Memory, Affects and Emotions - 5th International Interdisciplinary Conference

Conference online (via Zoom)

Scientific Committee:
Professor Wojciech Owczarski – University of Gdańsk, Poland
Professor Polina Golovátina-Mora – NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

 CALL FOR PAPERS:

Affects, emotions and perceptions have always been at the center of philosophical discussion. Yet the so-called “Affective turn” in social studies and humanities is relatively a new phenomenon inspired by Deleuze and Guattari´s influential works among others. Affective turn challenges the still dominant representational approach in semiotics, discourse analysis and text analyses of all kinds.

Its goal is to overcome human exceptionalism together with the domination of the word-based language over the other forms of expression in the process of creating meaning and knowledge altogether. Brian Massumi in The Politics of Affect (2015) defines affect as “being right where you are – more intensely” based on the bodily experiences of the relations with the world.

He compares affect with the hope that can motivate one´s contribution to the formation of a just and more inclusive society, the urgent transformation that has to start with the changes in the ontology.

The aim of the present conference is to create an academically challenging and productive space for discussion of affect based research practices throughout disciplines. We are particularly interested in exploring the potential of affective turn in memory studies. As an interdisciplinary conference, we consider it important to discuss possible differences and similarities in the definitions of the affects as well as in the approaches to their studies and their application in research practice.

We encourage researchers from various academic fields to join the discussion: anthropology, history, psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, sociology, politics, philosophy, economics, law, memory studies, consciousness studies, literary studies, theatre studies, film studies, migration studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, medical sciences, cognitive sciences and urban studies, to name but a few.

We will be happy to hear from both experienced scholars and young academics at the start of their careers, as well as doctoral and graduate students. We also invite all persons interested in participating in the conference as listeners, without giving a presentation.

The topics for the conference include but are not limited to the following suggestions:

• Affects, emotions and memory

• Corporeal experiences in memory studies

• New materialist and feminist approach to memory studies

• Materiality of memory

• Corporeal experiences of everyday life

• Affects and health

• Affects, consciousness and dreams

• Affects, emotions and trauma

• Creativity as corporeal experience

• Affects and crime

• Affective turn in the discourse studies

• Emotions and political thought

• Affective turn in visual analysis

• Affects in literature

• Affects  in film

• Theatre as emotion and bodily practice

• Affects and embodiment in science

Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note, by 7 April 2023 to: [email protected]