Rethinking the Enlightenment
Deakin University
16 December, 2015

‘Rethinking the Enlightenment’ will be hosted by Deakin University’s European Philosophy and the History of Ideas Research Network, housed within the Alfred Deakin Institute of Citizenship and Globalisation on Wednesday December 16, 2015 at the Deakin Burwood campus. The conference will be led by keynote papers by Genevieve Lloyd, Dennis Rasmussen, Karen Green, and Peter Anstey.

Older and recent work in the history of 18th century ideas calls into question popular images of the enlightenment as a single movement of thinkers characterised by a naïve, utopian rationalism closed to otherness or difference, and the affective, playful and poetic dimensions of thought, sociability and experience in ways that would lead, in time, to the horrifying European catastrophes of the world wars and total states. Works such as those by our keynotes Rasmussen and Lloyd, but differently the influential work of Jonathan Israel (to evoke only a few), have instead explored the different strands of enlightenment thought, and the importance of deistic, empiricist, sceptical, literary, and moral-sentimental (as well as rationalist and materialist) strands of the French and British enlightenments. In thinkers like Voltaire, the first conceptions of religious toleration were developed, while in thinkers like Diderot, important criticisms of Western colonialism emerged; with figures like Wollstonecraft (also Condorcet and Bentham), we see the first advocates of women’s rights, and Israel in particular has traced the emergence of competing, contested conceptions of democracy in the 17th and 18th centuries. The continuing rise of what sociologist Robert Antonio has called ‘reactionary tribalisms’ predicated on openly anti-enlightenment visions, and differently the political and philosophical questions raised by the crises of Greece and the Eurozone make scholarly and wider reassessments of the European enlightenment in all of its complexity, promises and limits a newly contemporary task.

We hereby invite papers on ‘Rethinking the Enlightenment’ on or around the following (or related) themes from graduate students, early career and more established researchers:

• Conceptions of democracy in the 18th century
• Conceptions of religious toleration in the 18th century
• Deism and/or biblical criticism in the enlightenment
• The role of scepticism and empiricism in shaping enlightenment thought
• 18th century conceptions of the role of science in society
• Enlightenment sinophilia and images of the non-European ‘other’
• Criticisms of colonialism in Jeremy Bentham, Condorcet, Diderot, Herder, Kant, Adam Smith, and Raynal et al
• The role of literary forms (eg satires, contes, letters, dramas …) in enlightenment thought, and enlightenment politics
• Conceptions of the public sphere emerging in the enlightenment
• Conceptions of polity, democracy and law in the lumières and Scottish authors
• Conceptions of the intellectual and/or ‘philosophe’ in the 18th century
• The history or histories of images of the enlightenment, from the 18th century to today
• The effects of subsequent historical events (eg the great war) on images of the enlightenment

Expressions of interest, and abstracts of not more than 300 words, should be sent to msharpe@deakin.edu.au and/or geoff.boucher@deakin.edu.au by August 31, 2015. Papers will be in 30 minute sessions, so should be between 2-4000 words at the maximum.

Making Women Visible: A Conference in Honour of Barbara Brookes
University of Otago, NZ
15-17 February, 2016

Making Women Visible honours Professor Barbara Brookes, one of New Zealand’s most important scholars, who has worked at the cutting-edge of historical enquiry for several decades. Over the course of her career, Barbara’s scholarship has encompassed diverse topics (including reproductive politics, mental health, film, photography, performance, race relations, disability, sexuality and feminism). These topics have been approached in imaginative ways (biography, the histories of emotion, comparative and transnational approaches), but throughout she has consistently placed women at the centre of her work.

This conference (15-17 February 2016) not only celebrates a distinguished career, but also marks the arrival of Barbara’s much-awaited survey history of New Zealand women, which will be officially launched as part of the conference programme. Its publication invites a renewed focus on New Zealand women’s history. It has been over twenty years since the suffrage centenary that was the catalyst for the publication of a number of important books, including Sandra Coney’s foundational survey history, Standing in the Sunshine. Since 1993, the number of books, edited collections, articles and theses concerned with aspects of women’s history has greatly expanded and the methodological approaches have undergone evolution. We think it is time, therefore, to reflect on the body of scholarship produced by historians since the early 1990s – to consider its impact on the teaching, researching, and writing of women’s history since then and also to look forward to where the field is headed.

The conference theme focuses on one of the core goals of women’s history, which has been to make women visible, therefore we invite papers that address ‘visibility’ from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The conference committee particularly invites proposals for individual papers and panels that reflect Barbara’s areas of research, speak to the theme of visibility and consider the generation of scholarship since the early 1990s with a view to what has changed and what challenges lie ahead. We are especially keen to receive paper proposals from postgraduates as well as those working in the arts and heritage sector.

Please submit a 250-word abstract along with a short biographical statement by 31 August 2015 to crocc@otago.ac.nz

If you wish to propose a panel, please provide a panel title, along with abstracts and biographical statements for each presenter, and submit it to crocc@otago.ac.nz by 31 August 2015.

Conference committee: Jane Adams, Katie Cooper, Jane McCabe, Sarah Christie and Angela Wanhalla (University of Otago)

Mediating War in the Early Modern World, 1600-1815
UNSW Canberra
17-18 November 2015

Conference Website

Theorists of both war and the media claim the world has entered a revolutionary era in which military affairs have transformed modern armed conflict into information war. The depiction of a conflict – both its causes and its conduct – are as significant as strategy and tactics in determining the outcome.

But what are the histories of this conjunction of war and media? Is it only technical media that originate with the military or can we see such a relationship in earlier media forms and emerging technologies? Further, what role did conceptions of media and mediation play in earlier understanding and conduct of warfare?

This ground-breaking two-day conference addresses these questions by revisiting the military revolution of the early modern world. Arguably more of an evolutionary than revolutionary process, the post-1600 era witnessed a gradually accelerating stream of new media forms and mechanisms arising from new ways of applying force until the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. These range from the nexus of early modern literacy, perspective painting and firearms discussed by Marshall McLuhan to the development of optical media, such as the magic lantern or ‘military perspective’, and the deployment of telegraphs, balloons, war finance and mass propaganda by the end of the eighteenth century. Following recent studies of representation and culture informing longitudinal histories of new media forms, this conference explores the ways in which the management of war was affected by the emergence of these new media; the foundations and patterns of shaping a longer history of media and war; and how military technologies shaped the development of media.

Topics might include:

• War and the development of print culture
• Visual technologies and war
• Weapons and media forms
• War in relation to mapping, architecture and fortification
• Emotion as a medium of war
• Artistic and literary representations of war
• Taxation and finance as mediums of war – ‘the sinews of power’
• Land and ocean as the ‘transmission media’ of war
• War as theatre, sermon, pageantry and parade
• War as an alternative means of politics

Proposals of up to 250 words should be emailed to Dr Neil Ramsey: n.ramsey@adfa.edu.au

Extended deadline for proposals: 31 August 2015

Moving Minds: Converting Cognition and Emotion in History
Macquarie University, Sydney
March 2-4, 2016

Contact and Enquiries: movingminds2016@mq.edu.au

We are pleased to announce an interdisciplinary conference on Moving Minds: converting cognition and emotion in history to be held at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, on March 2-4, 2016.

• What is the history of the mind?
• How do cognition and emotion relate, now and historically?
• How are their histories to be studied?

Keynote speakers:

• Gail Kern Paster, Folger Shakespeare Library and Shakespeare Quarterly, Washington D.C.
• Monique Scheer, Historical & Cultural Anthropology, University of Tübingen
• Justin E.H. Smith, Histoire et Philosophie des Sciences, Université Paris Diderot – Paris VII
• Harvey Whitehouse, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford
• Paul Yachnin, English, McGill University and Early Modern Conversions

This conference is jointly organized and sponsored by three distinct interdisciplinary research groups spanning the humanities, social sciences, and cognitive sciences: the ARC (Australian Research Council) Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD), hosted by the Department of Cognitive Science at Macquarie University (http://www.ccd.edu.au/); the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, Europe 1100-1800 (http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/); and the McGill-based project Early Modern Conversions: religions, cultures, cognitive ecologies (http://earlymodernconversions.com/).

The primary historical focus of the conference is the Medieval and Early Modern period (roughly 1100-1800), but we will also consider historical, comparative, or theoretical papers addressing earlier or later periods.

Background: The history of moving minds and moved minds involves conversions and transformations of many forms, in technology and religion and natural philosophy, in rituals and skills and forms of reasoning, in art and music and language and identity. Is there a field of ‘cognitive history’ or ‘historical cognitive science’? Is there a ‘cognitive turn’ in cultural history and literary theory? If so, how does it relate to the maturing interdisciplinary study of the history of emotions? Do these approaches advance on existing historical work on mentalities, practices, embodiment, the senses, memory, narrative, or material culture?

Likewise, can historical evidence actively inform the cognitive sciences? Is the use of modern psychological categories in interpreting the past inevitably anachronistic or presentist? In what ways are emotional and cognitive phenomena intrinsically historical? In turn, how do minds shape and constrain history? How do cognition and emotion fit into an understanding of history on deep or evolutionary timescales?

Call for Papers: We now invite submissions of abstracts for papers and symposia. Please submit abstracts of 300-600 words by Friday 30 October, 2015 by email to movingminds2016@mq.edu.au. We invite submissions from humanities, social sciences, and cognitive sciences. We seek papers that address relations between cognition and/or emotion in history. We welcome both specialist research papers within specific sub/disciplines, and integrative papers aiming to forge connections between sub/disciplines.

Contributed papers should be no longer than 20 minutes presentation time. Symposia should include at least three papers offering distinct perspectives on a single topic, and may include a commentary. We also welcome detailed proposals for specific debates, book symposia and author-meets-critics forums, or sessions of other formats, on theoretical, conceptual, comparative, or controversial issues in the interdisciplinary history of moving minds or emotion and cognition. No individual should be presenting author or first author on more than one paper.

Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the program committee, and decisions on acceptance will be notified by 20 November 2015. We anticipate subsequent publication of refereed conference proceedings. Further details on conference registration, accommodation, social events, and local information will follow.

Conference committee

Organizers: John Sutton (Cognitive Science, Macquarie); Evelyn Tribble (English, Otago)

Local committee: Amanda Barnier (Cognitive Science, Macquarie [CCD]); Malcolm Choat (Ancient History, Macquarie); Greg Downey (Anthropology, Macquarie); Helen Groth (English, University of New South Wales); Antonina Harbus (English, Macquarie); Chris McCarroll (Cognitive Science, Macquarie); Rachel Yuen-Collingridge (Ancient History, Macquarie)

Advisory committee: Patricia Badir (English, University of British Columbia [Conversions]); Stephen Gaukroger (History & Philosophy of Science, Sydney); Andrew Lynch (English & Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia [CHE]); Juanita Ruys (Medieval & Early Modern Centre, Sydney [CHE]); Benjamin Schmidt (History, Washington [Conversions]); Jacqueline van Gent (English & Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia [CHE]); Stephen Wittek (Early Modern Conversions, McGill [Conversions]); Charles Zika (History, Melbourne [CHE]).

There will be a related Conversions/ History of Emotions event in Perth, Western Australia, on March 7-8 after this conference: details to follow.

Self-Commentary in Early Modern European Literature
Durham (UK)
26-27 February 2016

Conference Website

Writers the world over have often accompanied their texts with a variety of annotations, marginal glosses, rubrications, and explicatory or narrative prose in an effort to direct and control the reception of their own works. Such self-exegetical devices do not merely serve as an external apparatus but effectively interact with the primary text by introducing a distinctive meta-literary dimension which, in turn, reveals complex dynamics affecting the very notions of authorship and readership. In the Renaissance, self-commentaries enjoyed unprecedented diffusion and found expression in a multiplicity of forms, which appear to be closely linked to momentous processes such as the legitimation of vernacular languages across Europe, the construction of a literary canon, the making of the modern author as we know it, and the self-representation of modern individual identities.

The Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham University (https://www.dur.ac.uk/imems) invites proposals for 20-minute papers on any aspect of self-commentary and self-exegesis in Early Modern European literature, broadly defined as ca. 1400 – ca. 1700. The conference will be aimed specifically at bringing together both established scholars and early career researchers working on diverse Renaissance literary traditions (including Neo-Latin and Slavonic languages), and promoting cross-cultural dialogue.

A number of fundamental questions will be addressed, including:

• How do authorial commentaries mimic standard commentaries?
• If commentaries ordinarily aim to facilitate textual comprehension and bridge the gap between a text and its readership, in what ways can this be true of self-commentaries as well? What further motivations and strategies are at work?
• How do writers of the Renaissance position themselves in respect of the classical tradition?
• How do they progressively depart from the medieval scholastic practice of glossing texts?
• How do self-commentaries interact with the primary text and contribute to its reception?

For consideration, please send a title and abstract of ~300 words as well as a one-page CV to francesco.venturi@durham.ac.uk no later than 15 October 2015.

Thanks to the sponsorship of the Society for Renaissance Studies (SRS), a limited number of bursaries (contribution towards travel/accommodation) will be available for postgraduate and early career researchers.

Confirmed speakers include: Carlo Caruso (Durham), Hannah Crawforth (King’s College – London), Martin McLaughlin (Oxford), John O’Brien (Durham), and Federica Pich (Leeds).

Maritime Trade, Travel, and Cultural Encounter in the 18th and 19th Centuries
The Hakluyt Society Conference
Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull
13-14 November, 2015

This international conference based at both the University of Hull’s Maritime Historical Studies Centre and Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation focuses on the emergence and effects of new patterns of maritime trade and travel between c. 1700 and 1900. The impact of the Atlantic slave trade, the effects of abolitionist intervention in West Africa, the consequences of coerced and voluntary migration, and the representation of travel and exploration around the Atlantic and the Pacific are some of the themes that will be considered during this conference organised by the Hakluyt Society (www.hakluyt.com) in collaboration with the University of Hull and the University of Worcester. Confirmed speakers include Captain Michael Barritt (President of the Hakluyt Society), Professor David Richardson (Former Director of WISE, University of Hull), Dr. Nigel Rigby (Head of Research, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), and Dr. Silke Strickrodt (Visiting Research Fellow, Centre of Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin).

The conference organisers invite proposals for papers focusing on the links between maritime trade, travel and cultural encounter. Proposals for papers of 20 minutes duration are particularly welcomed from postgraduate research students, early career researchers and individuals working in the maritime heritage sector. A limited number of Hakluyt Society bursaries are available to registered postgraduate students to support travel in the UK and overnight accommodation in Hull. Proposals for papers should be sent to Professor Suzanne Schwarz (s.schwarz@worc.ac.uk) by 31 August 2015. Applications for Hakluyt Society bursaries outlining specific requests for costs should be submitted at the same time. The main venue will be the Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE.

Conference Registration: £30 (including tea and coffee). The conference is free to members of the Hakluyt Society. The registration fee will be waived for individuals joining the Society at the start of the conference (this means that anyone who qualifies as a student member will benefit from a year’s membership without further charge). Instructions for conference registration will follow.

For more information about the Hakluyt Society, see: www.hakluyt.com, or visit the Hakluyt Society blog https://hakluytsociety.wordpress.com/ and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HakluytSociety

For questions about the call, contact:
Prof. Suzanne Schwarz: s.schwarz@worc.ac.uk
Or:
Dr. Guido van Meersbergen: guido.meersbergen.09@ucl.ac.uk
Council Member of the Hakluyt Society