Call for Papers

GLOSSING CULTURAL CHANGE:
COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON MANUSCRIPT ANNOTATION, C. 600–1200 CE

National University of Ireland, Galway, 21–22 June 2018

Glossing, the practice of annotating manuscripts between the lines and/or in the margins, was a widespread cultural practice wherever books were being read, studied and taught. As an indication of this, the Network for the Study of Glossing (www.glossing.org) currently has 75 members with research interests in glossed manuscripts written in Arabic, Breton, Chinese, German, Greek, Egyptian, English, French, Hebrew, Hittite, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Sanskrit, Turkish, and Welsh.

This two-day conference aims to bring together specialists from a variety of fields to discuss aspects of glossing—in all its forms—from a comparative perspective. A particular focus will be on how glosses engage with and reflect the dynamics of contemporary cultural change, rather than acting merely as passive repositories of inherited tradition. Specific aspects of glossing could include any of the following:

1) Glossing as a revealer of reading practices: e.g. considering the relationship between Classical/cosmopolitan written languages and spoken vernaculars; or different approaches to reading/performing sacred and secular texts.

2) Glossing as a method of interpretation: both linguistic (translation) and cultural (e.g. mediating remote cultures and ideas).

3) Glossing as an instrument of textual authority: mandating how texts should be read and understood; creating and re-shaping canons.

4) Glossing as a vehicle for education: organisation of knowledge; delivery of a particular curriculum.

5) Glossing as an intellectual effort: scholarship for its own sake; the creation of new knowledge.

Papers should last 20 minutes, allowing 10 minutes for discussion.
(Direct comparison between traditions is not expected. This will be facilitated during the event.)

This event follows on from another held at the University of Frankfurt on 2–3 December 2016. We aim to publish a selection of papers from both conferences together in a single volume.

Please send a title and abstract (300 words max) to Pádraic Moran
(padraic.moran@nuigalway.ie) by 23 February 2018.

Some limited financial assistance will be available.

NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE ON BRITISH STUDIES ANNUAL MEETING
Providence, Rhode Island, October 25-28, 2018

 CALL FOR PAPERS 

Deadline: 30 March 2018

The NACBS and its affiliate, the Northeast Conference on British Studies, seek participation by scholars in all areas of British Studies for the 2018 meeting. We will meet in Providence, Rhode Island, from October 25-28, 2018. We solicit proposals for presentations on Britain, the British Empire, and the British world, including topics relating to component parts of Britain and on British influence (or vice versa) in Ireland, the Commonwealth, and former colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean (etc.) Our interests range from the medieval to the modern. We welcome participation by scholars from across the humanities and social sciences, from all parts of the globe (not just North America), and from all career stages and backgrounds. We reaffirm our commitment to British Studies broadly conceived, and welcome proposals that reflect the diversity of scholars and scholarship in the field.

We invite panel proposals that address selected themes, methodology, and pedagogy, as well as roundtable discussions of topical and thematic interest, including conversations among authors of recent books, reflections on landmark scholarship, and discussions about professional practice.  We are particularly interested in submissions that have a broad chronological focus and/or interdisciplinary breadth.  Standard panels typically include three presenters speaking for 20 minutes each, a commentator, and a chair, while roundtables typically include four presenters speaking for 15 minutes each and a chair. We are open to other formats, though; please feel free to consult with the program committee chair.

We hope to secure as broad a range of participation as possible and will thus consider individual paper proposals in addition to the standard full panel proposals. Our preference is for panels that include both emerging and established scholars; we welcome the participation of junior scholars and Ph.D. candidates beyond the qualifying stage. To foster intellectual interchange, we ask applicants to compose panels that feature participation from multiple institutions. In an effort to allow a broader range of participants, no participant will be permitted to take part in more than one session in a substantial role. (That is, someone presenting or commenting on one panel cannot also present or comment on another, though individuals presenting or commenting on one panel may serve as chairs for other panels, if need be.) Submissions are welcome from participants in last year’s conference, though if the number of strong submissions exceeds the number of available spaces, selection decisions may take into account recent participation.

As complete panels are more likely to be accepted, we recommend that interested participants issue calls on H-Albion or social media (e.g., @TheNACBS on Twitter or on the NACBS Facebook page) to arrange a panel. If a full panel cannot be arranged by the deadline, however, please do submit the individual proposal and the program committee will try to build submissions into full panels as appropriate.

In addition to the panels, we will be sponsoring a poster session.  The posters will be exhibited throughout the conference, and there will be a scheduled time when presenters will be with their posters to allow for further discussion. 

The submission website is now open – submissions will close as of March 30 2018.

All submissions are electronic, and need to be completed in one sitting.   Before you start your submission, you should have the following information:

Names, affiliations and email addresses for all panel participants.  PLEASE NOTE: We create the program from the submission, so be sure that names, institutional titles, and paper titles are provided as they should appear on the program.  
A note whether data projection is necessary, desired, or unnecessary.
A brief summary CV for each participant, indicating education, current affiliations, and major publications.   (750 words maximum per CV.)
Title and Abstract for each paper or presentation.   Roundtables do not need titles for each presentation, but if you have them, that is fine.  If there is no title, there should still be an abstract – i.e. “X will speak about this subject through the lens of this period/approach/region etc.”
POSTERS: Those proposing posters should enter organizer information and first presenter information only.
All communication will be through the panel organizer, who will be responsible for ensuring that members of the panel receive the information they need.

All program presenters must be current members of the NACBS by September 28, one month before the conference, or risk being removed from the program.

Some financial assistance will become available for graduate students (up to $500) and for a limited number of under/unemployed members within ten years of their terminal degree ($300). Details of these travel grants and how to apply will be posted to www.nacbs.org and emailed to members after the program for the 2018 meeting is prepared.

The Future of Emotions: Conversations Without Borders

Date: 14‒15 June 2018
Venue: University Club of Western Australia, The University of Western Australia
Enquiries: email Pam Bond at emotions@uwa.edu.au
Call for Papers Deadline: 2 February 2018

Conference Keynote Speakers

Professor Andrew Lynch, Director ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, UWA
Associate Professor Penny Edmonds, University of Tasmania
Professor John Sutton, Macquarie University

Public Lecture Speaker

Professor Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania
 

Call for papers

Scholarship on the history of emotions is now rich and varied, and informed by multiple disciplinary perspectives from the humanities. This conference celebrates the many achievements of humanities emotions research and looks to new horizons in which it can be applied, seeking contributions that lend themselves to discussion about future directions.

WHAT are the theoretical and methodological challenges and opportunities for this field? What cross- and interdisciplinary connections can humanities scholars make through history of emotions research? How does humanities emotions research inform discussions in education and training?

HOW have populations from the medieval to the present conceived of emotions in relation to nature and viewed the capacity of the non-human world to experience emotions or define those of humans? How have feeling cultures created new sociabilities with nature in the pre-industrial period or anthropocene age?

HOW has humanities emotions research informed developments of new technologies, from the emergence of print to smartphones and robots, or shifted meanings in cultural spheres such as art, performance and online community formation?

WHAT contribution can humanities emotions research make in understanding how people have adapted to changes in the world around them, from the emergence of new religious practices, encounters with previously unknown cultures or today’s post-global anxieties? How have past populations envisaged future emotional worlds and anticipated challenges and opportunities for the future? How and why do historical and contemporary populations look back with feeling to past ages? How do emotional experiences and ideas help us understand identities, communities and entities with rights and agency? What applications does humanities emotions research have in community dialogue, policy and public discourse?

The conference organisers invite proposals for a wide variety of individual or collaborative presentation forms, including 20-minute papers, panel sessions, interpretive performance or technological demonstrations, on the following (or related) themes that relate to breakthrough analyses of emotions and:

Innovative humanities methodologies for the emotions

• Emerging theorisations
• Interdisciplinarity
• Pedagogical developments

Emotional technologies: past, present and future

• Print cultures
• New media art and music
• Robotics
• Emoticons, smartphones and digital attachment

Emotions in worlds beyond

• Past futures
• Heritage
• Post-global realities
• Identity and community formation
• Rights and justice
• Public discourse

Emotions, the non-human and post-human

• Nature
• Animals
• Ecologies

Proposals for papers, panel presentations and innovative communication formats are all welcome. Please send a 250-word abstract, a presentation title, and a 100-word biography (only Word documents or rtf files accepted) to emotions@uwa.edu.au by 2 February 2018.

Bursaries

 
The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions is able to offer a limited number of bursaries to Honours students, Postgraduate students and unwaged Early Career Researchers whose paper have been accepted for presentation at the conference. The bursaries are intended to partially reimburse costs associated with attending the conference.

Bursaries of up to AUD500 for Australian applicants may be awarded, based on the following criteria:

The applicant is:

an Honours student currently enrolled at a recognised institution OR a postgraduate student currently enrolled at a recognised institution OR an unwaged early career researcher;
able to demonstrate particular need of funding assistance; AND
has submitted a paper proposal with the application.

Applicants will be informed of the committee’s decision by 2 March 2018.

About the Keynote Speakers 

Penny Edmonds is ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor, School of Humanities, University of Tasmania, and an Associate Investigator of CHE. She has qualifications in history and heritage studies, including a PhD from The University of Melbourne, and has worked in national and international museums. Her research and teaching interests include colonial/ postcolonial and Australian and Pacific-region transnational histories, experimental histories, and thinking through the expressions of the past in performances, and visual and cultural heritage. Penny is co-editor of Australian Historical Studies journal, and co-editor of Making Settler Colonial Space: Perspectives on Race, Place and Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) with Tracey Banivanua Mar and Conciliation on Colonial Frontiers: Conflict, performance and commemoration in Australia and the Pacific Rim (Routledge, 2016) with Kate Darian-Smith. Penny was awarded the 2014 Academy of Social Sciences in Australian (ASSA) Paul Burke award for Panel C (History, Philosophy, Law, Political Sciences) for her ‘multi-disciplinary approach to settler colonialism’ and ‘theoretical depth and originality’. Her new book Settler Colonialism and (Re)conciliation: Frontier Violence, Affective Performances, and Imaginative Refoundings (Palgrave, 2016) traces the transnational, performative and affective life of reconciliation and its discontents in settler societies and was recently shortlisted for the Ernest Scott Prize (2017).

Andrew Lynch is Professor in English and Cultural Studies at The University of Western Australia, and Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100–1800). He has published widely on medieval literature and its modern afterlives from 1800 to the present, with an emphasis on representations of war, peace and emotions. Recent publications include Emotions and War: Medieval to Romantic Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) with Stephanie Downes and Katrina O’Loughlin, and Understanding Emotions in Early Europe (Brepols, 2015) with Michael Champion. He is also a General Editor of the Bloomsbury Cultural History of Emotions, and Co-Editor of the journal Emotions: History, Culture, Society.

Jeff Malpas is Distinguished Professor at the University of Tasmania and Visiting Distinguished Professor at La Trobe University. He was founder, and until 2005, Director, of the University of Tasmania’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Ethics. He is the author or editor of 21 books on topics in philosophy, art, architecture and geography. His work is grounded in post-Kantian thought, especially the hermeneutical and phenomenological traditions, as well as in analytic philosophy of language and mind. He is currently working on topics including the ethics of place, the failing character of governance, the materiality of memory, the topological character of hermeneutics, the place of art, and the relation between place, boundary and surface.

John Sutton is Professor in Cognitive Science at Macquarie University, and an Associate Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Cognition and its Disorders. His publications include Embodied Cognition and Shakespeare’s Theatre: The Early Modern Body-Mind (Routledge, 2014) with Evelyn Tribble and Laurie Johnson; Review of Philosophy and Psychology, special issue, ‘Distributed Cognition and Memory Research’, with Kirk Michaelian (2013); and many articles and chapters on the philosophy of mind, memory, cognition, and the embodied mind. He is Co-Editor of the series Memory Studies (Palgrave Macmillan), and is on the editorial boards of Neuroethics, Memory Studies (Sage), Philosophical Psychology and New Directions in Philosophy and Cognitive Science (Palgrave Macmillan).

Queen’s university Belfast presents : Borderlines XXII : sickness, strife and suffering – 13-15th April 2018

We are pleased to invite abstract of ca. 250 words related to pain in the middle ages. Topics may include but are not limited to :

• collective pain
• depictions of pain,
• explanations of pain,
• judicial literature,
• medical literature,
• memory and pain,
• narratives of suffering,
• pain and creativity,
• pain and pleasure,
• psychological pain,
• social pain,
• religious literature,
• suffering in the afterlife

Please send abstracts of ca. 250 words, along with a short academic biography, to borderlinesxxii@gmail.com

The deadline for abstracts is 5th February 2018.

For more information: https://borderlines2018.wordpress.com/ 

Superstition and Magic in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods

April 20, 2018
Princeton University
Keynote Speaker: Prof. Michael Bailey

In an age when authorities attempt to assault our modern modes of critical thinking, the term “superstition” and its premodern associations take on rearranged values. Current political discourse denounces fake news and climate change as humbug with a zeal not unlike that of medieval and early modern establishments censuring false prophets and fallacious astrologers. Given these similarities, the classic narrative of a medieval society emerging into a modern one, “the disenchantment of the world” (Max Weber), urgently needs reappraisal. This conference proposes the examination of a wide range of evidence in various genres over time in order to foster this dialogue. In returning to the original meaning of “superstition” as an excessive fearfulness or belief, or a misapprehended and abused knowledge of a supernatural subject, how can we refine our understanding of superstition and magic in the premodern world? How can we make the overlaps between science, superstition, and magic productive?

We invite interdisciplinary submissions on diverse topics related to medieval and early modern superstition and magic. Some themes of the conference include, but are not limited to:

– Control and influence exerted by the Church and universities
– The historical development of demonology
– The Witch Crisis: gender and authority
– Elite vs. folk magic; paganism and popular religion
– Heresy and superstition
– Depiction of magical elements in literature and visual culture
– The impact of various religious reform movements, including the Reformation and Counterreformation, on belief, magic, and ritual
– Music and metaphysics
– Oaths, incantations, and spells: the power of words
– Natural philosophy: astrology, alchemy, medical practices, etc.
– Material history and archaeology
– Co-mingling of Eastern and Western traditions; book magic; Kabbalah
– Esoteric belief systems and the rise of secret societies
– The law: ordeals, witch-hunts, and policing of superstitious practices

In order to support participation by speakers from outside the northeastern United States, we are offering limited subsidies to help offset the cost of travel to Princeton. Financial assistance may not be available for every participant, with funding priority going to those who have the farthest to travel. Speakers will have the option of staying with a resident graduate student to defray their expenses.

Interested graduate students should submit abstracts of no more than 500 words to Sonja Andersen and Jonathan Martin at superstition2018@gmail.com by February 15, 2018.
All applicants will be notified about their submissions by February 24, 2018. Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes.