This conference-an installment of the ongoing HUMAN CONDITION
SERIES-explores the role of EROS in culture and the lives of individuals. I
encourage you to send a proposal no later than March 1, 2010 to program
chair Professor Toivo Koivukoski at
EROSabstracts@libraryofsocialscience.com.
Please submit a working title, a ONE-PAGE ABSTRACT (300-400 words) as an
email attachment, and a short biography. Presenters will be notified of
acceptance by March 15.
A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF THE CONFERENCE-WITH SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR YOUR
PROPOSAL-APPEARS BELOW.
I attended the previous edition of this meeting in 2008. Here's my review:
very cordial and open atmosphere; serious scholarship; abundant
refreshments; entertainment (several excellent films); nice dinner; a
comprehensive book exhibit on the conference theme (courtesy of Library of
Social Science); and an international cast of characters.
The 2010 conference features a live satellite presentation by Luce Irigaray.
I hope you will have the opportunity to attend and present a paper.
Best regards,
Orion Anderson
P. S. Nipissing University in Bracebridge is north of Toronto. Shuttle
service and other transportation from Toronto are available.
CALL FOR PAPERS
THE HUMAN CONDITION SERIES: 3rd Biennial International, Multidisciplinary
Conference: "EROS 2010"
May 21-22, 2010, Nipissing University Muskoka Campus, Bracebridge, Ontario,
Canada (
<http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Nipissing+Unive
rsity+Muskoka+Campus&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.50801,113.818359&ie=UTF8
&hq=Nipissing+University+Muskoka+Campus&hnear=&view=map&ei=8tUWS6rrBqOkNfLqn
IcN&attrid=&ll=45.036936,-79.318391&spn=5.450189,14.227295&z=7> map)
Featured Speaker: Luce Irigaray
http://www.humanconditionseries.com/gfx/luceirigaray-web.jpgWe are
delighted to have Luce Irigaray <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luce_Irigaray>
deliver an original presentation for the EROS Conference via satellite from
Paris. In Thinking the Difference, she writes "Poor Eros!.What has become of
us, that we are so poor in love?" inviting reconsideration of the Freudian
position that relationships must be broken for civilization to exist. In her
view, relations must be restored if we are to save ourselves and the earth
from total annihilation. Irigaray's ideas challenge the necessity of
breaking the bonds of love, for it is human ties that are the "missing
pillars of our culture".
Special Plenary Talk: Shannon Bell
http://www.humanconditionseries.com/gfx/shanbell-web.jpg
<http://www.arts.yorku.ca/politics/shanbell/profile.html> Shannon Bell is a
fast feminist immersion philosopher who lives and writes philosophy in
action. Her books include "Reading, Writing and Rewriting the Prostitute
Body," "Whore Carnival," and "Fast Feminism." Bell is an associate professor
in the York University Political Science Department where she teaches on
psychology and politics, post contemporary theory, and identity/post
identity politics.
Description of the
Series and Conference Theme
"On the face of it at least, our civilization possesses no ars erotica. In
return, it is undoubtedly the only civilization to practice a scientia
sexualis."
-Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction
This conference is part of a larger series of ongoing, international,
multidisciplinary conferences--run under the banner of The Human Condition
Series--that brings together people from a variety of disciplines to assess
a singular topic from artistic, cinematic, literary, ethical, social,
political, philosophical, psychological and religious perspectives. We
encourage you to share innovative ideas and new ways of thinking and acting.
Proposals will be considered on any related theme and we especially welcome
papers, reports, works-in-progress, workshops and sessions. This year's
theme is EROS.
Though a human nature may not exist, there is comfort in the notion that a
unifying force should subsist within all humankind: the will to live.
Sigmund Freud named the driving impulse Eros. If humankind does possess, as
a matter of our continuance as a species, an impulse for life- a drive to
overcome all adversity in order to reproduce itself-what does this say of
the human condition? How can desire, pleasure and love lead to social bonds
that ensure the perpetuation of the species in healthy abundance? What types
of relations cultivate worth and esteem in the individual, and how can
destructive elements of these same tropes damage the psyche and dissolve the
very relations that lead to a healthy self-concept? How does pathos reveal
itself in minds and in societies and how can we know when there is
satisfaction in love or if an alternative object has been found through
sublimation?
The Human Condition Series invites you to consider the concept of Eros, and
to share original and revisited thoughts that transcend traditional
disciplinary boundaries. We encourage expressions about how culture, habit,
language, science and art, embody, remedy or fail Eros. Without
prescription, we urge theorizations and analyses which seek to look beyond
the here and now towards the possibilities to come.
_____
Please submit a working title, a ONE-PAGE ABSTRACT (300-400 words) as an
email attachment, and a short biography before March 1, 2010 to Professor
Toivo Koivukoski at EROSabstracts@libraryofsocialscience.com
DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ABSTRACT: MARCH 1, 2010.
NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE: MARCH 15, 2010.
PRESENTERS ARE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT A 10-15 page summary paper by APRIL 15 and
to register for the conference.
Presenters will have until June 25, 2010 to prepare their manuscripts for
submission to the double-blind review process for possible publication.
For information about the HUMAN CONDITION SERIES please go to:
http://www.humanconditionseries.com/
For information on the 2008 conference (including the conference program)
please go to: http://www.humanconditionseries.com/conf08/
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
* The concept of Eros in the work and scholarship of Luce Irigaray.
* Heroines and Heroes of Eros
* The Eros of War
* The Eros of Motherhood.
* Representation, construction, reproduction or analysis of Eros.
* Subject/Identity formation and constructions of gender, sex and
sexuality
* Eros and parthenogenesis in history and literature
* Categories of normativity, disorder, pathology or deviance in desire
* Eros as nature, power, cosmology, mythology, and society
* Eros and the transformation of consciousness, near-death and
dreamlike states.
* Sacred marriage, immortal/mortal love
* Sex tourism, sex trafficking
* From Eros as mythos to Eros as logos
* The sensuous in the human world
* Eros and Gaia in the marketing of holistic healing
* Contemporary Families and Eros
* Eros in women's literature as a distinct tradition
* The role of Eros in different religious and spiritual traditions
* Semiotic approaches to Eros and culture, place, space, time
Film Feature
"Eros" is the collection of three short films exploring the subjects of
love, sexuality, and desire: "Il filo pericoloso delle cose", directed by
Michelangelo Antonioni; "Equilibrium", directed by Steven Soderbergh; and
"The Hand", directed by Kar Wai Wong.
_____
http://www.humanconditionseries.com/gfx/nipissingu.png
Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada (Google
<http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Nipissing+Unive
rsity+Muskoka+Campus&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.50801,113.818359&ie=UTF8
&hq=Nipissing+University+Muskoka+Campus&hnear=&view=map&ei=8tUWS6rrBqOkNfLqn
IcN&attrid=&ll=45.036936,-79.318391&spn=5.450189,14.227295&z=7> map)
For information on Nipissing University, please go to:
http://www.nipissingu.ca/muskoka/
Bracebridge is north of Toronto. Shuttle service and other transportation
are available.
