Calls for papers – Conferences taking place in March 2016

Adaptation and Dance
Centre for Adaptations, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, 2 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 6 November 2016

Dance productions frequently draw on artistic precedents. Ballet companies rely on classics based on fairy and folk tales but audiences also enjoy an expanding repertoire of works based on a broader range of sources: art — The Green Table, The Rake’s Progress, A Simple Man; the Bible — Job, The Judas Tree, The Prodigal Son; film — Edward Scissorhands; biography — Anastasia, Fall River Legend, Mayerling; children’s literature — The Tales of Beatrix Potter; novels — Anna Karenina, The Great Gatsby, Manon, Woolf Works; operas — The Car Man, Madame Butterfly; plays — Edward II, Hobson’s Choice; poetry — Images of Love. Shakespeare has provided inspiration for a large number of dance-makers. These examples signal how across several decades choreographers working globally with a range of companies have produced one-act and full-length pieces for stage and screen.

In recent years there has been growing interest in the analysis of a range of topics connected with adaptation and dance. By bringing together scholars and practitioners, this one-day conference seeks to move away from the dominant focus on film and television in Adaptation Studies and consider the neglected area of dance. Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

Fairy and folk tale ballet adaptations
The history of ballet adaptations
Modern dance and classical ballet interpretations of literary works
Key choreographers as adaptors
The idea of the choreographer as ‘auteur’
Dance adaptations of novels and poems
Stardom, celebrity and dance adaptations
Shakespeare and ballet
Genres of dance adaptation
The theoretical underpinnings of Adaptation Studies in relation to dance

It is hoped that selected papers will form an edited collection. Proposals (between 50–100 words) and a brief biographical note should be sent by 6 November 2015 to:
– Elinor Parsons: eparsons@dmu.ac.uk
– and Hila Shachar: hila.shachar@dmu.ac.uk.

(posted 2 July 2015)

Killing the sons: Scandal and the Great War
Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France, 3-4 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 1 October 2015

International interdisciplinary conference
EA 4182 TIL – MSH – Collège doctoral franco-allemand, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
Within the overall framework of scandal the First World War may be considered from two analytical standpoints:
– The first concerns the presuppositions which underpin official discourse, patriotic arguments and the homage paid to the sacrifice of the young generations. A certain conception of the sacred duty owed to the fatherland generated the scandal of desertion, mutiny and that of the conscientious objectors: a boisterous, structured and ongoing scandal.
– The second concerns the scandal of war in general and of this war in particular. It is the scandal of a society which kills its sons so brutally and on such a massive scale. This was a silent scandal, expressed only obliquely through art and literature. Through many different channels, it is the outcry against the disorder of a society addicted to progress and which, throughout four long years of political inadequacy and perverse ideological discourse, to allow the organized massacre of its sons.
The correlation of these two standpoints stems from the etymology of the word scandal: Greek σκάνδαλον ‘trap’, corresponding to Latin scandalum ‘stumbling block, obstacle causing the subject to falter and fall’. A scandal is essentially something unforeseen, un-envisaged, the representation of a form of violence and blindness. By definition, the protagonists of a scandal, victims and instigators alike, are rapidly overtaken by it, under the influence of forces too powerful to be identified, and which simply spin out of control.
The years that have passed before historians have started to look into the most taboo aspects of the conflict is a clear indication of the weight of things ‘better left unsaid’ and the extent of what has for so long remained unexplored. The centenary commemoration must therefore revisit the various forms of scandal, which, for some, constituted or were generated by outbreak and the prosecution of the war itself. The conference will also provide the opportunity for a fresh look into a whole series of artistic scandals which, despite having been the subject of many studies within the field of art history, have attracted relatively little attention in their specific historical dimension.

The conference aims to bring together different approaches. Accordingly, proposals from historians and psychologists, as well as from scholars of literature and art history, sociology, anthropology and linguistics will be welcome.
The languages of the conference will be English and French.

Proposals for papers, along with a select bibliography, should be sent by 1st October 2015 to:
– Françoise Bort: francoise.bort@u-bourgogne.fr,
– Sylvie Crinquand: s.crinquand@orange.fr
– or Olaf Müller: muelleo@uni-mainz.de.

(posted 2 June 2015)

2016 International Conference on Medical Humanities
Warsaw, Poland, 11-12 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 20 January 2016

“Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity”
Hippocrates

Conference venue: Interdisciplinary Research Foundation, Al. Jerozolimskie 85/21, Warsaw, Poland
Keynote speaker: Dr hab. Andrzej Kapusta, Maria-Curie Skłodowska University

The conference will explore the social, historical and cultural dimensions of medicine. It will promote an interdisciplinary perspective on health, illness, health care and the body. The conference will also focus on the issues relevant to medical knowledge, public health policy, the experience of being ill and of caring for those who are ill.
Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

history of medicine
medical anthropology
bioethics
sociology of medicine
medicine in literature and cultural studies
medicine and art
medicine and philosophy
health geography
medical education

We also welcome poster proposals that address one of the conference themes.
The language of the conference is English.
The conference is addressed to academics, researchers and professionals with a particular interest related to the conference topic. Proposals up to 200 words and a brief biographical note should be sent by 20 January, 2016 to medhumconf@gmail.com
Notifications from the Conference Committee will be sent by 25 January 2015.
We are planning to publish the conference papers in a collected volume.
Full registration fee: 150 €; Student registration fee :115 €
No travel or accommodation grants are available at the moment.
For the information about hotels close to the venue, please visit http://www.accorhotels.com/Warsaw
Visit the conference website.

(posted 30 November 2015)

Trauma: The 6th Global Conference
Budapest, Hungary ,11-13 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 2 October 2015

In a world where we are constantly presented with images and stories of traumatic events, there is often a temptation to look away to avoid the reality of individual and collective suffering. Yet, trauma forces us to confront suffering and humanity in others as well as in ourselves; to share, witness and acknowledge the pain and its causes in the hope of finding some means of resolution.This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research and publishing stream seeks to examine and explore issues concerning individual and collective trauma in terms of real life experiences, practice, and theory. Over the past century, the field of trauma practice and theory has broadly developed from its roots in psychoanalysis to becoming a dominant methodology for explaining human responses to disruptive life events. Indeed, it has been argued that in this century we are more exposed than ever to a ‘culture of trauma’.
Trauma has a thematic identity that exists on the interdisciplinary fringes of other subject areas, either peripherally nudging, or fully penetrating existing research fields, shifting cultures and influencing global politics. Thus, while we welcome research papers of core theoretical and clinical interest, we also warmly encourage presentations, workshops, and discussions that address the relationship between trauma and: survival and resilience; forgiveness and reconciliation; the erotic; brain function; the impact of intimate partner violence; gender and sexuality – moving beyond the male/female dichotomy; working with the experience of accumulated and complex traumas; trauma pedagogy and therapeutic practices; practical approaches to national and international trauma; religion and the politicisation of trauma – fundamentalism and the perpetration of traumatic acts; and trauma in the workplace. We also welcome submissions that conceive of trauma as a space or opportunity to create change, make new meaning, and support psychological and emotional growth.
We encourage presentations that feature auto-ethnographical and experiential accounts, case studies, papers, performance pieces, reports, and works of art, works-in-progress, and workshops addressing issues that might include (but are not limited to) any of the following themes:

1. Theorising Trauma

Trauma and post colonialism — ideological and ethical considerations
Memory — recalling the ‘ghosts’ of trauma
Music, writing, drama, dance, art, and other creative activities as therapy/healing
Trauma and loss
Wounds of national identity
Trauma studies
Individual versus collective trauma
Socio-cultural perspectives on traumatic experience
Gender — differences, outcomes, and responses.
The body as a trauma a site
Psychic trauma – emotional and mental disorder
Resilience and trauma
Social justice and trauma — culturally different approaches
New theory, integration, and application
Attitudes toward trauma across cultures and over time

2. Representing Trauma

Aesthetics and experience
Affect, trauma, and art — embodiment and transformation
Eyewitness reports
Trauma and the supernatural
Fear and horror — fact and fiction
Gaming, violence and normalisation
Trauma on stage, screen, and in cyberspace
Traumatic expression
Language and media: mixing reality with fiction
Literature and poetry
New technologies of trauma
Reporting on trauma
Images and narrative relationships
Otherness, spirituality, and trauma

3. Personal Experiences and Local Contexts of Trauma

Bereavement: parent; sibling; partner loss
War and trauma (including PTSD)
Abandonment
Betrayal
Peer pressure and bullying
Murder and assault — impact on the self and portrayal by the news media
Domestic violence — impact upon individuals and future service delivery
Child abuse and childhood trauma
Survivor guilt — in the wake of loss
Identity — de/construction and transformation
Disability — the affect on psychomotor skills
Witnessing trauma helping those we love
Testimony
The interrogation, critiquing, representation, and/or creation of works that deal with fictional and actual traumatic events
Bogus” or “opportunistic” claims of trauma and the motives behind them

4. Public and Political Trauma

War and trauma, both past and present
Captivity and torture
Public disasters and trauma including environmental catastrophes
Disease, public health and trauma
Political trauma, silencing dissent/voicing dissent
Social trauma
Trauma in the workplace
Trauma and financial (in)security
Traumatic displacement and cultural uprooting
Inherited intergenerational trauma
Truth, remembrance, and reconciliation

5. Diagnosing and Treating Trauma

Critical questions of practice
Experiential trauma work and practical projects
Resilience
Cultural barriers to diagnosis and treatment
Writing as therapy
Storytelling as means of recovery
Art as a form of healing
Music as therapy
Animals and healing
Medical, therapeutic, and holistic approaches to trauma management
Vicarious traumatisation, secondary stress, and compassion fatigue. Professional helpers/researchers’ experiences and/or as survivors
Coping strategies – stress management and reduction
Perspectives of change – identity, and post-traumatic growth, person to survivor
Treatment as re-traumatisation
Economics of trauma: businesses catering for treatment, self-help industry, etc.

Call for Cross-Over Presentations
The Trauma project will be meeting at the same time as a project on The Supernatural and another project on Loss. We welcome submissions which cross the divide between both project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission “Crossover Submission”.
Further details and information can be found at the project web page.

Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Trauma Abstract Submission
Where to Send: Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:
Peter Bray: p.bray@auckland.ac.nz
Rob Fisher: trauma6@inter-disciplinary.net

This event is an inclusive interdisciplinary research and publishing project. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
There will be an eBook resulting from the conference meeting. It is also anticipated that a number of publishing options will arise from the work of the project generally and from the meeting of the Trauma stream in particular. Other options, some of which might include digital publications, paperbacks and a journal will be explored during and after the meeting itself.
Ethos: Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. 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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(posted 23 August 2015)

The Supernatural
Budapest, Hungary, 11-13 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 2 October 2015

From vengeful gods and goddesses and witches to poltergeists and hauntings, to demonic possession and the accompany exorcism rituals, the human imagination has been captivated for millennia by the power of forces that operate outside the laws of nature and the relationship between humans and the spirit world. Over time, the supernatural has served as a basis for titillating audiences and generating fear. The supernatural has served as a useful means of explaining complicated natural processes in terms humans understand. As history’s famous witch-hunts have demonstrated, the supernatural is also a potent weapon for exerting control over individuals whose behaviour or appearance fail to confirm to the ‘norms’ of the community. Conversely, the supernatural can also provide a means of expressing minority beliefs in a way that challenges the power of mainstream organized religions. The supernatural offers a source of personal comfort in the face of grief by providing assurance that a departed loved one is watching over us. However, as the long line of supernatural hoaxes reveal, however, this longing to believe in the afterlife can enable schemes designed to manipulate and swindle vulnerable people.
But just what purpose does the supernatural serve in 21st century societies? Is it a throwback to the irrational, superstitious and archaic beliefs of a so-called primitive era, or is it a reminder that there is more to existence than the ‘truths’ revealed by the sciences? The Supernatural interdisciplinary research and publishing event aims to interrogate and investigate the supernatural from a variety of perspectives in order to understand the uses and meanings of the supernatural across time and cultures. Subjects for presentation include, but are not limited to, the following:

The Supernatural in Theory and Practice

Shifting perspectives of what is supernatural over time and across cultures
Non-Western perspectives on the supernatural
What attitudes toward the supernatural suggest about human perceptions of the boundaries between worlds
Ancestor worship and the cultures in which this tradition is practiced
Witchcraft, voodoo and the cultures where these traditions are practiced
Satanism and cultural perceptions of this belief system
Reasons behind the enduring fascination with supernatural evil, including philosophical, theological and anthropological perspectives on this question
Relationship between the supernatural and magic
Religious traditions and the supernatural (supernatural aspects of faith and belief, attitudes of faith traditions toward the supernatural, how clergy respond to individuals who report supernatural experiences, etc.)

The Supernatural and Real Life

Socially accepted forms of supernatural belief and the factors that make some beliefs more acceptable than others
Harms and benefits of believing in the supernatural
Relationship between the supernatural and cruelty
Apocalyptic supernatural evil events or characters and the significance of millenarianism
Characteristics of supernatural entities and the significance of their difference from/similarity to human traits
Relationship between the supernatural and social power/ideologies (e.g. witchcraft as pretext for dealing with non-conforming women, using the supernatural to engage with physical enemies, etc.)
Legal/legislative approaches to restricting or enabling supernatural belief (limits of religious freedom principles, state-sanctioned punishment of witches, etc.)
Medical/clinical perspectives on belief in the supernatural: the neuroscience behind (dis)belief, clinical responses to individuals who report supernatural experiences
Science and the supernatural: using science to (dis)prove supernatural occurrences
Technologies that facilitate/measure/prove engagement with the paranormal/occult
Future of the supernatural in a world increasingly driven by science and reason

Supernatural Encounters

How the function and/or interpretation of a report of supernatural evil changes over time or across cultures
Analyses of reports of supernatural encounters: common conventions of reports, style and mode of recounting experience, impact of titillation versus simple reporting of events in the reports of these encounters
Impact of oral traditions, artistic renderings and generic conventions on the telling and reception of accounts involving supernatural encounters
How the reception of reports of the supernatural is influenced by the experience of listening versus reading or viewing
Emotional and intellectual pleasures associated with the supernatural: pleasures of fear and titillation, etc.
Comedic interpretations of supernatural evil: haunted houses in amusement parks, horror movie spoofs, etc
Supernatural in film, television (including reality series like Most Haunted and Ghost Hunters), theatre, music, art and literature—and how they differ from more ‘traditional’ accounts
Supernatural spaces: spaces associated with evil and the economic benefits/tourism implications of such connections
Hoaxes, frauds and swindles

Supernatural and live performance

Curated film screenings
Performances (dramatic staging, dance, music)
Readings
Art installations

Call for Cross-Over Presentations
The Supernatural project will be meeting at the same time as a project on Trauma and another project on Loss. We welcome submissions which cross the divide between both project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission “Crossover Submission”.
Further details and information can be found at the project web site.
300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 2nd October 2015.
All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.
You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday 16th October 2015.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 5th February 2016.
Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: The Supernatural Abstract Submission
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:
Stephen Morris: smmorris58@yahoo.com
Rob Fisher: supernatural@inter-disciplinary.net

This event is an inclusive interdisciplinary research and publishing project. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
There will be an eBook resulting from the conference meeting. It is also anticipated that a number of other publishing options will arise from the work of the project generally and from the meeting of The Supernatural stream in particular. Other options, some of which might include digital publications, paperbacks and a journal will be explored during the meeting itself.
Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. 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.

(posted 23 August 2015)

Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Legends
Budapest, Hungary, 14-16 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 2 October 2015

Wicked witches, evil stepmothers, Rumplestiltskin, jinn, gnomes, trolls, wolves and thieves versus fairy godmothers, Peri, departed beloved mothers, firebirds, dwarves, princesses, Simurgh, woodcutters and princes charming. Fairy tales, folk lore and legends are the canvas on which the vast mural of good versus evil plays out and our darkest dreams or nightmares struggle against our better selves and highest hopes. At the same time, the relationship between these tales and modern society is a complex one that invites closer consideration of the changing nature of the stories and how modern sensibilities have both challenged and been challenged by the values and viewpoints that underpin the narratives.
Fairy tales can be interpreted in a variety of ways and from a variety of viewpoints: they can be psychological exposes, blueprints for dealing with the traumas of childhood and early adulthood, guides to navigating life, windows onto social realities long forgotten, remnants of ancient mythology or hints at how to access the Transcendent.
The Fairy Tales interdisciplinary research and publishing stream investigates how fairy tales/folk tales/legends represent both good and evil, how these are personified or interact, what these reveal about the lives of those who have told them over the years, what they mean for us who read or listen to them today.
Possible subjects for presentations include but are not limited to:`

Exploring the Tales Themselves

Functions of tales over time and across cultures
Socio-political context of tales and their capacity to serve as allegories for real life issues
Justice and morality in the tales
Fairy tale utopias and dystopias and the blurred lines between fiction, fact, reality, science fiction and mythology
How fairy tales shape ideas about happiness
Considerations of why tales are an enduring aspect of culture
Factors that make some tales more popular than others (and why popularity can shift over time)
(Re)interpretations and re-imaginings of the same tales differ over time or across cultures
Relationship between fairy tale characters and real life humans: do human ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys’ behave so differently from fictional goodies and baddies, where there times when characters that seem fantastic to modern folks were actually considered to be more realistic by historical readers/listeners, what factors shape the changes that cause people to perceive characters as more or less real
Relationship between fantastic and magical elements of tales and lived reality
Tales and monsters: monstrous animals, monstrous humans, children’s interaction with monsters
Intended lessons and values of stories and counter-interpretations, particularly in relation to gender, sex, materialistic values, notions of virtue and authority
Processes around the domestication of fairy tales
Tales as a source of/mechanism for oppression of individuals or groups
New/modern tales
Critical approaches to tales
Tales and their authors
Fairy tale artwork and imagery
Fairy tale geographies: spaces and places of both the worlds within fairy tales as well as the spaces and places where the narratives are told or written

Encountering Fairy Tales/Legends/Folk Tales

Studies of readers/audiences across time and cultures
Listening versus reading: impact of oral traditions on the narratives, impact of illustrations in reception of the tales, etc.
Relationship between traditional and modern forms of interactive storytelling involving fairy tales
How adaptation to other mediums, such as film, television, visual art, music, theatre, graphic novels, dance and video games, affect the content of the tales themselves, appreciation of the narrative or our interpretations of narrative meaning

Uses of Fairy Tales/Legends/Folk Tales

In advertising (re-imagining tales in advertising imagery, marketing the princess lifestyle, etc.)
Tales and pedagogy: using tales as teaching and learning tools
In tourism through destination marketing of spaces associated with fairy tales, Disneyfication of tales, etc.
In the formation of national/cultural/ethnic identity
In the publishing business
Communities, biography and fairy tales: How social communal identity is forged around telling and re-telling tales

Tales, Health and Happiness

Tales and magical thinking in the human development
Tales and psychological/clinical practices involving tales
Tales and unhealthy behaviour/beliefs
Effect of tales on shaping notions of (un)happiness, (in)appropriate ways to pursue it and how to respond to respond to others’ (un)happiness
Tales and aging (“growing old” as a theme in tales, how tales shape perceptions of old age, etc.)

Live Performances of Tales

Theatrical, dance and other types of staged presentations
Pantomime
Vocal performances
Art installations
Readings
Curated film screenings

Further details can be found on the project web site.

Call for Cross-Over Presentations
The Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Legends project will be meeting at the same time as a project on Health and another project on Happiness. We welcome submissions which cross the divide between both project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission “Crossover Submission”.

What to Send: 300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 2nd October 2015.
All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedure2015)s usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.
You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Friday 16th October 2015.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 5th February 2016.
Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Fairy Tales Abstract Submission
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:
Stephen Morris: smmorris58@yahoo.com
Rob Fisher: fairytales@inter-disciplinary.net

This event is an inclusive interdisciplinary research and publishing project. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
It is anticipated that a number of publishing options will arise from the work of the project generally and from the meeting of Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Legends stream in particular. Minimally there will be a digital eBook resulting from the conference meeting. Other options, some of which might include digital publications, paperbacks and a journal will be explored during the meeting itself.
Ethos: Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. 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.

(posted 7 September)

Storytelling, Illness and Medicine: 11th Global Meeting of the Health project
Budapest, Hungary, 14-16 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 4 December 2015

Telling stories help us wrestle with and make sense of the things which happen in our lives. When illness or disease emerge and disrupt our everyday lives, stories play a key role by which we attempt to create meaning in relation to what is happening to us. They also invite others to share and engage in the way we see ourselves during such times, create spaces for sympathy, empathy and compassion and encourage people to share in the process of making sense of health, illness and disease with us.
When it comes to medicine and clinical practice, the stories people tell become the first point of contact between sufferer and doctor and beyond that, between patient, doctor, consultant and even surgeon.
This inclusive interdisciplinary research stream aims to explore the processes by which we attempt to use stories and narratives to create meaning in health, illness and disease. The project will also examine the myths, the models, the metaphors we use to understand our experiences of health and illness and to evaluate the diversity of ways in which we creatively struggle to make sense of such experiences and express ourselves across a range of media. In the process it will map and evaluate the storied experience of illness between persons, patients, care-givers, practitioners and medical professionals, the impact of stories on care and the delivery of care, medical literacy, and stories shared at the level of health care professionals, the pharmaceutical industry and education.

Presentations, informal talks, performances, workshops, directed discussions, screenings and other types of interactive engagement might address themes such as:

stories and the ‘significance’ of health, illness and disease for individuals and communities; the factors which influence our perceptions of health and illness experiences
the concept of the ‘well’ person and the preoccupation with health; the attitudes of the ‘well’ to the ‘ill’; perceptions of ‘impairment’ and disability and the challenges posed when confronted by illness and disease; the notion of being ‘cured’; chronic illness; terminal illness; and, attitudes to death
story-telling as an individual and community experience; stories that we weave to make meaning of our condition; how we perceive, present and conduct our self through experiences of health and illness; effects on our sense of identity; our relationship with our own body; and, how others — family, friends, partners, strangers, doctors, nurses, and care givers — see us
stories, persons and bodies; the body in health or pain; the body on display; disabled bodies; damaged bodies; amputated bodies; the body as machine and the role of technology; the rise of genetics; manipulation of the body — transplantation, surgery; the body as resource; ‘artificial’ bodies; and the potential influences of gender, ethnicity, and class
competing stories; biological and medical narratives of illness; ‘alternative’ medicine and therapies; the doctor-patient relationship; the ‘clinical gaze’; the impact of health, illness and disease on public narratives of biology, economics, government, medicine, politics, social sciences; the changing stories in the relationship between society and medical development; health care, service providers, and public policy
the nature and role of ‘metaphors’ in expressing the experiences of health, illness and disease — for example, illness as ‘another country’; the role of narrative and narrative interpretation in making sense of the ‘journey’ from health through illness, diagnosis, and treatment; the importance of story telling; dealing with chronic and terminal illness; the ‘myths’ surrounding health, illness and disease
the relationship between creative work, illness and disease: the work of artists, musicians, poets, writers. Illness and the literary imagination – studies of writers and literature which take health, disability, illness and disease as a central theme
tales from the inside; stories and the patient; the therapeutic relational, meaningful encounters, assessments, and interventions; the institution, the service and the individual
professional stories and reflective practice; co-constructing meaning developing practice
working with stories; how to listen, to hear and to respond
life beyond illness; acknowledging stories that transform; sacred and heroic journeys; quests and survivor missions

Further details and information can be found at the conference website.
Call for Cross-Over Presentations
The Storytelling, Illness and Medicine project will be meeting at the same time as a project on Fairy Tales and another project on Happiness. We welcome submissions which cross the divide between both project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission “Crossover Submission”.

What to Sen: 300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 4th December 2015.
All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.
You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Wednesday 16th December 2015.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 12th February 2016.
Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: Storytelling, Illness and Medicine Abstract Submission
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:
Peter Bray: p.bray@auckland.ac.nz
Rob Fisher: illhealth@inter-disciplinary.net

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.
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.

(posted 3 November 2015)

Innovative Representations of ‘Utopias’ in Studies in English: International Graduate Conference
Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, 15 March 2016
Deadline for Proposals: 10 January 2016

The Centre for British Literary and Cultural Studies at Hacettepe University is pleased to announce its second graduate conference which this time will be held on an international ground, “Innovative Representations of ‘Utopias’ in Studies in English”. We welcome academic proposals produced in English on British Literature/Culture, Commonwealth Literature/Culture, Irish Literature/Culture and American Literature/Culture from MA and PhD students enrolled in graduate programmes all over the world.
The intention of this conference is to provide graduate students a platform on which to discuss the varied portrayals of utopias and dystopias on both human and non-human scales. “Innovative Representations of ‘Utopias’ in Studies in English” proposes to investigate the politics, nature, roles and effects of utopian and dystopian literacy in the cultural, fictional, real and virtual worlds. We are particularly interested in receiving papers from a spectrum of research areas and a broad range of literary and non-literary genres, including cultural studies, which help illustrate these themes. In honour of the 500th anniversary of the publication of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), the title of the conference has been chosen as an umbrella term. Therefore, the conference is inclusive of all the “-topia” subgenres, regardless of the title’s proposal to include solely “utopias”. Papers favouring inter/cross/multi-disciplinary perspectives will be given preference so as to generate fruitful discussion among various disciplines.
Possible topics under ‘Utopias’ include, but are not limited to:

Utopias, Dystopias, Anti-Utopias and Eutopias
Utopias/Dystopias and Ethnic/Racial Politics and Immigration
Utopias/Dystopias and Gender Studies
Utopias/Dystopias and Postcolonial Studies
Utopias/Dystopias with a Political Perspective
Utopias/Dystopias and Environmental Studies
Utopias/Dystopias and Animal and Plant Studies
Utopias/Dystopias of the Space Age
Utopias/Dystopias and Multimedia
Fantastic Literature
Science Fiction
Climate Change Fiction
Games and Digital Artefacts with a Utopian/Dystopian Dimension

Abstract Submission: 300-word abstracts, together with contact information (full name, institutional affiliation, department, email address, brief bio) of participant(s) should be sent as Microsoft Word documents, attached to an email message addressed to conferencegraduate@gmail.com by 10 January 2016.
The official language of the conference is English. Selected presentations will be organized into panels of 2 or 4 with regard to their themes. All the presentations are limited to 20 minutes which will be followed by a ten-minute discussion. The presenters are strongly advised to make an oral presentation and not a read-out of the complete paper. The conference will take place at conference halls at the Beytepe Campus of Hacettepe University on 15 March 2016.
Key Dates
Deadline for Submission of Abstract Proposals: 10 January 2016
Acceptance Confirmation: 22 January 2016
Submission of PowerPoint Presentations: 01 March 2016
Conference Date: 15 March 2016
Contact Information: Prof. Dr. A. Deniz Bozer – conferencegraduate@gmail.com

Centre Web: http://www.iekaum.hacettepe.edu.tr/english/
Download the call for papers in pdf format.

(posted 20 September 2015)

“Hast any philosophy in thee?”: Subjecting Shakespeare to the Risks of Philosophy
Université de Poitiers, France, 17-18 March 2016
Deadline for propoals: 15 June 2015

International Conference (in French and English languages):
Thursday 17th-Friday 18th MARCH 2016 – 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s Death

Co-organised by Pr. Pascale DROUET (Department of English Studies, University of Poitiers) and Pr. Philippe GROSOS (Department of Philosophy, University of Poitiers), under the auspices of research laboratories:
– FoReLL (Team B1 : “Poetics of Representation”), dir. Pr. Michel BRIAND
– MAPP (« German metaphysics and practical philosophy »), dir. Pr. Bernard MABILLE
– With the participation of the Students from the Poitiers Conservatory of Drama, dir. Agnès DELUME: Voicing Shakespeare’s texts translated into French by Yves Bonnefoy,
– With the participation of French poet, essayist and translator Yves BONNEFOY: conference and roundtable.
– With the participation of Paul A. KOTTMAN, editor of Philosophers on Shakespeare : conference.

Scientific Committee: William C. CARROLL (University of Boston), Hélène CIXOUS (CIPH – Collège international de philosophie – et CCEFEG – Centre d’Etudes Féminines et d’Etudes de Genre, Université de Paris 8), Pascale DROUET (Université de Poitiers), Philippe GROSOS (Université de Poitiers), Paul A. KOTTMAN (The New School, New York), Marie-Madeleine MARTINET (Université de Paris Sorbonne – Paris IV)

Although Shakespeare wasn’t a philosopher and in his work he showed little explicit interest in philosophy, whether ancient philosophy or in the thinkers of his time, his status in the philosophical world is decidedly different. Indeed, even if the reception of his work by philosophers wasn’t immediate, since the 19th century Shakespeare has attracted considerable attention, notably among major German philosophers such as Hegel, Nietzsche and Schelling. This fascination has continued into our age, to the extent that Jacques Derrida’s interest in the author of Hamlet has led to rich exchanges of ideas.
What do all these philosophers find in Shakespeare’s work, if not philosophy itself? It could certainly be argued, first of all, that behind all these important thinkers (and a great poet and playwright is an important thinker) lies an implicit philosophy. In this respect, to consider Shakespeare philosophically would involve a reappraisal of his philosophical assumptions regarding fundamental concepts, and an examination of his sense of modernity in the transition from the 16th to the 17th century.
Secondly, a philosophical approach to Shakespeare also takes seriously the description that he gave in his own work of the human condition, which embraces all of philosophical anthropology. In this regard, it involves not only studying Shakespeare in his time, but also in all time, in the hypothetical timelessness that he postulates.
Thus the role of the conference is threefold:

a philosophical examination of Shakespeare’s thought as an example of the birth of modernity, in his critical and conflicting relation with an ancient world from which he irreversibly distances himself.
an exploration of the reception of Shakespeare’s work within the philosophical tradition. Indeed, this tradition is so rich that one is obliged to acknowledge that philosophers recognized him as a thinker with whom they could engage. This reception has its own history, depending on whether philosophers have read Shakespeare’s work as poetry or drama – they have not found the same realities.
a consideration of the fundamental concepts in Shakespeare’s work, notably the questions which, over the centuries, have exerted an ongoing fascination for philosophers.

Lastly, subjecting Shakespeare to the risks of philosophy involves rigorous conceptual interpretations, including, perhaps, reading more into his work than he would have intended. But isn’t that also a sign of the greatest thinkers, to be credited for more than they actually wrote? In the end, philosophizing about Shakespeare will also lead to a consideration of philosophy itself, with its pretention of putting into words and taking the risk to see what is always elusive and ever to be questioned. This is the dual requirement – the double risk – of this conference.

Proposals, with a short notice on contributor, are to be sent by June 15th 2015 to
– pascale.drouet@univ-poitiers.fr
– and philippe.grosos@univ-poitiers.fr.

Available for download: the full call for papers, which includes bibliographial suggestions.

(posted 7 April 2014)

Racism, Nationalism and Xenophobia
Warsaw, Poland, 17-18 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2015

Visit the Conference website.
Contact e-mail address: wowczarski1@tlen.pl or racismnationalism@tlen.pl
Venue: University of Finance and Management in Warsaw, Pawia Street no. 55, 01-030 Warsaw
Organisers:
Professor Wojciech Owczarsk, University of Gdańsk (Poland)
Marta Patej, University of Finance and Management in Warsaw (Poland)
Paula Wicher, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw (Poland)
Amanda Chalupa, McGill University (Canada)
Co-organiser: InMind Support

It is widely known that ideologies of racism, nationalism, and xenophobia are dangerous and spread all over the world. We want to examine these terms as much as possible, from many perspectives and variable aspects: in politics, society, psychology, culture, and many more. We also want to devote considerable attention to how the phenomena of racism, nationalism and xenophobia are represented in artistic practices: in literature, film, theatre or visual arts.
We invite researchers representing various academic disciplines: history, politics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, economics, law, history of literature, theatre studies, film studies, fine arts, design, memory studies, migration studies, consciousness studies, dream studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, medical sciences, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, cognitive sciences et al.
Different forms of presentations are encouraged, including case studies, theoretical investigations, problem-oriented arguments, and comparative analyses.
We will be happy to hear from both experienced scholars and young academics at the start of their careers, as well as doctoral students. We also invite all persons interested in participating in the conference as listeners, without giving a presentation.
We hope that due to its interdisciplinary nature, the conference will bring many interesting observations on and discussions about the role of racism, nationalism and xenophobia in the past and in the present-day world.
Our repertoire of suggested topics includes but is not restricted to:

I. Politics and History

colonialism/ postcolonialism
anti-semitism: past and present
islamophobia and terrorism
orientalism
imperialism
crimes against humanity
violations of human rights
racism, nationalism and political correctness
nationalism and patriotism
xenophobia and cosmopolitism
racism, nationalism and religion

II. Anthropology and Philosophy

ideologies of racism
nationalism and “will of power”
cultural determinants of racism, nationalism, and xenophobia
nationalist nations
xenophobic societies
racist generations

III. Psychology

stereotypes and prejudices
racist myths and phantasms
racism and scapegoat mechanism
xenophobia and sense of guilt
nationalism and narcissism
projection and repression
individual and social proneness to hate ideology
therapy for victims of discrimination

IV. Memory and protection of human rights

organization of human rights protection
education against racism, nationalism and xenophobia
memory in the service of education
memorial places
solidarity with victims of violence
empathy with the Other

V. Literature and arts

racism, nationalism and xenophobia in literature
racism, nationalism and xenophobia in film
racism, nationalism and xenophobia in theatre
literature and art against hate ideology
racist artists

Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note, by 31st December 2015 both to prof. Wojciech Owczarski: wowczarski1@tlen.pl and racismnationalism@tlen.pl
Notification of acceptance will be sent by 5th January 2016.
The conference language is English.
For further details please visit our website.

(posted 28 Sesptember 2015)

New Perspectives in Science Education – 5th edition
Florence, Italy, 17-18 March 2016
New extended deadline for submitting abstracts: 11 January 2016

Experts, teachers, trainers and researchers in the field of science education are invited to submit papers for the 5th edition of the New Perspectives in Science Education International Conference which will take place in Florence (Italy) on 17 -18 March 2016.
The conference is intended as a meeting point also to present results achieved in science education projects funded by the European Commission and by other sources.

New extended Deadline for submitting abstracts: 11 January 20176
More information about submitting abstracts is available on the Conference website.
All accepted papers will be included in the Conference Proceedings published by LibreriaUniversitaria with ISBN and ISSN codes. This publication will be sent to be reviewed for inclusion in SCOPUS.
Papers will also be included in the sharing platform academia.edu and Google Scholar.

Oral, poster and virtual presentations will be available.
For further information, please visit the conference website.

(posted 18 November 2015, updated 16 December 2015)

21st Century Evils: 17th Global Conference, The Evil Project
Budapest, Hungary, 17-19 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 9 October 2015

It has been said that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Yet, evil remains a constant fixture of the human condition, in spite of all of the monuments, memorials, speeches and books designed to keep the ills of the past ever in our thoughts. Knowledge of the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide has not saved the global community from enduring new humanitarian catastrophes, such as those in Syria and Darfur. Geopolitical power struggles resulting in poverty, violence and devastation for affected communities continue to leave a legacy of suffering in many parts of the world.
Despite understanding the impact of the Great Depression on the global community, the world’s industrial powers embraced an agenda of deregulation, which precipitated a global financial crisis that devastated individuals, families, businesses, communities and states. The scrutiny aimed at understanding the reasons behind crimes perpetrated by the likes of Ted Kaczynski, Ted Bundy, Mira Hindley and others has not enabled us to prevent horrific acts of violence in our communities. Indeed, the wickedness of men and women continues to leave an enduring mark on life in the 21st century despite our collective awareness of historical evils.
Thus, rather than consider evil in a general or historical context, the 21st Century Evils conference adopts a more concrete, forward-looking perspective to explore questions such as: What does evil look like in the 21st century? How is it different from evil in previous centuries? What are the causes of evil in 21st century? How do globalisation and interconnectedness shape the way evil is perpetrated and experienced? What is the future of evil and our capacity to manage, contain and overcome it? As questions about the nature of evil are often taken up in philosophical, theological, political, sociological, historical and anthropological discussions, this is a fundamentally inter-disciplinary concept.
However, the 21st Century Evils conference aims to push those inter-disciplinary boundaries even further by creating a platform for professionals across the disciplinary spectrum to identify the multi-faceted nature of modern evil, assess its causes and effects and, perhaps most importantly, identify the ways in which communities can respond more effectively to evil and human wickedness now and in the future.
In wrestling with evil(s) we are confronted with a multi-layered phenomenon, which invites people from all disciplines, professions and vocations to come together in dialogue and wrestle with questions that cross the boundaries of the intellectual, the emotional and the personal. Underlying these efforts there is the sense that in grappling with evil we are in fact grappling with questions and issues of our own humanity. The conference organisers therefore welcome participants whose personal or professional experiences equip them to contribute to the dialogue, including clergy/spiritual advisors, legal experts, NGO representatives and charity workers, lawmakers, civil servants, social workers, business people, medical professionals (clinicians, therapists, etc.), scientists, engineers, tech professionals, educators, academic researchers, artists, journalists, writers, tradespeople, activists and others with an interest in the topic.

Proposals are invited for for presentations, panels, workshops, readings, performances, screenings and art installations on any aspect of 21st Century Evils, including but not limited to:

Identifying 21st Century Evils:

Sources and catalysts for current evils
Comparative assessments of how current evils differ from or revisit previous forms of evil (e.g. individual responsibility, corporate responsibility, following orders, insanity, etc.)
Whose Evil?: Considering the status and responses to actions considered justified by some groups and evil by others
Evil by name or evil by nature: Considering the use and implications of the rhetoric of evil in relation to social, political and cultural issues
The uses, benefits and disadvantages of using the ‘evil’ label

Aspects of Evil in:

Law and order (including immigration, asylum, human rights)
Geopolitical issues, including war
Politics and public policy
Cultural and social customs, practices, traditions
Domestic and international terrorist movements
Business and corporate environments
Religion and religious movements
Health, medicine and mental health
Biology
Technology and big data
Labour and human resources
Animals and non-human entities
Families and other human relationships
Education

Showing Evils.
How are 21st century evils portrayed in fictional and non-fictional contexts and why do those types of representation impact our understanding of evil? Issues to be explored include evil in:

film, television and theatre
literature
news media
social media
music
art and sculpture

Protesting, Confronting and Preventing Evil.
How do we deal with evil? How do we respond to its occurrence? What are best ways of confronting and preventing evil? Issues to be explored here include:

the role of education and research
activist and NGO-driven responses
corporate and philanthropic responses
responses by local, national and international governments
ethical choices and lifestyles/personal development responses
professional protocols/best practice

Further details and information can be found on the project web site:

Call for Cross-Over Presentations
The Perspectives on Evil project will be meeting at the same time as a project on Responsibility and another project on Experiencing Prison. We welcome submissions which cross the divide between both project areas. If you would like to be considered for a cross project session, please mark your submission “Crossover Submission”.
What to Send: 300 word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution should be submitted by Friday 9th October 2015.
All submissions be minimally double reviewed, under anonymous (blind) conditions, by a global panel drawn from members of the Project Team and the Advisory Board. In practice our procedures usually entail that by the time a proposal is accepted, it will have been triple and quadruple reviewed.
You will be notified of the panel’s decision by Monday 19th October 2015.
If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 5th February 2016.

Abstracts may be in Word, RTF or Notepad formats with the following information and in this order: a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal, f) up to 10 keywords.
E-mails should be entitled: 21st Century Evils Abstract Submission
Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs:
– Natalia Kaloh Vid: nkv@inter-disciplinary.net
– Rob Fisher: evil17@inter-disciplinary.net

This event is an inclusive interdisciplinary research and publishing project. 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 must be in English and will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.
To date, 44 eBooks and 28 paperback books have emerged from the work of the project.Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation. 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.

(posted 17 September 2015)

Mapping the Narrative and Poetic Margins of English for Specific Purposes: Confronting Theoretical Issues, Questioning the Stakes Raised in Didactics and Translation Studies. 37th International GERAS Conference
Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, France, 17-19 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 15 December 2015

At first sight, there seem to be very few (if any) convergences between Languages for Specific Purposes (LSPs) on the one hand, and the humanities or the liberal arts on the other. The latter are “liberal” in so far as they discard utilitarian prospects. In his preface to the Fleurs du mal, Baudelaire conjures up a book that would be “essentially useless and absolutely innocent.” His remark resonates with Oscar Wilde’s assertion that “All art is quite useless” and with Hannah Arendt’s statement that art objects “are strictly without any utility whatsoever” (1998 [1958]: 167). Conversely, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) explicitly specifies its utilitarian underpinnings with a name that mentions “purposes” (Paltridge & Starfield 2013). And indeed, specialized discourses seem devoid of fictional elements or imagination.
Yet, if one looks closer, literary and specialized discourses share a deeply-rooted logic of elucidation, since languages and actions, whatever their object, develop within the temporal framework of human experience (Ricœur 1983: 19). For Paul Ricœur, all narratives are meaningful, and the significance of human action can only come into being through narrativization (op. cit. 70).
LSPs asserted their status by setting themselves apart from traditional language curricula based on a literary culture suffused with narratives. In discarding this discursive trait, LSPs have built on the social and professional usefulness of their specific domains so as to ascertain their legitimacy. What is more, the Anglo-American tradition has steered ESP toward studies which rely solely on synchronicity—seen here as the only temporal dimension relevant to its functional purpose–and which remain oblivious of historical depth, whether in specialized actions or language.
Recently however, there has been a faint and budding feeling that LSPs were wrong in discarding historical time, narration and imagination. In fact, LSPs have felt increasingly cut off, and are trying to mend the links that connect the meaning-making vectors of human actions–be they fictive or real—links that their founders had neglected. Starting in 1999, Michel Petit and Shaeda Isani (2004) recognized the significance of those relations, and showed the value of professionally-based fiction (fiction à substrat professionnel, FASP) to study specialized varieties of English. More recently, researchers have focused on narration and stories in specialized discourse (“La mise en récit des discours spécialisés”/Narrativizing specialized discourse, CELISO seminar, April 2-3, 2015). They oppose those narrative sequences to “storytelling” as it is used in marketing, that is, when it becomes a tool to manipulate and format opinions. Specialized metaphors have also interested researchers for some time now (Resche 2013: 133-198), while others unveiled vast sections of hitherto overlooked specialized poetry (Van der Yeught 2012: 37-38). Others still, focusing on the “specialized” component language, brought to the fore the notion of specialized “style” (Percebois & Petit 2011), thus allowing to examine the way “specializedness” exceeds terminology and permeates specialized discourse (be it legal, scientific, economic…) as a whole.
This endeavor to map the narrative and poetic margins of ESP is not an attempt to tread new paths, but rather, it is a call to rediscover the unchanging dimensions of human actions, ones that thrive on time, stories and narration.
Proposals can focus either on theoretical aspects (concepts, hypotheses, definitions, suggestions) or on concrete examples materializing these margins (discourse, genre, style…) in their synchronic or diachronic dimensions.
This attempt to characterize specializedness at its confines can also explore the issues raised by specialized translation (theoretical aspects, translation as a means to allow a reflexive grasp of specializedness…). According to Antoine Berman, “the scope of translation is inherently plural, heterogeneous, and impossible to unify” (1989). Hence, does the specific style of specialized texts call for distinctive translation modes? Though specialized discourse aims for non-ambiguity, translation thrives on deviation and difference. Proposals can thus explore translation shortcomings and the untranslatable in specialized discourse.
Another aspect that can be addressed is the didactic potential of those poetic and narrative margins, with regard to learning strategies (in ESP and in the LANSAD sector—LANgues pour Specialistes d’Autres Disciplines/languages for specialists of other disciplines). Proposals can tackle the didactics of specialized translation: how should professional translators be trained for specialized translation? (Lethuillier 2003).
Please submit your 300-400 word abstract before December 15, 2015 using the EasyChair Conference system.
Proposals should include a title and a short biography.

(posted 19 September 2015)

Minor Voices? When Major Literary Authors Write for Children
University Bordeaux Montaigne, France, 18-19 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 30 October 2015

As part of the research project entitled Power in Minor Mode, the research group CLIMAS (Cultures et Littératures des Mondes Anglophones) is holding a two-day symposium on writers who cross the boundary from adult to children’s literature (or vice versa) in the English language. The notion of minor is not here to be seen as a derogatory term indicating the lower rank in a binary hierarchical structure, but as a dynamic space of empowerment bringing new vitality to the notion of major.
Although the very concept of major usually centres on the overbearing nature of an established model demanding conformity or the enduring presence of a prescriptive power structure dictating norms and rules, we explore the ways in which the notion of minor may also contribute to the deconstruction of any prevailing system, to its collapse due to internal contradictions. In this respect the minor can be seen as a potentially permanent dynamic process that does not seek to access the field of the major and establish any kind of comfortable status therein, but on the contrary explores the active power concealed in margins, asides, retreats.
Following on our reflections after the 2015 symposium entitled The Child’s Voice, The Child’s Gaze, this two-day symposium aims to reflect on how children’s literature, far from trying to establish itself as a major literary genre, explores its own marginal position in order to create new modes of knowledge and expression. We will be particularly interested in authors who write both for children and adults, in the ways in which their children’s literature nourishes the “major” art of writing for a literary knowledgeable adult public (e.g. Margaret Atwood, T.S. Eliot, Louise Erdrich, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Russell Hoban, Ted Hughes, James Joyce, Salman Rushdie, Mary Shelley, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, etc.).
How much space do their children’s books occupy in their whole corpus? Which of the two genres is the major or the minor? And which of the two occupies the minor position in the way in which Gilles Deleuze sees the notion of minor, as a force for creativity, a force of proposition? Why do some established authors opt for children’s literature not as a commercial niche but as a means by which to transmit a different message, to appeal to a different readership through the use of a different voice? How are children’s books depicted in adult literature? What happens when that small dissident voice emerges in a literary text meant for adult readers (Graham Greene’s The Power and The Glory opens and closes, almost, with excerpts from a children’s book read aloud)?
Participants may also question the particular position of texts meant for both children and adults, texts that resist classification in one or other genre and regularly become classics. Are Alice and Huck Finn children’s books or just great books? What are we to think of T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats?
These are just a few avenues that can be explored in the fascinating relationship between children’s books and adult literature, and participants may feel free to suggest any relevant topic for their talk. Papers will be given in English. Abstracts (200-300 words) should be sent also in English to minor-voices@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr before September 30th, 2015.
Notification of acceptance will be sent by October 30th, 2015.
Proposals should also include name and institutional affiliation, a short bio (no more than 100 words) and email address.
Organizers : Stephanie Benson, Stéphanie Durrans, Sarah Dufaure and Lhorine François

(posted 17 September 2015)

Haunted Studies: The Ghost Stories of M. R. James
The Leeds Library, UK, 19 March 2016
Deadine for proposals: 4 January 2016

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Ramsey Campbell
Jacqueline Simpson
Andrew Smith

The ghost stories of Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) are amongst the most influential in the English language. Never out of print, they have been adapted numerous times for stage, screen and other media and their formal and thematic features have come to embody the very model of the traditional English ghost story. Although widely read and tremendously influential, his stories have only recently begun to attract detailed academic attention.
Following the successful symposium, M.R. James and the Modern Ghost Story, held at the Leeds Library in March 2015, we are excited to announce a second one-day conference bringing together researchers with an interest in James’s fiction, assessing the significance of James’s ghost stories from a range of theoretical, literary and historical perspectives.

The organisers would welcome abstracts for twenty-minute papers on any aspect of James’s tales on topics including, but certainly not limited to:

James’s and the ‘antiquarian’ ghost story
James’s position as a late-Victorian/Edwardian writer
James and modernism
Representations of gender, race, sexuality or social class in the tales
Adaptations of James’s fiction
James’s relationship to the ghost story genre
James’s relationship with other writers of supernatural fiction
James and Englishness
Jame’s haunted landscapes
The historical contexts of James’s fiction
James’s literary style

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to MRJconference@gmail.com by 4th January 2016
Visit the Conference website.

(posted 10 December 2015)

37th APEAA Meeting
NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal, 21-23 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: open 1 November 2015, close 15 February 2016

Conference website: https://apeaaconference2016.wordpress.com/
Venue: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon

The 37th Meeting of the Portuguese Association for Anglo-American Studies inaugurates in 2016 a new format, moving away from the themed paradigm to highlight the range and diversity of British and American studies current research.
Papers and panel proposals are welcomed on any subject that falls under the remit of the two academic areas, and a variety of presentation styles, from the traditional panel sessions to roundtables and workshops and posters are encouraged. Proposals for panels, put together around a common theme or research domain are particularly welcome.

The many anniversaries celebrated in 2016 may provide the foundations for panels and individual papers:

Shakespeare’s death (1616)
Centenary of the Irish Easter Rising (1916).
The 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
H. G.Wells was born in 1866 and died in 1946.
Publication of Thomas More’s Utopia (1516).
Henry James died in 1916.
Publication of the first issue of the African-American literary magazine FIRE!! (1926).
Langston Hughes’ poetry collection The Weary Blues, and “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1926).
The final version of The Cyborg Manifesto published by Donna Haraway 25 years ago
100th anniversary of World War I.
Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times was released 80 years ago.

Conveners and organizers of panels with a common topic are encouraged to put together a peer reviewed volume of essays to be published as an e-book which may be lodged in the APEAA platform.
The meeting will also incorporate a Graduate Conference component, where students are encouraged to present and discuss their work with more established scholars, in round tables and poster sessions. A number of participation grants will be awarded to graduate students who are members of the Association. MA and Ph.D. students can apply for this grant by sending the abstract, an estimation of travelling costs and a confirmation of their status issued by their supervisor.
Keynote speakers to be announced soon.

Deadlines:
Panel, workshops, individual papers and graduate roundtables and posters sessions: Open: 1 November 2015 Close: 15 February 2016
Abstracts of 250 words in English or in Portuguese should include name of the speaker institutional affiliation and position, full title of paper, format and a short biographical note and contact details should be sent to the conference email: apeaaconference@gmail.com
Submissions to the Graduate sessions should indicate it explicitly.
Working languages: English and Portuguese
Student Grant Applications Open: 1 January 2016 Close: 15 February 2016.
Applications should be sent to this email apeaaconference@gmail.com with the subject: Student Grant Applications.
Further details will be posted in the APEAA site in October 2015
Registration Fees:
APEAA members: 60 euros
Non-members: 100 euros
Students: 15 euros.

(posted 15 June 2015)

Laughing and coping during World War One: Studying the mechanisms and forms of humor and entertainment
University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK, 24 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 20 November 2015

February 2016 update: the full programme of the one-day conference can now be downloaded here.

A one-day conference co-organized by the University of Bedfordshire, University Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle (EA 4399 CREW / CRAN) and Central Connecticut State University
Keynote speakers:
• Dr. Michael Hammond, University of Southampton, author of The Big Show: British Culture in the Great War, editor of British Silent Cinema and the Great War
• Dr. Lawrence Napper, King’s College London, author of The Great War in Popular British Cinema of the 1920s: Before Journey’s End.

As its name suggests, the Great War was felt by many as an apocalyptic conflict overwhelming political, geographical, social or even psychological landmarks. This dreadfulness may have been best coined by Siegfried Sasoon’s lines who describes war as “the hell where youth and laughter go.” However, for a multitude of soldiers the experience of World War One (WWI) was more nuanced. Actually, trench life was both synonymous with extreme violence or extreme boredom; it strangely combined dullness, anxiety and hardship with an irrational sense of optimism often expressed through humor and jokes. Distraught civilians as well as wartime survivors longed to be entertained during a period of deprivation and frustration. Considering Sigmund Freud’s contemporary analysis of humor and wit, the use of laughter as a protection against the adversity of the war was a logical mechanism triggered by the need to reject miseries:
The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are not more than occasions for it to gain pleasure. (. . .) Humour [sic] is not resigned; it is rebellious. It signifies not only the triumph of the ego but also of the pleasure principle which is able here to assert itself against the unkindness of real circumstances.
Humor and entertainment thus appeared to be safe weapons to mock the enemy as well as one’s own camp, in other words a cunning tool to lampoon the general nonsense of the war. Humor serves as an outlet for trauma and perdition and as a substitute for epics when it is impossible to create heroic tales. Humor and entertainment enables both artists and combatants to make over the naked truth of reality and rewrite the actual war to make it more palatable.

This one-day conference aims to discuss the various forms of humor and entertainment during WWI–from the most waggish expression to the blackest tone–and the variety of cultural productions offered to soldiers and civilians, by rediscovering some eluded aspects of international research about the War. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Laughter in war novels, short stories and poems
Personal journals, memoirs
Illustrations and caricatures
Satirical papers, trench newspapers, women’s and children’s publications
Trench slang and jokes
Stage entertainment : music hall performances, plays, front theatrical performances
Humor and wartime motion pictures

Proposals for individual papers (presentations will be limited to 20 minutes) should include an abstract of 300 words and the name, institutional affiliation, a 100 word biography of the author, and the title of the paper.
Please send proposals by November 20, 2015 to
– Clémentine Tholas-Disset (Sorbonne Nouvelle): clementine.tholas@univ-paris3.fr
– Karen Randell (University of Bedfordshire): Karen.Randell@beds.ac.uk
– Karen A. Ritzenhoff (Central Connecticut State University): Ritzenhoffk@mail.ccsu.edu
We aim to notify successful applicants by December 20, 2015.

(posted 23 September 2015, updated 18 February 2016)

Women and Democracy: From Antiquity through the Early 20th Century
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA, 24-25 March 2016
Deadline for proposals: 15 August 2015

The conference will explore, on the one hand, the ideology of “female inferiority” as prompted by ancient democratic laws, and, on the other hand, modes of resisting women’s inferior position in history, literature, and culture. It aims at investigating how these antagonistic forces are cultivated in Classical literature, and also bequeathed to later eras through the study of Classical literature. In much the same way that Lycurgus’ legislation changed dramatically the character of Spartan society, Solon’s laws transformed both the political system in Athens and the social position of women.
The Homeric epics offer a good baseline for the status and social function of women in pre- or non-democratic systems, in which women’s value was relatively high. After the institution of democracy, however, when citizenship and voting rights were granted only to qualified males, women’s value decreased significantly. At the same time, there are cases of women in tragedies, comedies, or histories even who seem to challenge the customary law and transcend their gender restrictions. Even though democracy was not practiced again until the 18th century, the relationship between women and the state continued to be strained. Women were denied the right to property, education, public and professional life, etc. However, both early modern and modern history provides examples of women who defied customs and laws that excluded them from such activities.

Proposals are invited for papers and presentations that will highlight the complicated relationship between women and democracy and examine the development of an ideology of “female inferiority” and the counter forces it has generated in writings that extend from antiquity through the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a key period in women’s suffrage. Essays may address the reception of the Classical portrayal of women as weak and unstable beings (though empowered in some cases) by later authors, and engage with questions like: How has modernity responded to ancient practices of excluding women from political processes? What are the reasons behind the repeated return of feminist voices to the ideal of classical democracy? How have the moderns attempted to re-interpret and re-appropriate Athenian democracy and its attitude toward women?

Proposals falling under the general conference theme but not specifically listed here will also be considered.
Papers may compete for inclusion in a volume of edited essays (not conference proceedings) on this topic.
Please send proposals of 500 words and a short biographical note by email attachment by August 15, 2015to:
– Dr. Katerina Kitsi-Mitakou: katkit@enl.auth.gr
– and Dr. Tatiana Tsakiropoulou-Summers: tsummers@ua.edu.

(posted 8 June 2015)

Excess, Madness, Vision: 30th International D. H. Lawrence Conference
Paris Ouest University, France – 31 March – 2 April 2016
Deadline for proposals: 15 November 2015

Critics have often referred, positively or negatively, to the various forms of excess to be found in Lawrence’s writings. At the beginning of his Study of Thomas Hardy, Lawrence himself elaborated a theory of excess, which is both the very illustration of excess and one of his most visionary texts. It is the lack of vision, the foolishness or the madness of his contemporaries, that led Lawrence to moralize and philosophize so passionately and obstinately. The notions of excess, madness or vision take on various connotations in the depiction of the characters of his novels and stories. These same notions or forces also animate his poetry and are also seminal to his more directly and unguardedly personal discourse as a poet or letter-writer In all cases, the terms suggest a breaking loose from the shackles of control or limitations, a leap into the unknown in the quest for self-fulfillment or, at the collective level, a better state of society.

For the 2016 D.H. Lawrence conference, to be held at Paris Ouest University next spring, participants are invited to interrogate these three notions, whether separately or by way of their possible interconnection in Lawrence’s works.
The deadline for proposals is 15 November 2015.
Priority will be given to proposals received before the deadline, but we will continue to accept proposals until 1 December 2015.
Please send a 200 word abstract to Ginette Roy ginette.katz.roy@gmail.com or roy@u-paris10.fr
This conference is organized by the Centre de Recherches Anglophones of Paris Ouest University in partnership with the “Texts and Cultures” Research Centre of Artois University.

(posted 13 July 2015)

Multiculturalism, Multilingualism and the Self: 25th annual Conference of The Polish Association for the Study of English
University of Silesia, Poland – 31 March – 2 April 2016
Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2016

Through others we become ourselves (L. S. Vygotsky):
The limits of my language are the limits of my world (L. Wittgenstein)

The submissions are welcome in the area of literature, culture studies, linguistics, applied linguistics, translation and teacher training.
The following topics are only our suggestions for presentations at the conference:

The multidisciplinarity of multiculturalism and multilingualism research
The contexts of multilingualism
Bilingualism versus multilingualism: the same or worlds apart
Multilingual language contact and cross-linguistic influences
Multilingual language acquistion and learning in a variety of contexts
The teaching of multiple languages: facilitation and challenge
The multicompetence of a language learner/user
Multilingual translation
The role of English in the multilingual world
Multiculturalism or/and interculturalism: Dreams and possibilities of cultural reunification
Rethinking multiculturalism: the successes and challenges of cultural pluralism
Literary representations of cultural/political conflicts and scenarios of their resolution
Narratives of conflict, narratives of reconciliation
Identity (personal, regional, communal, ethnic, national) in literary representations and cultural products
Wor(l)ds, voices, selves in-between cultures.

We are pleased to announce that the following eminent scholars working in the field of English studies have kindly agreed to present plenary talks at our conference:
Prof. Anthony David Barker, University of Aveiro, Aveiro
Prof. Jean Marc Dewaele, University of London, Birkbeck College, London,
Prof. Frank Ferguson, University of Ulster, Coleraine
Prof. Hanna Komorowska, University of Social Sciences and Humanities/University of Warsaw, Warsaw
Prof. Rafał Molencki, University of Silesia, Katowice
Prof. Claus Schatz-Jakobsen, University of Southern Denmark, Odense

The conference will be held in the holiday resort of Szczyrk in the Beskidy Mountains.
The dates of the conference are 31st March to 2nd April 2016 (arrival on Wednesday the 30th March is recommended).
The conference venue will be the Hotel META.
Most participants can be accommodated there or in the Hotel OLIMPIA just across the street.
Please contact the hotels (Ewa Bialogorska (48)600 485 931 or Monika Noskowiak (48)795 531 652 or by email: ewa.bialogorska@meta-hotel.pl to make provisional booking by 20th November 2015 (payment will be due by 28th February 2016, following acceptance of paper proposals), indicating that you are participants of PASE conference.
If you wish not to use accommodation, please let us know by indicating this in your registration form. The details concerning the conference fee and the hotels will be announced in the Second Circular in January 2016.

All those wishing to contribute papers or just to attend presentations are welcome to enroll in the conference. Presentation abstracts should be submitted by the 15th of January 2016 to the following e-mail address: 2016pase@gmail.com
Notification of acceptance will be sent out by the 31st of January 2016.

The registration form, including the presentation abstract, should be sent as an attachment to the above e-mail address, with the heading: culture.name.doc or language.name.doc (depending on your presentation area).

For conference-related matters please contact the Conference Organisers at the following address:
PASE 2016
Institute of English & Institute of English Cultures and Literatures
University of Silesia
ul. Grota-Roweckiego 5
41-205 Sosnowiec
POLAND
tel: (48 32) 3640892
fax: (48 32) 3640809
e-mail: 2016pase@gmail.com
http://www.pase.us.edu.pl

(posted 18 November 2015)

Adaptation and Dance Centre for Adaptations, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, 2 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 6 November 2016

Killing the sons: Scandal and the Great War Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France, 3-4 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 1 October 2015

2016 International Conference on Medical Humanities Warsaw, Poland, 11-12 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 20 January 2016

Trauma: The 6th Global Conference Budapest, Hungary ,11-13 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 2 October 2015

The Supernatural Budapest, Hungary, 11-13 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 2 October 2015

Fairy Tales, Folk Lore and Legends Budapest, Hungary, 14-16 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 2 October 2015

Storytelling, Illness and Medicine: 11th Global Meeting of the Health project Budapest, Hungary, 14-16 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 4 December 2015

Innovative Representations of ‘Utopias’ in Studies in English: International Graduate Conference Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, 15 March 2016 Deadline for Proposals: 10 January 2016

“Hast any philosophy in thee?”: Subjecting Shakespeare to the Risks of Philosophy Université de Poitiers, France, 17-18 March 2016 Deadline for propoals: 15 June 2015

Racism, Nationalism and Xenophobia Warsaw, Poland, 17-18 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 31 December 2015

New Perspectives in Science Education – 5th edition Florence, Italy, 17-18 March 2016 New extended deadline for submitting abstracts: 11 January 2016

21st Century Evils: 17th Global Conference, The Evil Project Budapest, Hungary, 17-19 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 9 October 2015

Minor Voices? When Major Literary Authors Write for Children University Bordeaux Montaigne, France, 18-19 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 30 October 2015

Haunted Studies: The Ghost Stories of M. R. James The Leeds Library, UK, 19 March 2016 Deadine for proposals: 4 January 2016

37th APEAA Meeting NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal, 21-23 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: open 1 November 2015, close 15 February 2016

Laughing and coping during World War One: Studying the mechanisms and forms of humor and entertainment University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK, 24 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 20 November 2015

Women and Democracy: From Antiquity through the Early 20th Century University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA, 24-25 March 2016 Deadline for proposals: 15 August 2015

Excess, Madness, Vision: 30th International D. H. Lawrence Conference Paris Ouest University, France – 31 March – 2 April 2016 Deadline for proposals: 15 November 2015

Multiculturalism, Multilingualism and the Self: 25th annual Conference of The Polish Association for the Study of English University of Silesia, Poland – 31 March – 2 April 2016 Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2016