The call for papers for the Society for the History of Emotions’ Fourth Biennial Conference, under the theme ‘Unsettling Certainties’ is now open! The conference will take place at the University of Adelaide over 28 November to 1 December 2023

To live in uncertain times is to consider the possibilities of past, present and future anew. What was known, is reopened for question, and the possible futures built on such knowing become pressing concerns. Foundations are shaken, certainties unsettled, and people moved. The term ‘emotion’, with its etymological roots in the motions of public disturbance, is suggestive of the close affiliation between feelings, passions and embodied experiences and our encounters with certainty and its disruption. This conference, hosted by the Society for the History of Emotions, considers the theme of ‘Unsettling Certainties’ as an opportunity to explore how attending to emotion enables a richer understanding of the known and the unknowable, change and continuity, the fixed and fluid, crisis and stasis, past and future, not least as everyday and embodied experiences.

We call for proposals that address this theme, embracing a broad range of perspectives. Offerings might consider the theoretical, methodological and epistemological boundaries of emotions associated with certainty and uncertainty; shifting definitions and interpretations of emotions and emotion words; the social, economic, political and cultural dimensions of emotional encounters during certain and uncertain times, including changing values and beliefs, public disturbances, crises, and experiences of the ‘end of the world’; the evolving health and wellbeing impacts on individuals and groups, including in relation to gender, race, class and religion; the representation and reimagining of un/settled feelings in literature, art, music, philosophy and science; environmental and ecological perspectives; and creativity and imagination as responses to change and new futures. 

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, emotions in relation to:
– Certainty and the assured
– Risk, uncertainty and the unknown
– Security, comfort and stability
– Anxiety and worry
– Epistemologies and beliefs
– Imagination and boundaries of the real
– The natural and supernatural
– End of the old and encounters with the new
– Crisis, challenge and transformation
– Creativity, expression, and evolution
– Hope, activism and community building
– Moving places and fixed spaces
– Infirmity and death

We welcome submissions from scholars of all levels for any time period, geography, and scholarly discipline, including inter- and transdisciplinary contributions. Papers that do not address the core theme will be considered, but may be given a lower priority, if space is limited.

Proposals can take the form of:
– Individual papers of 20 minutes’ duration;
– 90-minute panels or roundtables, that should include time given to discussion; – Posters.

If you would like to propose an alternative format, please approach the organisers to discuss. We hope to offer a hybrid option for virtual attendees. Please note if you need this on your abstract.

Please send a Word document with a title and 250-word abstract for each paper/poster proposed and a two-sentence biography and email address for each speaker. For panels and roundtables, please also send an overarching title and short rationale and identify the main correspondent for communications.

Proposals should be emailed to unsettlingcertainties@gmail.com Deadline for call for papers: 1 March 2023

Conference organisers: Katie Barclay, Diana Barnes, Keagan Brewer, Sonia Cancian, Michael Champion, Vesna Drapac, Kirk Essary, Michael Heim, Grace Howe, James Kane, Meagan Nattrass, and Claire Walker

Postgraduate and Early Career Paper Prize

The best paper presented by a postgraduate or early career researcher will have the opportunity to win an essay prize worth $100 and to have an article based on the paper considered for publication in Emotions: History, Culture, Society.

Applicants must be within five years after award of the PhD (extended to seven years if not in stable university employment or with significant career interruptions).

To be considered for this prize, participants must signal their wish to be considered when they submit their abstract. They must also submit a written version of the paper by the 25 November 2023. Judges will base their decision both on the presentation and the written version received.

Attention Early Career Researchers!

Aspire to deliver a keynote lecture at a major international conference? We invite early career researchers (ECRs) to propose a keynote lecture addressing the conference theme. This scheme is open to all disciplines of expertise that address the conference theme, and to researchers in university employment as well as those who are not.

Applicants must:
• Have an outstanding track record relative to opportunity;
• Be within five years after award of the PhD (extended to seven years if not in stable university

employment or with significant career interruptions).

To apply, please submit a proposed titled, an abstract of 300-400 words, a bio and a CV (3 pages max) to unsettlingcertainties@gmail.com by 1 March 2023.

In selecting this keynote, consideration will be given to diversity and broad representation among the group of keynotes. We also reserve the right to seek third-party testimony as to the researcher’s capacity to speak and deliver scholarly presentations. The winning keynote lecturer will have flights, accommodation and registration covered. It is anticipated that an article based on the paper would be published in Emotions: History, Culture, Society, subject to peer review.