CFP: Affect: Memory, Aesthetics, and Ethics

AFFECT: MEMORY, AESTHETICS, AND ETHICS
18-20 September 2015, The Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg, Manitoba

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Lauren Berlant, George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor, Department of  English,
University of Chicago
John T. Cacioppo, Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience, University of
Chicago
Ronald de Sousa, Emeritus Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto

SEMINARS:
Affect and David Hume: Amy Schmitter – Professor of Philosophy, University of Alberta
Affect and Charles Darwin: Daniel M. Gross – Associate Professor of English, University of California, Irvine
Affect and William James: Isobel Armstrong – Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of English Studies and Professor Emeritus, Birkbeck, University of London.
Affect and Melanie Klein: Noreen Giffney –Lecturer in Psychoanalytic Studies, Birkbeck,
University of London.

From affect as a cognitive phenomenon, through emotion as a motive for creativity, to empathy as a spur for community action and policy development, to the feeling that we belong in a given physical, social or cultural environment, affect is a significant but complex feature of our lived experience. Research on affect has progressed rapidly in recent years, owing to an expanding appreciation of its central role in guiding
human attitudes, decision-making, and actions and owing also to developments in technology that have permitted more precise, moment-to-moment measures of affective response. This conference will accordingly provide the kind of multidisciplinary forum that promises to be particularly productive in exploring the multifaceted nature of affect and of its influences on culture and lived experience. The goal of the conference is to engage academics and students from a broad range of disciplines in discussions and explorations of the social, ethical, political and cultural impact of affect and on the expression of emotion
in individual experience and in the public realm.

We invite proposals for individual papers or for panels based on the themes of the conference. There will be a limited number of travel awards available for students whose proposals have been accepted for presentation at the conference.

        Suggested topics (in addition to the conference’s overarching themes of memory, aesthetics, and ethics). These topics are suggestions only and are not intended to limit the scope of proposals for the conference:
        --affect and public life, public policy, political events or practices (current or historical)
        --affect in/ and history
        --affect and images, caricature, cultural critique
        --affect and the visual or performing arts
        --affect and memory, regret, and nostalgia
        --affect and social space; affect and the concept of privacy
        --affect and alienation; affect and suicide
        --affect and neuroscience
        --affect and race, gender, sexual orientation
        --affect, perception, and action
        --affect and decision-making
        --affect and attitude formation
        --affect in relationships and social interactions
        --affect and the practice of reading; affect and interpretation
--affect and religion

Proposals for individual papers should be no longer than 250 words.  A form-fillable pdf for individual proposals can be downloaded at: https://affectproject.ca/affect_2015/affect_individual_proposal.pdf

Proposals for panels of three papers should include proposals of up to 250 words for each individual paper as well as a rationale of up to 250 words for the panel and its theme or topic. A form-fillable pdf for panel proposals can be downloaded at:
https://affectproject.ca/affect_2015/affect_panel_proposal.pdf

The deadline for proposals is 15 March 2015. Please send proposals electronically via email to [email protected]

The conference poster and links to the pdf forms can be accessed at: