early career researchers are particularly invited to submit a proposal. We hope to produce a published volume of the papers generated by the conference.
Please submit a proposal of approximately 250 words for a paper OR a panel of three papers to the organizers by October 31, 2011.
CFP: 4th Global Conference: Evil, Women and the Feminine
Sunday 6th May – Tuesday 8th May 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to examine issues surrounding the conjunction between evil and the feminine. In many cultures women have been long suspected as the source of sundry human miseries, however basic to society they may be. At the same time as ideals of purity and dedication to family have been exalted and feminine beauty lauded, women have been viewed as embodying sinister forces of evil. Mistrusted as seductive and beguiling, women are also often thought of as vengeful, manipulative and even malevolent. In grappling with our understanding of what it is to be ‘evil’, the project aims to shine a spotlight on this dark area of the human condition and explore the possible sources of the fear and resentment of women.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to the following themes:
~ Evil Women and Feminine Evil
~ Representing and Misrepresenting the Female
~ Motherhood; Monstrous Motherhood
~ Monstrous Births and Infanticide
~ Matriarchy / Matricide
~ Devious Sexuality and Feminine Perversions
~ Women and the Abject
~ Menstruation, Castration
~ Fears and Myths: Feminine Blood
~ Anthropological Perspectives
~ Historical Perspectives
~ The Evil Woman in Literature
~ Psychoanalytic perspectives: “Vagina Dentata” etc
~ Sexualizing the Female or Evil Objectification
~ Jezebel, Delilah, Lilith, Harpies and the Femme Fatale
~ The Bitch
~ Women and Power
~ Beauty as threatening or evil
~ Portrayals of Evil Women
~ Fantasy
~ Mythology
~ Vampires, Witches and Sirens
~ Case Studies
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011 If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: EWF4 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:
Natalia Kaloh Vid
University of Maribor, Slovenia
Stephen Morris
Hub Leader, Independent Scholar, New York USA
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader,Inter-Disciplinary.Net,Freeland,
Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
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 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.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to examine issues surrounding the conjunction between evil and the feminine. In many cultures women have been long suspected as the source of sundry human miseries, however basic to society they may be. At the same time as ideals of purity and dedication to family have been exalted and feminine beauty lauded, women have been viewed as embodying sinister forces of evil. Mistrusted as seductive and beguiling, women are also often thought of as vengeful, manipulative and even malevolent. In grappling with our understanding of what it is to be ‘evil’, the project aims to shine a spotlight on this dark area of the human condition and explore the possible sources of the fear and resentment of women.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues related to the following themes:
~ Evil Women and Feminine Evil
~ Representing and Misrepresenting the Female
~ Motherhood; Monstrous Motherhood
~ Monstrous Births and Infanticide
~ Matriarchy / Matricide
~ Devious Sexuality and Feminine Perversions
~ Women and the Abject
~ Menstruation, Castration
~ Fears and Myths: Feminine Blood
~ Anthropological Perspectives
~ Historical Perspectives
~ The Evil Woman in Literature
~ Psychoanalytic perspectives: “Vagina Dentata” etc
~ Sexualizing the Female or Evil Objectification
~ Jezebel, Delilah, Lilith, Harpies and the Femme Fatale
~ The Bitch
~ Women and Power
~ Beauty as threatening or evil
~ Portrayals of Evil Women
~ Fantasy
~ Mythology
~ Vampires, Witches and Sirens
~ Case Studies
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011 If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: EWF4 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:
Natalia Kaloh Vid
University of Maribor, Slovenia
Stephen Morris
Hub Leader, Independent Scholar, New York USA
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader,Inter-Disciplinary.Net,Freeland,
Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
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 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: 10th Global Conference: Violence
Sunday 13th May – Tuesday 15th May 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
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. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Violence Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Diana Medlicott
Independent Scholar
London, United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
The first Diversity within Unity was held in Prague in 1999 and focused on the theme of Human Community and Civil Society. The second conference was held in Oxford in 2000 and focused on the theme of Culture, Conflict, and Belonging. Subsequent conferences have met in Prague and Budapest and looked at the general theme of the Cultures of Violence.
Multiple eBooks and volumes of themed papers have been published or are in press from the previous conference meetings of this project. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
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. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Violence Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Joint Organising Chairs:
Diana Medlicott
Independent Scholar
London, United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
The first Diversity within Unity was held in Prague in 1999 and focused on the theme of Human Community and Civil Society. The second conference was held in Oxford in 2000 and focused on the theme of Culture, Conflict, and Belonging. Subsequent conferences have met in Prague and Budapest and looked at the general theme of the Cultures of Violence.
Multiple eBooks and volumes of themed papers have been published or are in press from the previous conference meetings of this project. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
CFP: 2nd Global Conference: Femininities & Masculinities
Thursday 3rd May – Saturday 5th May 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
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, 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 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 key words
E-mails should be entitled: FM 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:
Barbara Braid
English Department,
University of Szczecin,
Szczecin, Poland
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader,
Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
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 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.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
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, 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 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 key words
E-mails should be entitled: FM 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:
Barbara Braid
English Department,
University of Szczecin,
Szczecin, Poland
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader,
Inter-Disciplinary.Net, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
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 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: Sensualising Deformity: Communication and Construction of Monstrous Embodiment
The University of Edinburgh
June 15-16, 2012
Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
Prof. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
George Washington University
Dr. Peter Hutchings
Northumbria University
“Although he was already repellent enough, there arose from the fungous skin-growth with which he was almost covered a very sickening stench which was hard to tolerate... with the use of the [daily] bath the unpleasant odour... ceased to be noticeable”
~ Sir Frederick Treves
The prominent surgeon Frederic Treves’s description of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, exposes a body which is simultaneously an assault on the senses and one which has traditionally been de-sensualised. Deformity is sanitised and fitted into a structure of normality. The academy tends to obscure the complexity of the sensuous/sensual/sensed body of the deformed subject, and of the questions, anxieties, and denials which surround deformity when it is located within a continuum of sense.
From freak exhibitions and fairs, medical examinations and discoveries to various portrayals in arts and literature, images of deformity (or monstrosity, used separately or interchangeably depending on context) have captivated us for centuries. The result is a significant body of critical and artistic works where these bodies are dissected, politicized, exhibited, objectified or even beatified. Nonetheless, there remains a gap, an unexplored, unspoken or neglected aspect of this complex field of study which needs further consideration. This two-day interdisciplinary conference aims to bring the senses and the sensuous back to the monstrous or deformed body from the early modern period through to the mid-twentieth century, and seeks to explore its implications in diverse academic fields.
We hope to bring together scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines to engage in a constructive dialogue, network, and exchange ideas and experiences, connecting a community of researchers who share a fascination with deformity, monstrosity, and freakery.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):
● Spectacle/fetishisation of monstrosity and deformity; monstrous sexuality/eroticisation
● The monster as a catalyst of progression/ historical perspectives
● Monstrous symbolism, prodigality, or beatification
● The racialised body; exoticising difference
● Monstrosity in medical literature; disability narratives
● Monstrous becoming; the ‘sensed’ body
● Deformed aesthetics; monstrosity in the visual arts
● (De) gendering the deformed body; humanisation vs objectification
We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations from established scholars, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students from various teratological backgrounds, e.g. in literature, history, media and art studies, philosophy, religious studies, history of science,medical humanities, and critical and cultural theory. Proposals should be no more than 300 words, in .doc format, and should include a brief 50-word biography.
Please submit your abstracts no later than 31 January 2012 to the conference organisers:
Dr. Karin Sellberg (The University of Edinburgh)
Ally Crockford (The University of Edinburgh)
Maja Milatovic (The University of Edinburgh)
June 15-16, 2012
Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
Prof. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
George Washington University
Dr. Peter Hutchings
Northumbria University
“Although he was already repellent enough, there arose from the fungous skin-growth with which he was almost covered a very sickening stench which was hard to tolerate... with the use of the [daily] bath the unpleasant odour... ceased to be noticeable”
~ Sir Frederick Treves
The prominent surgeon Frederic Treves’s description of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, exposes a body which is simultaneously an assault on the senses and one which has traditionally been de-sensualised. Deformity is sanitised and fitted into a structure of normality. The academy tends to obscure the complexity of the sensuous/sensual/sensed body of the deformed subject, and of the questions, anxieties, and denials which surround deformity when it is located within a continuum of sense.
From freak exhibitions and fairs, medical examinations and discoveries to various portrayals in arts and literature, images of deformity (or monstrosity, used separately or interchangeably depending on context) have captivated us for centuries. The result is a significant body of critical and artistic works where these bodies are dissected, politicized, exhibited, objectified or even beatified. Nonetheless, there remains a gap, an unexplored, unspoken or neglected aspect of this complex field of study which needs further consideration. This two-day interdisciplinary conference aims to bring the senses and the sensuous back to the monstrous or deformed body from the early modern period through to the mid-twentieth century, and seeks to explore its implications in diverse academic fields.
We hope to bring together scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines to engage in a constructive dialogue, network, and exchange ideas and experiences, connecting a community of researchers who share a fascination with deformity, monstrosity, and freakery.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):
● Spectacle/fetishisation of monstrosity and deformity; monstrous sexuality/eroticisation
● The monster as a catalyst of progression/ historical perspectives
● Monstrous symbolism, prodigality, or beatification
● The racialised body; exoticising difference
● Monstrosity in medical literature; disability narratives
● Monstrous becoming; the ‘sensed’ body
● Deformed aesthetics; monstrosity in the visual arts
● (De) gendering the deformed body; humanisation vs objectification
We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations from established scholars, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students from various teratological backgrounds, e.g. in literature, history, media and art studies, philosophy, religious studies, history of science,medical humanities, and critical and cultural theory. Proposals should be no more than 300 words, in .doc format, and should include a brief 50-word biography.
Please submit your abstracts no later than 31 January 2012 to the conference organisers:
Dr. Karin Sellberg (The University of Edinburgh)
Ally Crockford (The University of Edinburgh)
Maja Milatovic (The University of Edinburgh)
CFP: 1st Global Conference: Storytelling: Global Reflections on Narrative
Sunday 13th May – Tuesday 15th May 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
Human life is conducted through story, which comes naturally to us. Sharing stories is arguably the most important way we have of communicating with others about who we are and what we believe; about what we are doing and have done; about our hopes and fears; about what we value and what we don’t. We learn about and make sense of our lives by telling the stories that we live; and we learn about other lives by listening to the stories told by others. Sometimes, under the influence of the culture in which we are immersed, we live our lives in ways that try to create the stories we want to be able to tell about them.
Members of many professions, including medicine, nursing, teaching, the law, psychotherapy and counseling, spend a great deal of their time listening to and communicating through stories. Story is a powerful tool for teachers, because it is a good way of enabling students and other learners to integrate what they are learning with what they already know, and of placing what is learned in a context that makes it easy to recall. Story plays an important role in academic disciplines like philosophy, theology, anthropology, archaeology, history as well as literature Narrative methods for the collection of data are increasingly used in research in the social sciences and humanities, where the value of getting to know people in a more intimate and less distant way – almost as if we are getting to know them from the inside, begins to be viewed as having some value. Some academics have begun to realise the value of storytelling as a model for academic writing.
Most of us have lots of experience of relating to other lives through narrative forms, including the nursery stories we encounter as children; the books we read and the movies we watch. When we are moved by a play or a film or by a novel, we are moved because we begin imaginatively to live the lives of the characters that inhabit them. If we are lucky we will encounter as we grow up, fictional stories that stay with us like old friends, throughout our lives that we will revisit again and again as a way coming to terms with and responding to experiences in our own lives.
Storytelling: global reflections on narrative, will provide a space in which stories about story can be told, and in which the use of stories in the widest possible range of aspects of human life, can be reported. Abstracts are invited for individual contributions and for symposia of three closely related papers. They may address any aspect of story or narrative, including, for example:
* Story as a pedagogical tool in academic disciplines such as history; anthropology, psychology, theology, cultural theory, medicine, law, philosophy, education, and archaeology.
* Narrative and the gathering of stories of lived experience, as a research approach in any area of academic, professional and public life.
* The place of story and storytelling in the practice of journalism; PR advertising; conflict resolution; architecture; religion; tourism, politics and the law, and in clinical contexts such as medicine, psychotherapy, nursing and counselling.
* Finally abstracts may feature storytelling in any aspect of culture, including music (from opera to heavy metal, folk and sacred music); fine art; theatre; literature; cinema and digital
storytelling.
Alongside traditional conference papers, participants are invited to propose presentations of other kinds including, for example, theatrical performance or song, or workshops aimed at engaging participants in active learning about story and its possibilities.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012. 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: STORY 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
Gavin J Fairbairn
Professor of Ethics and Language
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds
United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
The conference is part of the 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.
All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
Human life is conducted through story, which comes naturally to us. Sharing stories is arguably the most important way we have of communicating with others about who we are and what we believe; about what we are doing and have done; about our hopes and fears; about what we value and what we don’t. We learn about and make sense of our lives by telling the stories that we live; and we learn about other lives by listening to the stories told by others. Sometimes, under the influence of the culture in which we are immersed, we live our lives in ways that try to create the stories we want to be able to tell about them.
Members of many professions, including medicine, nursing, teaching, the law, psychotherapy and counseling, spend a great deal of their time listening to and communicating through stories. Story is a powerful tool for teachers, because it is a good way of enabling students and other learners to integrate what they are learning with what they already know, and of placing what is learned in a context that makes it easy to recall. Story plays an important role in academic disciplines like philosophy, theology, anthropology, archaeology, history as well as literature Narrative methods for the collection of data are increasingly used in research in the social sciences and humanities, where the value of getting to know people in a more intimate and less distant way – almost as if we are getting to know them from the inside, begins to be viewed as having some value. Some academics have begun to realise the value of storytelling as a model for academic writing.
Most of us have lots of experience of relating to other lives through narrative forms, including the nursery stories we encounter as children; the books we read and the movies we watch. When we are moved by a play or a film or by a novel, we are moved because we begin imaginatively to live the lives of the characters that inhabit them. If we are lucky we will encounter as we grow up, fictional stories that stay with us like old friends, throughout our lives that we will revisit again and again as a way coming to terms with and responding to experiences in our own lives.
Storytelling: global reflections on narrative, will provide a space in which stories about story can be told, and in which the use of stories in the widest possible range of aspects of human life, can be reported. Abstracts are invited for individual contributions and for symposia of three closely related papers. They may address any aspect of story or narrative, including, for example:
* Story as a pedagogical tool in academic disciplines such as history; anthropology, psychology, theology, cultural theory, medicine, law, philosophy, education, and archaeology.
* Narrative and the gathering of stories of lived experience, as a research approach in any area of academic, professional and public life.
* The place of story and storytelling in the practice of journalism; PR advertising; conflict resolution; architecture; religion; tourism, politics and the law, and in clinical contexts such as medicine, psychotherapy, nursing and counselling.
* Finally abstracts may feature storytelling in any aspect of culture, including music (from opera to heavy metal, folk and sacred music); fine art; theatre; literature; cinema and digital
storytelling.
Alongside traditional conference papers, participants are invited to propose presentations of other kinds including, for example, theatrical performance or song, or workshops aimed at engaging participants in active learning about story and its possibilities.
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012. 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: STORY 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
Gavin J Fairbairn
Professor of Ethics and Language
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds
United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
The conference is part of the 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.
All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
A Journey Through Wonderland: Alice in Multi-Media
An exhibition of books, pictures, videos and more
The Portico Library, Manchester M2 3HY
7th October - 30th November 2011
Preview on Thursday 6th October
Lewis Carroll created, in Alice, one of the most enduring and endearing characters in literature. An escape from boredom plunges this easily distracted child into a surreal and fantastical Wonderland at once exciting and frightening as she meets, along the way, such whimsical, yet sinister, characters as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Duchess. Carroll had already imagined their appearance and John Tenniel, already an established illustrator, was given clear instructions on their depiction for the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland followed by her return to a dream-land in Through the Looking Glass.
Since its first publication in 1867 Alice has continued to inspire illustration, theatre, films, cartoons, toys and more. Walt Disney, Salvador Dali, Jonathan Miller are just three of the innumerable people who got the Alice bug and were inspired to produce their interpretation of one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling children’s stories ever.
This exhibition, curated by Emma Marigliano and Lynne Allan, for The Portico Library, seeks to capture some of the magic of the tale through a range of books, comics, pop-ups, artworks, film and other media along with a programme of events throughout October and November.
• The exhibition will launch at the preview on 6th October and will be opened by none other than Vanessa St Clair, great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell, the real little girl who was Carroll’s inspiration for his made-up Alice
• Leah Moore and John Reppion will delight graphic novel fans with a talk on their production of The Complete Alice on 12th of October
• From Hat Works Hat Museum, Stockport, Howard Green, will reveal the reason behind the Mad-Hatter’s insanity in his talk, Top Hats and Mercury on 25th October
This event is part of Manchester Science Festival; a programme of over 150 events, shows, debates, installations and more across Greater Manchester from 22 – 30 October 2011.
• Disney fans will be enchanted with Robin Allan’s talk, on 12th November, about Europe’s influence on Walt Disney
• Alan Shelston will talk about the grotesque in the Alice illustrations near the end of the exhibition on 29th November.
• In between there will be film/video showings, children’s activities and more. Look out for the full programme on our website and our Portico Quarterly newsletter.
All events begin at 6.30 and cost £7 per person, including wine and nibbles and may be booked by email, telephone or post.
Alice has been enjoying attention throughout the year in exhibitions and performances in the UK. The Portico will be linking in to some of those that will be taking place in the North West.
• Tate Liverpool launches a major exhibition of Alice with Lewis Carroll manuscripts and drawings as well as paintings and drawings from well-known artists and illustrators - from 4th November to 4th January
• A one-day inter-disciplinary conference - Further Adventures in Wonderland; the Afterlife of Alice - will be held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, on 1st December. The conference is organised by Dr Hannah Priest, founder of Hic Dragones, a creative writing and literature organisation based in Manchester.
We are most grateful for permission to use illustrations for publicity and promotion and for loans of books and artworks to the exhibition from the following (placed in no particular order):
Bryan Talbot, Manchester Metropolitan University Library Special Collections, Leah Moore and John Reppion, David Blamires, Walker Books for Anthony Browne’s illustrations, Rodney Matthews for his illustrations, Chris Beetles Gallery, Bryan Haworth, Robin Allan, Viv Doyle and the two curators Lynne Allan and Emma Marigliano
We are also grateful for the support of (in no particular order):
The Lewis Carroll Society, Vanessa St Clair, Manchester Science Festival, Manchester Children’s Book Festival, The Portico Library Trust, Dr Hannah Priest
For further information please contact Emma Marigliano, Librarian, telephone 0161-236 6785
The Portico Library, Manchester M2 3HY
7th October - 30th November 2011
Preview on Thursday 6th October
Lewis Carroll created, in Alice, one of the most enduring and endearing characters in literature. An escape from boredom plunges this easily distracted child into a surreal and fantastical Wonderland at once exciting and frightening as she meets, along the way, such whimsical, yet sinister, characters as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter and the Duchess. Carroll had already imagined their appearance and John Tenniel, already an established illustrator, was given clear instructions on their depiction for the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland followed by her return to a dream-land in Through the Looking Glass.
Since its first publication in 1867 Alice has continued to inspire illustration, theatre, films, cartoons, toys and more. Walt Disney, Salvador Dali, Jonathan Miller are just three of the innumerable people who got the Alice bug and were inspired to produce their interpretation of one of the most fascinating and mind-boggling children’s stories ever.
This exhibition, curated by Emma Marigliano and Lynne Allan, for The Portico Library, seeks to capture some of the magic of the tale through a range of books, comics, pop-ups, artworks, film and other media along with a programme of events throughout October and November.
• The exhibition will launch at the preview on 6th October and will be opened by none other than Vanessa St Clair, great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell, the real little girl who was Carroll’s inspiration for his made-up Alice
• Leah Moore and John Reppion will delight graphic novel fans with a talk on their production of The Complete Alice on 12th of October
• From Hat Works Hat Museum, Stockport, Howard Green, will reveal the reason behind the Mad-Hatter’s insanity in his talk, Top Hats and Mercury on 25th October
This event is part of Manchester Science Festival; a programme of over 150 events, shows, debates, installations and more across Greater Manchester from 22 – 30 October 2011.
• Disney fans will be enchanted with Robin Allan’s talk, on 12th November, about Europe’s influence on Walt Disney
• Alan Shelston will talk about the grotesque in the Alice illustrations near the end of the exhibition on 29th November.
• In between there will be film/video showings, children’s activities and more. Look out for the full programme on our website and our Portico Quarterly newsletter.
All events begin at 6.30 and cost £7 per person, including wine and nibbles and may be booked by email, telephone or post.
Alice has been enjoying attention throughout the year in exhibitions and performances in the UK. The Portico will be linking in to some of those that will be taking place in the North West.
• Tate Liverpool launches a major exhibition of Alice with Lewis Carroll manuscripts and drawings as well as paintings and drawings from well-known artists and illustrators - from 4th November to 4th January
• A one-day inter-disciplinary conference - Further Adventures in Wonderland; the Afterlife of Alice - will be held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, on 1st December. The conference is organised by Dr Hannah Priest, founder of Hic Dragones, a creative writing and literature organisation based in Manchester.
We are most grateful for permission to use illustrations for publicity and promotion and for loans of books and artworks to the exhibition from the following (placed in no particular order):
Bryan Talbot, Manchester Metropolitan University Library Special Collections, Leah Moore and John Reppion, David Blamires, Walker Books for Anthony Browne’s illustrations, Rodney Matthews for his illustrations, Chris Beetles Gallery, Bryan Haworth, Robin Allan, Viv Doyle and the two curators Lynne Allan and Emma Marigliano
We are also grateful for the support of (in no particular order):
The Lewis Carroll Society, Vanessa St Clair, Manchester Science Festival, Manchester Children’s Book Festival, The Portico Library Trust, Dr Hannah Priest
For further information please contact Emma Marigliano, Librarian, telephone 0161-236 6785
Sunday, 4 September 2011
CFP: 6th Global Conference: Ethics, Evil and the State
Sunday 6th May – Tuesday 8th May 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
Ethics, evil and the state is an interdisciplinary project that seeks to interrogate issues surrounding the relationship between the state, the concept of evil and alternative ways of thinking about the state, including challenging the very idea of its existence. The idea of the state is continuously open to question and challenge: what alternatives might be put into practice? What is the relationship of the idea of the state and that of government? Perhaps the idea of linking the concept of evil with the state is problematic, yet the capacity for power to corrupt and the promotion of sovereign self-interest over that of a community is frequently encountered in many forms of government. Does it make sense to speak of the state as a force for evil? Are there better ways of conceiving of social organisation beyond statist conceptions of politics, considering the possibility of its abolition, or a move to regionalisation and localisation? Perspectives are sought from those engaged in any field relevant to the study of political science communication, journalism, critical media, policy, history, legal studies, philosophy, theology, cultural theory, media studies, sociology, peace studies, government, law/legal studies, justice, psychology and other areas. Contributions are also encouraged that look to alternative and experimental ideas concerning the state, in the form of short abstracts for presentations or proposals for action-workshop sessions.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues relating, but not restricted to the following themes:
- Is the state a necessary construction?
- Is the state necessarily evil? Is the state a power for good?
- The legitimisation of authority.
- The state and elitism.
- The state and policing.
- Is federalism the answer to the dissolution of the nation-state?
- Anarchism as a viable solution.
- Legitimate and illegitimate protest.
- Rioting, looting and banking
- The state and oppression
- Alternative forms of government.
- The ‘Arab Spring’
- Real communities.
- The state and violence.
Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Ethical Living 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
Niall Scott
International School for Communities Rights and Inclusions,
Philosophy Section
University of Central Lancashire
Preston, United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
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 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.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
Ethics, evil and the state is an interdisciplinary project that seeks to interrogate issues surrounding the relationship between the state, the concept of evil and alternative ways of thinking about the state, including challenging the very idea of its existence. The idea of the state is continuously open to question and challenge: what alternatives might be put into practice? What is the relationship of the idea of the state and that of government? Perhaps the idea of linking the concept of evil with the state is problematic, yet the capacity for power to corrupt and the promotion of sovereign self-interest over that of a community is frequently encountered in many forms of government. Does it make sense to speak of the state as a force for evil? Are there better ways of conceiving of social organisation beyond statist conceptions of politics, considering the possibility of its abolition, or a move to regionalisation and localisation? Perspectives are sought from those engaged in any field relevant to the study of political science communication, journalism, critical media, policy, history, legal studies, philosophy, theology, cultural theory, media studies, sociology, peace studies, government, law/legal studies, justice, psychology and other areas. Contributions are also encouraged that look to alternative and experimental ideas concerning the state, in the form of short abstracts for presentations or proposals for action-workshop sessions.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress and workshops are invited on issues relating, but not restricted to the following themes:
- Is the state a necessary construction?
- Is the state necessarily evil? Is the state a power for good?
- The legitimisation of authority.
- The state and elitism.
- The state and policing.
- Is federalism the answer to the dissolution of the nation-state?
- Anarchism as a viable solution.
- Legitimate and illegitimate protest.
- Rioting, looting and banking
- The state and oppression
- Alternative forms of government.
- The ‘Arab Spring’
- Real communities.
- The state and violence.
Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Ethical Living 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
Niall Scott
International School for Communities Rights and Inclusions,
Philosophy Section
University of Central Lancashire
Preston, United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire,
United Kingdom
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 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: 4th Global Conference: Heavy Fundamentalisms: Music, Metal and Politics
Wednesday 9th May – Friday 11th May 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
The success of the heavy metal music movement is due in no small measure to its ability and openness to experiment, diversify and innovate. Throughout the 42 year history of heavy metal, these changes and innovations have led to a plethora of subgenres and spinoff musical styles, and also seen heavy metal interact culturally and artistically with other musical forms. Yet at the same time heavy metal remains doggedly ‘true’ to form. There is no doubt that heavy metal now exists across generations, languages and cultures. Now that some of its progenitors and orginators are no longer with us, what will the future hold for heavy metal?
As the identities that have been formed over heavy metal’s generations continue to make way for young blood, this the 4th conference in the series Heavy Fundametalisms: Music Metal and
Politics abstracts on themes related, but not restricted to:
- The Future of Heavy Metal
- The Driving forces behind the movement: secrets of success
- Too old to rock? Ageism and heavy metal
- Live fast, die young!
- Life after death
- Somewhere in time: heavy metal and history
- Heavy metal genealogies, heavy metal maps
- Tribute bands and re-living the past
- Globalisation of heavy metal
- How local scenes sustain global metal across generations
- Nu-metal vs old school
- Heavy metal and the cultural voice
- Genres and crossing over
- Musical diversification metal and punk, jazz, blues, rock, rap, opera
- Groupies at the age of 60 and beyond
- How do time and place function in heavy metal’s signification
- Is metal still too US/Euro centric?
- Age, income and consumption of the heavy metal product
- Heavy metal generations and festivals
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
Abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Metal Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in
cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Niall Scott
The International School for Communities Rights and Inclusion
University of Central Lancashire
Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
The conference is part of the Ethos Hub series of ongoing research and publications projects conferences, run within the Critical Issues domain which aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore innovative and challenging routes of intellectual and academic exploration.
All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume, or for the launch edition of a new interdisciplinary journal examining intersections of music and politics and published by the Inter-Disciplinary Press.
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.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
The success of the heavy metal music movement is due in no small measure to its ability and openness to experiment, diversify and innovate. Throughout the 42 year history of heavy metal, these changes and innovations have led to a plethora of subgenres and spinoff musical styles, and also seen heavy metal interact culturally and artistically with other musical forms. Yet at the same time heavy metal remains doggedly ‘true’ to form. There is no doubt that heavy metal now exists across generations, languages and cultures. Now that some of its progenitors and orginators are no longer with us, what will the future hold for heavy metal?
As the identities that have been formed over heavy metal’s generations continue to make way for young blood, this the 4th conference in the series Heavy Fundametalisms: Music Metal and
Politics abstracts on themes related, but not restricted to:
- The Future of Heavy Metal
- The Driving forces behind the movement: secrets of success
- Too old to rock? Ageism and heavy metal
- Live fast, die young!
- Life after death
- Somewhere in time: heavy metal and history
- Heavy metal genealogies, heavy metal maps
- Tribute bands and re-living the past
- Globalisation of heavy metal
- How local scenes sustain global metal across generations
- Nu-metal vs old school
- Heavy metal and the cultural voice
- Genres and crossing over
- Musical diversification metal and punk, jazz, blues, rock, rap, opera
- Groupies at the age of 60 and beyond
- How do time and place function in heavy metal’s signification
- Is metal still too US/Euro centric?
- Age, income and consumption of the heavy metal product
- Heavy metal generations and festivals
Papers will be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 4th November 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 9th March 2012.
Abstracts should be submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Metal Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). Please note that a Book of Abstracts is planned for the end of the year. All accepted abstracts will be included in this publication. We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in
cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Niall Scott
The International School for Communities Rights and Inclusion
University of Central Lancashire
Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
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, or for the launch edition of a new interdisciplinary journal examining intersections of music and politics and published by the Inter-Disciplinary Press.
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.
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders - Subscription Drive
A little message from the steampunk-tastic Doctor Fantastique's Show of Wonders:
Faithful readers! I'm quite proud to announce that Doctor Fantastique's
Show of Wonders is officially offering SUBSCRIPTIONS!
Click on the link and fill out the form for us to get your information. Once you do that, we'll be in contact with payment details.
Tell your friends! Tell your neighbors! Tell your dog to subscribe!
Oh, and we're also offering some impetus to tell your friends. For every 10 people you convince to subscribe, you'll get a $25 gift card to a retailer of your choice.
If you convince 100 people to subscribe, then you'll get a personal phone call from Chief Editor Matthew Delman and a copy of the 2012 Great Plains Steampunk calendar, signed by James Conrad Agin and his team. All proceeds of the calendar go to charity, so this is for a good cause!
Get 1,000 subscribers to sign up and you'll select a prize of your choice. Your
prize has to be $500 or less though; that's the only rule.
The best part about this? Is that you can win these prizes MULTIPLE times.
The Rules
1.Only paying subscriptions are counted. An email newsletter sign-up, while good, is not counted toward your referral number.
2.All referrals must be submitted by December 31, 2011.
3.The person you refer MUST LIST YOU AS THE REFEREE in the "Who Referred You?" box on the sign-up form.
Happy referring!
Sunday, 21 August 2011
CFP: Monsters: Subject, Object, Abject
April 12th-13th 2012
The Manchester Museum, Oxford Road
Manchester, United Kingdom
This two-day interdisciplinary, cross-period conference will explore humanity’s perennial fascination with the monstrous. From children’s toys to religious architecture, from medical and legal definitions to Gothic romance – cultural products resonate with fear, obsession and desire for the monster.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals are sought for 20-minute papers. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- Monsters in literature, art, music and film
- Architectural monsters
- Subjectivity and the monster
- Objectification and the monster
- Historical definition of the monstrous
- Medical and legal monsters
- Theorizations of the monstrous
- Mythology, folklore and legends
- Hybrids and hybridity
- Cyborgs and the posthuman
Please send 300-word abstracts to the conference convenors by Sunday 1st January 2012. For more information, please see our website.
Following the conference, there will be a two-day public Monsters Convention in Manchester. We would be interested in hearing from anyone interested in offering a talk or seminar at this convention. Please email Dr. Hannah Priest.
The Manchester Museum, Oxford Road
Manchester, United Kingdom
This two-day interdisciplinary, cross-period conference will explore humanity’s perennial fascination with the monstrous. From children’s toys to religious architecture, from medical and legal definitions to Gothic romance – cultural products resonate with fear, obsession and desire for the monster.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals are sought for 20-minute papers. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- Monsters in literature, art, music and film
- Architectural monsters
- Subjectivity and the monster
- Objectification and the monster
- Historical definition of the monstrous
- Medical and legal monsters
- Theorizations of the monstrous
- Mythology, folklore and legends
- Hybrids and hybridity
- Cyborgs and the posthuman
Please send 300-word abstracts to the conference convenors by Sunday 1st January 2012. For more information, please see our website.
Following the conference, there will be a two-day public Monsters Convention in Manchester. We would be interested in hearing from anyone interested in offering a talk or seminar at this convention. Please email Dr. Hannah Priest.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Review: Jack Williamson, Darker Than You Think (1948; Gollancz, 2003)
Last year, in one of the discussion sessions at our conference on female werewolves, the keynote speaker (Prof. Peter Hutchings) mentioned a piece of 'classic' werewolf fiction that has been sadly overlooked in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries - Jack Williamson's Darker Than You Think. Hutchings' description of the book's content and genre sparked a lot of interest. He mentioned that the book had been out of print for several years, but had recently been reissued. I remember predicting that sales of the new edition would probably go up immediately following the conference - and, though I don't know about any of the other delegates, I certainly went out and immediately bought a copy.Embarrassingly, despite buying the book last September, I have only just found time to read it. Mea culpa. But I've now read it, and here is my review!
Williamson's novel, first published in 1948, tells the story of Will Barbee, a former student of Dr. Lamarck Mondrick (an anthropologist/palaeontologist/archaeologist, with a background in psychiatry - bear with me on this one!) who is currently working as a journalist. The novel begins with Barbee arriving at an airport to cover the return of Mondrick and his team, who have been researching 'something' in Asia for the past two years. As he waits for the plane to land, he meets a mysterious young woman named April Bell, who is also apparently a journalist.
Immediately intrigued, attracted and frightened by April, Barbee begins to get a feeling of foreboding. As he surveys the families of Mondrick and his team, this feeling grows. Sure enough, when Dr. Mondrick arrives, the professor begins to make a startling announcement about a shocking discovery... and then promptly dies. This begins a series of frightening events, as Barbee becomes more closely involved with April Bell and slowly learns the truth of Mondrick's discoveries. As the title of the book suggests, the truth is "darker than you think".
The first chapter of the novel is entitled "The Girl in White Fur". The first description of April Bell reads as follows:
"She looked as trimly cool and beautiful as a streamlined electric icebox.
She had a million dollars' worth of flame-red hair. White, soft, sweetly
serious, her face confirmed his first dazzled impression - that she was
something very wonderful and rare. She met his eyes, and her rather large
mouth drew into a quick pleasant quirk." (p. 1)
It shouldn't be too difficult for you to guess what sort of creature April Bell is. If I add that dogs growl at her, she has an aversion to the silver jewellery worn by Rowena Mondrick and that she carries a bag with a kitten in it (the second chapter of the book is called "The Kitten Killing"), I don't think there is much room for doubt.
Sure enough, it is soon apparent that April is intent on leading Barbee into the world of "lycanthropy" (or, as is probably more accurate, shapeshifting). Much of the presentation of lycanthropy in Williamson's book will be familiar to fans of werewolf fiction. In 'were' form, Barbee and April speak of being "free", enjoying human blood and hunting, are nocturnal and murderous. Barbee's first transformation is somewhat painful, but it becomes easier and more desirable. As noted, the sexual allure of the female werewolf is made apparent throughout the book.
However, though Williamson's presentation of lycanthropy is (in some ways) a standard one, there are some interesting to note about Darker Than You Think. Firstly, and most obviously, the book is a very early example of this 'standard' representation. We might all know a lot of the tropes Williamson employs, but this is a result of the vast swathes of fiction that has come since (some of which has been influenced by Williamson's book directly, but not all).
Secondly, the novel's genre is quite difficult to define. The opening chapters have a noirish quality, with the hardbitten reporter meeting the femme fatale and getting drawn into a dangerous mystery - it should come as no surprise that Will Barbee drinks way too much whisky! Elsewhere, the book feels more like what is now known as urban fantasy, with episodes that read like science fiction, science fantasy and psychological thriller. For instance, the explanation of the mechanism of lycanthropy draws heavily on theoretical physics - though this may seem somewhat dated for those with a background in science - as well as on more traditional ideas of the animal 'spirit'.
I will confess, some parts of Williamson's novel left me less than enthused. The reason for this was that I felt that too much had been explained too soon. April offers Barbee a fairly lengthy explanation of her own circumstances early in the novel, as well as the 'scientific' explanation of lycanthropy. She tells him about the murders and why they must happen, and (apparently) what the strange box Mondrick has brought from Asia contains. Barbee's attempts to come to terms with this, and his vacillations between his 'human' nature and his murderous lycanthropy take up a large part of the novel.
However, what I wasn't prepared for was how much Williamson holds back until the final chapters of the novel. The final 'reveal' is most definite worth waiting for. Though the novel appears to be about the mystery of who the "Child of Night" actually is - and I must confess, I did work that out - what is really worth waiting for is the final 'tying together' of all the strange threads of the novel - Mondrick's research, his strange wife, the references to palaeontology, archaeology, psychiatry and physics, and the strange box that has returned from the expedition.
And I'll say no more on what that explanation is, as I think the book is well worth reading for that alone. The characters may be a little dated and cliched, and the plot a little far-fetched in places, but the final 'solution' and the novel's ending are certainly unlike most things you will find in a werewolf book. At the risk of sounding a little trite, lycanthropy in Williamson's novel really is "darker than you think".
On the back of the 2003 Gollancz paperback edition, Douglas E. Winter describes Darker Than You Think:
"It is arguably the best, and certainly the best remembered, American novel about lycanthropy."
I'm not sure I necessarily agree with this assessment, but I would certainly suggest that Williamson's novel is a must-read for any fans of werewolf fiction, and April Bell certainly belongs on a list of fascinating female werewolves.
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
CFP: 1st Global Conference: Celebrity: Exploring Critical Issues
15th March - 17th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
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. Celebrity culture 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. Though more obvious in the late 20th century, 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. With the seemingly insatiable desire for the lifestyle, style-tips and emulation of celebrity sociologists have been describing new ways of representing, producing and, most importantly, consuming celebrity; all manner of consumer products, not least the medical world, has been engaging celebrities to promote a cornucopia of products as well as health-awareness programmes or as spokes-persons for the UN, UNICEF, ambassadors, charities and beyond.; more recently, economists have pointed to the entertainment sector to find areas which have not been drastically touched by recession.
This call for papers addresses a serious, interdisciplinary and multicultural analysis of the phenomenon of celebrity. Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to the following themes:
Definitions of celebrity-hood, stardom, charisma, uniqueness/singularity across cultures
The history of celebrity: the idols in the past and now
From zero to hero
The modern celebrity culture
Ideological conditions of celebrity culture
Celebrities as commodities
Representation of celebrities; ‘celebrification’ processes; the making of the ’star’
Celebrity and identity formation; empowerment or objectification; self-fashioning (public vs private self)
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
Mass media and the formation of celebrity culture
Celebrity in the media: news, shows, tabloids
Celebrity and the law, accountability, morality, crime, transgressions
Celebrity status and gender
Celebrity as educators; their positive impact; celebrities and humanitarian actions; awareness-raising
Notorious celebrity/fame: The anti-heroes
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
Unwanted fame
Intercultural perspective on celebrity: i.e. Bollywood vs Hollywood
(Post)colonialism and celebrity
(Auto)biographies of/by stars and idols: self-representation, truth/fiction
Celebrity confessional literature; Self-help books by celebrities
Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th September 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 27th January 2012.
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: Celebrity 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
Adam Mickiewicz University,
Poznan,
Poland
Dr Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road,
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
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. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
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. Celebrity culture 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. Though more obvious in the late 20th century, 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. With the seemingly insatiable desire for the lifestyle, style-tips and emulation of celebrity sociologists have been describing new ways of representing, producing and, most importantly, consuming celebrity; all manner of consumer products, not least the medical world, has been engaging celebrities to promote a cornucopia of products as well as health-awareness programmes or as spokes-persons for the UN, UNICEF, ambassadors, charities and beyond.; more recently, economists have pointed to the entertainment sector to find areas which have not been drastically touched by recession.
This call for papers addresses a serious, interdisciplinary and multicultural analysis of the phenomenon of celebrity. Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to the following themes:
Definitions of celebrity-hood, stardom, charisma, uniqueness/singularity across cultures
The history of celebrity: the idols in the past and now
From zero to hero
The modern celebrity culture
Ideological conditions of celebrity culture
Celebrities as commodities
Representation of celebrities; ‘celebrification’ processes; the making of the ’star’
Celebrity and identity formation; empowerment or objectification; self-fashioning (public vs private self)
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
Mass media and the formation of celebrity culture
Celebrity in the media: news, shows, tabloids
Celebrity and the law, accountability, morality, crime, transgressions
Celebrity status and gender
Celebrity as educators; their positive impact; celebrities and humanitarian actions; awareness-raising
Notorious celebrity/fame: The anti-heroes
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
Unwanted fame
Intercultural perspective on celebrity: i.e. Bollywood vs Hollywood
(Post)colonialism and celebrity
(Auto)biographies of/by stars and idols: self-representation, truth/fiction
Celebrity confessional literature; Self-help books by celebrities
Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes. Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th September 2011. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 27th January 2012.
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: Celebrity 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
Adam Mickiewicz University,
Poznan,
Poland
Dr Rob Fisher
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Priory House, Wroslyn Road,
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
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. All papers accepted for and presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN hard copy volume.
For further details of the project, please click here.
For further details of the conference, please click here.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or subsistence.
CFP: 13th Global Conference: Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness
15th March - 17th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
Hitler. Spitzer. Torquemada. Weiner. Genghis Khan. Lucrecia Borgia. Ronald Reagan. Ivan the Terrible. Bill Clinton. What do all these people have in common? They are all considered “evil” by a few, some, many, or all others who know anything about them. Why? What makes them evil? Or even just plain old “wicked?” What makes them not-evil or not-wicked? How does the label “evil” or “wicked” change our estimation of them? How has the use of those labels for these folk — and others — changed over time? How will the use of these labels continue to evolve?
Further, is evil an all-or-nothing term? Is some one either evil or not evil? Is it a term reserved for use in relation to ’special cases’? Serial killers? Paedophiles? Mothers who kill their children? Children who kill other children? Is it only people who can be evil? Can animals be evil? Can countries or nations be evil?
Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on issues on or broadly related to any of the following themes:
1. Wrestling with ‘Evil’
- does the language of ‘evil’ make sense in the 21st Century?
- what is ‘evil’? What is the concept of ‘evil’?
- when we use the term ‘evil’ what do we seek to convey?
- understanding the language of evil
- ‘evil’ and other possibilities: morally objectionable; morally wrong; bad; immoral; iniquitous; reprobate; sinful; wrong; depraved; diabolical; heinous; malevolent; wicked
2. The Nature of Evil
- the contexts of evil; the ‘meaning’ of evil as context dependent
- the roots of evil
- what counts as evil? Evil, Evils. Is there such a thing?
- the boundaries of evil; the forms of evil; types of evil; instances of evil. Universal evil?
- the practices of evil
- taking evil seriously; enjoying evil; satisfying evil
3. Explanatory Frameworks
- what are we looking for? The possibility of explanations
- what is an explanation?
- what does or should an explanation seek to achieve?
- is evil capable of explanation?
- explanation as evil
4. Understanding Evil
- from the perspectives of the disciplines indicative examples: anthropology, art, art history, criminology, cultural studies, history, legal studies, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theology
- from the perspectives of professions indicative examples: accountants, architects, diplomats, doctors, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, planners, teachers, vets; people working in economics, forensics, medicine, nursing, politics, prison services, psychiatry
- from the perspectives of vocations indicative examples: people working in altruistic vocations,
professional vocations, voluntary vocations, religious vocations, humanitarian campaigning and activities
- from the perspectives of ngos indicative examples: United Nations, international ngo’s, business oriented ngo’s, governmental ngo’s, quango’s, civil society ngo’s; people working with interest groups, lobbying activities; charity organisations; relief organisations; occupational organisations; not-for-profit networks
5. Representations of Evil
- art, art history, visual culture
- cinema, tv, theatre, radio
- music; metal
- media
- technological and multi-media representations
- video games and on-line communities
- subcultural formations and identities
- fashion and evil
- gothic subjectivities and Othering
6. Confronting Evil
- how is it possible to confront evil?
- can evil be resolved? Should evil be resolved?
- the work of Truth and Reconciliation commissions; the International Criminal Court; the role of law and local criminal justice procedures
- the work of international organisations
- the role of charities
The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 1st October 2010. 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 4th February 2011.
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
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
Hub Leader (Evil)
Independent Scholar
New York, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK
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 this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s) or for inclusion in the Perspectives on Evil journal (relaunching 2011).
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.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
Hitler. Spitzer. Torquemada. Weiner. Genghis Khan. Lucrecia Borgia. Ronald Reagan. Ivan the Terrible. Bill Clinton. What do all these people have in common? They are all considered “evil” by a few, some, many, or all others who know anything about them. Why? What makes them evil? Or even just plain old “wicked?” What makes them not-evil or not-wicked? How does the label “evil” or “wicked” change our estimation of them? How has the use of those labels for these folk — and others — changed over time? How will the use of these labels continue to evolve?
Further, is evil an all-or-nothing term? Is some one either evil or not evil? Is it a term reserved for use in relation to ’special cases’? Serial killers? Paedophiles? Mothers who kill their children? Children who kill other children? Is it only people who can be evil? Can animals be evil? Can countries or nations be evil?
Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on issues on or broadly related to any of the following themes:
1. Wrestling with ‘Evil’
- does the language of ‘evil’ make sense in the 21st Century?
- what is ‘evil’? What is the concept of ‘evil’?
- when we use the term ‘evil’ what do we seek to convey?
- understanding the language of evil
- ‘evil’ and other possibilities: morally objectionable; morally wrong; bad; immoral; iniquitous; reprobate; sinful; wrong; depraved; diabolical; heinous; malevolent; wicked
2. The Nature of Evil
- the contexts of evil; the ‘meaning’ of evil as context dependent
- the roots of evil
- what counts as evil? Evil, Evils. Is there such a thing?
- the boundaries of evil; the forms of evil; types of evil; instances of evil. Universal evil?
- the practices of evil
- taking evil seriously; enjoying evil; satisfying evil
3. Explanatory Frameworks
- what are we looking for? The possibility of explanations
- what is an explanation?
- what does or should an explanation seek to achieve?
- is evil capable of explanation?
- explanation as evil
4. Understanding Evil
- from the perspectives of the disciplines indicative examples: anthropology, art, art history, criminology, cultural studies, history, legal studies, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theology
- from the perspectives of professions indicative examples: accountants, architects, diplomats, doctors, engineers, lawyers, pharmacists, planners, teachers, vets; people working in economics, forensics, medicine, nursing, politics, prison services, psychiatry
- from the perspectives of vocations indicative examples: people working in altruistic vocations,
professional vocations, voluntary vocations, religious vocations, humanitarian campaigning and activities
- from the perspectives of ngos indicative examples: United Nations, international ngo’s, business oriented ngo’s, governmental ngo’s, quango’s, civil society ngo’s; people working with interest groups, lobbying activities; charity organisations; relief organisations; occupational organisations; not-for-profit networks
5. Representations of Evil
- art, art history, visual culture
- cinema, tv, theatre, radio
- music; metal
- media
- technological and multi-media representations
- video games and on-line communities
- subcultural formations and identities
- fashion and evil
- gothic subjectivities and Othering
6. Confronting Evil
- how is it possible to confront evil?
- can evil be resolved? Should evil be resolved?
- the work of Truth and Reconciliation commissions; the International Criminal Court; the role of law and local criminal justice procedures
- the work of international organisations
- the role of charities
The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 1st October 2010. 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 4th February 2011.
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
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
Hub Leader (Evil)
Independent Scholar
New York, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK
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 this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s) or for inclusion in the Perspectives on Evil journal (relaunching 2011).
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: Urban Fantasies: Magic and the Supernatural
15th March - 17th March 2012
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
Jimmy Paz. Harry Dresden. Matthew Swift. Felix Castor. Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton.
These are among the more recent characters that fill the shelves of “Urban Fantasy” in local or online bookshops. The novels that constitute the genre are set in cities or gritty inner-cities and contain one or more fantastic elements. Alien races, mythological characters, paranormal beings, and the manipulation of magical forces all appear in these novels. Self-esteem issues and tragic pasts often color or shape the principal characters. Although most often “contemporary,” the tales are sometimes set in the past or future as well. The books and stories demonstrate how magic or the supernatural interact with everyday quotidian life, either changing it forever (as in the *Shadow Saga*) or remaining a hidden force that protects the unknowing residents of the city (as in *The Chamber of Ten*).
This “Urban Fantasy” thread is part of a larger project concerned with Magic and the Supernatural in all its myriad forms. The fascination and appeal of magic and supernatural entities pervades societies and cultures. The continuing appeal of these characters is a testimony to how they shape our daydreams and our nightmares, as well as how we yearn for something that is “more” or “beyond” what we can see-touch-taste-feel. Children still avoid stepping on cracks, lovers pluck petals from a daisy, cards are dealt and tea leaves read.
A belief in magic as a means of influencing the world seems to have been common in all cultures. Some of these beliefs crossed over into nascent religions, influencing rites and religious celebrations. Over time, religiously-based supernatural events (”miracles”) acquired their own flavour, separating themselves from standard magic. Some modern religions such as the Neopaganisms embrace connections to magic, while others retain only echoes of their distant origins.
Papers from any discipline are welcome on any aspect of the Urban Fantasy genre as well as those concerned with Magic and the Supernatural in more general terms or other subheadings. Possible subjects include, but are not limited to, these:
* Gender and sexual stereotypes/roles in UF stories
* Updating and rewriting of traditional mythologies in UF
* Role of / interaction of magic/philosophy/religion in UF
* Magical practice as religion in UF
* Changes in UF as reflections of /opposition to contemporary culture
* Cultural and racial stereotypes in UF
* Comparison of UF and other fantasy sub-genres
* Importance of geographic location (ex. London, Salzburg, Venice) in UF
* Importance of historical accuracy and fidelity in UF
* Explanations for how “magic” functions/operates in varying UF stories
* Magic as “paranormal,” anything alleged to exist that is not explainable by any present laws of science
* the distinctions between “magic” and “religion” and “science”
* Magical thinking and the equation of coincidence with causality
* Folk magic and “traditional” systems of magic
* “Magick” and “Wicca” as religious systems in modern society
* Witchcraft in the European context
* “Witchcraft” and animism in African or Asian contexts
* Magic as illusion, stagecraft, sleight-of-hand
* Magic in modern literature (ex. Harry Potter, Harry Dresden, the saga of Middle Earth, the Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) and in traditional literatures (folk or fairy tales, legends, mythologies, etc.)
* Magic in art and the depiction of magical creatures, practices or practitioners
* the associations of magic with the “monstrous” or “evil;” does one imply the presence of the other?
* the portrayal of magic, magical creatures, and magical practices or practitioners on television and in film
* the roles or uses of magic in video games, on-line communities, role-playing games, subcultural formations and identities
* the similarities and differences of magical creatures across societies and time periods
* the interplay of “magic” and “religion” as well as “science”
* the “sciences” of demonology and angelology
* the role of divination or prophecy in societies or religions
* the use of “natural” vs. “supernatural” explanations for world events
* Magic and the supernatural as coping mechanisms for individuals and societies
The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th September 2011. 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 27th January 2012. 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
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
Hub Leader (Evil)
Independent Scholar
New York, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK
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 this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s) or for inclusion in the Perspectives on Evil journal (relaunching 2011).
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.
Prague, Czech Republic
Call for Papers:
Jimmy Paz. Harry Dresden. Matthew Swift. Felix Castor. Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton.
These are among the more recent characters that fill the shelves of “Urban Fantasy” in local or online bookshops. The novels that constitute the genre are set in cities or gritty inner-cities and contain one or more fantastic elements. Alien races, mythological characters, paranormal beings, and the manipulation of magical forces all appear in these novels. Self-esteem issues and tragic pasts often color or shape the principal characters. Although most often “contemporary,” the tales are sometimes set in the past or future as well. The books and stories demonstrate how magic or the supernatural interact with everyday quotidian life, either changing it forever (as in the *Shadow Saga*) or remaining a hidden force that protects the unknowing residents of the city (as in *The Chamber of Ten*).
This “Urban Fantasy” thread is part of a larger project concerned with Magic and the Supernatural in all its myriad forms. The fascination and appeal of magic and supernatural entities pervades societies and cultures. The continuing appeal of these characters is a testimony to how they shape our daydreams and our nightmares, as well as how we yearn for something that is “more” or “beyond” what we can see-touch-taste-feel. Children still avoid stepping on cracks, lovers pluck petals from a daisy, cards are dealt and tea leaves read.
A belief in magic as a means of influencing the world seems to have been common in all cultures. Some of these beliefs crossed over into nascent religions, influencing rites and religious celebrations. Over time, religiously-based supernatural events (”miracles”) acquired their own flavour, separating themselves from standard magic. Some modern religions such as the Neopaganisms embrace connections to magic, while others retain only echoes of their distant origins.
Papers from any discipline are welcome on any aspect of the Urban Fantasy genre as well as those concerned with Magic and the Supernatural in more general terms or other subheadings. Possible subjects include, but are not limited to, these:
* Gender and sexual stereotypes/roles in UF stories
* Updating and rewriting of traditional mythologies in UF
* Role of / interaction of magic/philosophy/religion in UF
* Magical practice as religion in UF
* Changes in UF as reflections of /opposition to contemporary culture
* Cultural and racial stereotypes in UF
* Comparison of UF and other fantasy sub-genres
* Importance of geographic location (ex. London, Salzburg, Venice) in UF
* Importance of historical accuracy and fidelity in UF
* Explanations for how “magic” functions/operates in varying UF stories
* Magic as “paranormal,” anything alleged to exist that is not explainable by any present laws of science
* the distinctions between “magic” and “religion” and “science”
* Magical thinking and the equation of coincidence with causality
* Folk magic and “traditional” systems of magic
* “Magick” and “Wicca” as religious systems in modern society
* Witchcraft in the European context
* “Witchcraft” and animism in African or Asian contexts
* Magic as illusion, stagecraft, sleight-of-hand
* Magic in modern literature (ex. Harry Potter, Harry Dresden, the saga of Middle Earth, the Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) and in traditional literatures (folk or fairy tales, legends, mythologies, etc.)
* Magic in art and the depiction of magical creatures, practices or practitioners
* the associations of magic with the “monstrous” or “evil;” does one imply the presence of the other?
* the portrayal of magic, magical creatures, and magical practices or practitioners on television and in film
* the roles or uses of magic in video games, on-line communities, role-playing games, subcultural formations and identities
* the similarities and differences of magical creatures across societies and time periods
* the interplay of “magic” and “religion” as well as “science”
* the “sciences” of demonology and angelology
* the role of divination or prophecy in societies or religions
* the use of “natural” vs. “supernatural” explanations for world events
* Magic and the supernatural as coping mechanisms for individuals and societies
The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 30th September 2011. 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 27th January 2012. 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
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
Hub Leader (Evil)
Independent Scholar
New York, USA
Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK
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 this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s) or for inclusion in the Perspectives on Evil journal (relaunching 2011).
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.
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