While the concept of care immediately triggers an association with the health and wellness sector, the idea of caring (or not caring) is much more than that. What makes a human being show care? What is the appropriate way to show care? What factors cause a person to show more or less care? To what extent is care intertwined with personal sacrifice? Is care valued, promoted and properly compensated? Is it possible to care too much? Is there a limit to how much a person should care? Is anyone not worthy of receiving care? What would happen if the ethos of care were applied to everyday life and critical decision-making?

From the conversations and dialogues which take place, our intention is to form a selective innovative interdisciplinary publication to engender further research and collaboration.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

The experience of trauma is central to the human condition, but how we understand our experiences and explain them to others remains a subject of ongoing debate. The 2nd Global Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference on Storytelling & Trauma: Special Focus Abuse provides a platform for exploring how storytelling enables trauma caused by abuse to be brought to light, processed and re-signified through the connection between memory and communication, entailing what Cathy Caruth calls “an act of departure”. Disruptive experiences impact survivors’ self-perception and world awareness, both of which are informed by the fullness of individual experiences. It is therefore essential to approach the relationship between trauma, abuse and storytelling from an inter-disciplinary approach that is able to apprehend the implications of empathy, desensitization, witness, pain, confrontation and resolution of problems, and the simultaneity of past and present as these concepts are understood across relevant cultural, religious, psychological, political, geographical, linguistic, literary, artistic, technological, scientific, social and philosophical dimensions.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

As a constant and chilling presence in individual lives and the popular imagination, the supernatural, as a cultural phenomenon, is prone to repeated revivals and resurrections. But what does the current preoccupation with the supernatural say about contemporary societies, particularly in relation to issues of gender, sexuality and identity, socio-political anxieties, historical and personal trauma? The Supernatural Connections conference seeks to provide a platform for exploring these questions from inclusive interdisciplinary perspectives by opening up new avenues of research and new conversations about the supernatural through papers, performances and panels focusing on any aspect of this complex, multifaceted topic with a view to forming an innovative interdisciplinary publication to engender further research and collaboration.. The conference organisers are particularly interested in incorporating papers/ presentations from a diverse range of disciplines, including, but not limited to, literary and cultural studies, film studies, theology, psychology, the social and natural sciences, history, philosophy, sociology, education and anthropology. We also enthusiastically welcome submissions from practitioners, artists, writers, curators and others.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Spirituality recognises that there is more to reality than just the material world. The intuition that our lives have meaning and are part of something bigger is a powerful motivator for us to cultivate our spiritual side. The mystical experiences and beliefs that arise from this engagement can stimulate our imagination in unexpected ways. Feelings of transcendence and awe have inspired creative people, artists, writers and composers throughout the ages, and continue to influence cultures around the world. Spirituality has certainly not gone away in a hyper-connected age, but finds new modes of expression and practice. After the success of the first two Spirituality & … Culture conferences, we have pleasure in inviting you to the third. It is part of an exciting new series of inclusive interdisciplinary projects that focus on the significance of spirituality to human living, thinking and feeling in today’s world. This event will explore the interactions between spirituality, culture and social phenomena – with a view to forming an innovative interdisciplinary publication to encourage further collaboration and discussion. We hope that you can join us in these conversations.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

This inclusive interdisciplinary conference explores dying and death and the ways culture impacts care for the dying, the overall experience of dying and ways the dead are remembered. Our conversations seek a broad array of perspectives that explore, analyse, and/or interpret the myriad interrelations and interactions that exist between death and culture. Culture not only presents and portrays ideas about “a good death” and norms that seek to achieve it, it also operates as both a vehicle and medium through which meaning about death is communicated and understood. Sadly, too, culture sometimes facilitates death through violence.

A key emphasis in this year’s conference will be an exploration of the connections between health care systems, caregivers, and matters of public policy that serve those at the end-of-life. The conference welcomes all those who endeavour to address questions such as these, along with people engaged in analysing, re-imagining and/or improving end of life experience with a view to forming an innovative interdisciplinary publication to engender further research and collaboration. Augmenting our rich conversations, our ethos aspires to create relationships and on-going dialogues that re-envision patient-centred care.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

The concept of the body itself has had a significant impact on the stories cultures have created and passed down through generations. Suffering bodies are central to the foundational narratives of various religious, cultural and political traditions. Monstrous bodies, sexual and erotic bodies, bodies at war, modified bodies, bodies coming of age and ageing, bodies being tested by nature, bodies enhanced by (bio)technology, politicised bodies and more, all are core to respective story genres. Telling stories about the body is therefore loaded with ideological, political, sociological, theological, ontological and aesthetic implications. Various disciplines, practices and professions have inscribed stories and bodies with particular meanings that, when viewed in isolation, can be skewed and limiting. Accordingly, our project aims to emphasise inclusivity, dialogue and collegiality. Building on our first two exceedingly successful, inclusive interdisciplinary events, Storytelling and the Body seeks to explore the complex, multi-faceted dynamics of this symbiotic relationship between storytelling and the body.

We offer opportunities for artists, photographers, practitioners, theorists, independent scholars, academics, performers, writers, and others to intermingle, providing platforms for interdisciplinary interactions that are fruitful and conducive to broadening horizons and sparking future projects, collaborations, and connections. Storytelling and the Body works with a view to generating and supporting dialogue, and creating a publication to engender further collaboration and discussion.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Following our first Fashion and Photography conference in Palermo in 2018, we are further broadening the interdisciplinary mix and range of potential discussions and activities. Whether dance, theatre, drama theory, directing or performance practice, the different aspects of the performing arts will be explored and developed alongside previous discussions, especially with the new challenges of technology along with the changes in audiences and performers in the 21^st century.

Our Fashion and Photography: 2nd Global Inclusive Interdisciplinary event will examine the dynamics of all these (and related) fields. In a world which is experiencing the transforming realities of globalization, with people engaging at all levels and in diverse ways, the intersections and engagements created at the interface of all the modes of representation involved in these areas and activities are paramount. They involve cultural, social, commercial, artistic, financial, and political issues, and from the bottom to the top can determine power relations, careers, sexual norms and deviance, and more.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

It is an appropriate time to reconsider the meaning and implications of whistleblowing. What conditions give rise to and sustain whistleblowing? What purposes does whistleblowing serve in a democratic society? What lessons are to be gained from case studies in terms of the possibilities of achieving change by working within a system, working outside a system, working alone or as part of a collective that may or may not be organised? How can societies harness the benefits of whistleblowing as a form of extreme civic engagement while preserving the values of justice and fairness, and protecting the rights of relevant parties? What are the rules of engagement for blowing the whistle on and dealing with whistleblowers?

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Growing awareness and appreciation of the rich horror traditions of other countries around the world, including Japan, Korean, India, Brazil and Ecuador, has highlighted the importance of considering horror in a global context. Accordingly, the Global Horror: Local Perspectives Project provides a platform for exploring the ways in which horror motifs and themes are expressed through the ‘local perspectives’ that inform the creative practices and daily life of particular nations and cultures.

It is not the intent of the Project to exclude Anglo-European and American perspectives from the conversation of global horror but rather to centre other horror traditions which have frequently been de-centred or completely overlooked in the past. The scope of the Project therefore includes work that explores marginalised local perspectives within Anglo-European and American horror, and work that examines Anglo-European and American horror from a global perspective with a view to forming an innovative interdisciplinary publication to engender further research and collaboration.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Throughout history violence has horrified and enthralled in equal measure, defining some of our most glorious and most distressing historical events. Debate continues about the nature and implications of violence within our societies even as, in the current political moment, violence continues to define the lives of people around the globe through warfare, protest, political demonstration and discrimination. Why has violence exerted an irresistible hold on the human psyche throughout history? To what extent is violence a universal phenomenon within societies? What, if any, circumstances make violence acceptable? What factors cause people to be violent? And what can be done by individuals and communities to prevent violence?

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Every day we move through space that has been constructed or delineated somehow to be significant. We recognise and—consciously or unconsciously—react to this significance on a daily or hourly basis, and we draw from a cultural well of knowledge in order to do so.

The exciting and productive discussions at our previous meeting explored a number of key areas: shifting meanings of neighbourhoods through time | mobility between economic and political spaces | the effect of place on emotion and perception | procession and its manipulation of meaning in space | political control of space as a function of controlling protests | fiction and its creation of space | mapping and the deployment of power |
Building on the success of these and other conversations, and the entirety of last year’s conference, we aim to continue to examine the way space is bounded or expanded to create place.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Prison is used world-wide as a form of punishment or detention for men, women and children, within a functioning criminal justice system, and its use can be traced back to the rise of the earliest forms of state or social organisation in which humans have lived. Prisons are variously known as jails, gaols, penitentiaries, detention centres, correctional centres, and remand centres. They can be used as a tool of political repression, or a means of detaining large groups of civilians during times of war. We welcome contributions about the prison from a wide range of perspectives, including legal, architectural, criminological, historical, geographical, fictional, psychotherapeutic, artistic, phenomenological, biographical and autobiographical points of view.

Read more about the event and submit your abstracts here.

Protest has been part of human societies for millennia. Movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too offer a powerful reminder of the continued relevance of activism in the 21st century. While these examples of protest share a common DNA with historical civil rights and gender equality movements, activists today operate in a world where digital technology affords particular advantages and disadvantages that have changed how we engage with protest and dissent. We now have constant access to a steady stream of information about dissatisfaction with the state of our world, who is alleged to be responsible for the situation, and who is calling for change. The second meeting of the Activism, Protest and Dissent project seeks to incorporate the perspectives, experience and expertise of participants from all relevant professions, disciplines and practices with a view to forming a selective publication to engender further collaboration and research. Unlike other conferences or gatherings, this event proposes to step outside the traditional conference setting and offer opportunities for participants to engage in interactions that are fruitful and conducive to broadening horizons and sparking future projects, collaborations, and connections.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

The ‘iron curtain’ has come to be associated with a host of social, political and cultural evils perpetrated by the Soviet-backed Communist regimes that ruled countries in central and eastern Europe from the end of the Second World War until the early 1990s. At the same time, actions that may seem evil when considered in terms of the values and assumptions of Western democracies may be understood differently when viewed from other perspectives. This conference aims to abandon the Manichean views of good and evil that prevailed during the heyday of the Communist bloc, and instead strive for more nuanced evaluations of the evils of the iron curtain and its legacy.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Key questions for discussion include: What are the purposes and consequences of declaring someone a bad mother? How have the standards for being a bad mother changed over time? To what extent is the bad mother label a product of economic and racial privilege? What do stories of real and fictional bad mothers reveal about broader socio-cultural preoccupations? Are bad mothers ever justified in their behaviour, and can they be redeemed? Is there an obligation to act in relation to bad mothers?

Read more and submit your abstract here.

“I’m hated, execrated, those I meet are repelled by me. They want me crucified, and maybe their feelings are all too justified,” sang the American band The Bastard Fairies in their 2010 title track “Man-Made Monster.” This conference is an interdisciplinary exploration of the variety of monsters, from gooey spider-legged creatures under the bed, to serial killers safely locked in jail and historical memory. Why do cultures create such abundances of monsters, both in fiction and in our tellings of reality? What are their functions, their roles in society, their cultural impacts? And at the same time, what draws so many people to the monstrous? Are we driven by some primal urge to touch evil, or is there a redemptive impulse in the desire to save a misunderstood creature or person?

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Music is commonly regarded as a universal language, and yet it is also through music that the fiercest of nationalistic sentiments and inspirations for protest and rebellion have been expressed. But why does music have the capacity to direct the human imagination in this way? What does a nation sound like—or, to put it another way, why does a particular musical piece conjure up feelings of belonging to a particular nation? What aspects of the nation and its people are highlighted and what aspects are ignored by nationalistic music? How does nationalism influence the reception of music? Does being part of a particular national background shape an individual’s sense of music? How is music used against nationalistic impulses, and for protests generally? The Music and Nationalism event provides a platform for exploring these questions through inter-disciplinary dialogue and interactive engagement.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Margaret Atwood is credited with observing that men fear that women will laugh at them, while women fear that men will kill them. Despite noteworthy advances for women across societies and cultures, the power dynamics Atwood so eloquently describes continue to inform the construction of barriers that prevent women from exercising the same autonomy and freedom generally afforded to men. Indeed, women who transgress the limitations placed upon them can face sanctions ranging from being labelled unfeminine or evil, to social exclusion, violence or even death. Yet, still, women around the world and throughout history have rejected and transgressed against their bounds. In exploring the multi-faceted conjunction between women/the feminine and evil, the third meeting of the global Evil Women project will explore the act and consequences of women who challenge or seize power.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Both essentialist and contextual notions of Evil – the things we do as well as the things that happen to us – continue to be a stubborn and destructive presence in our lives. But what is “Evil”? What are the moral, political, philosophical, pragmatic, individual and global implications of calling something or someone “Evil”? What impact does that have on personal and social identities? How are concepts of Evil mediated and represented through different cultural forms? If ascribed too loosely is the intended effect of the term (whatever that may be) diminished? Our third meeting of this inclusive interdisciplinary conference will explore these ideas with a view to forming a publication to engender further collaboration and discussion.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

The global novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has transformed the world as we know it, seemingly overnight. Every passing day bears witness to the best and the worst of humankind as we grapple with not only the health crisis, but also its reverberating impacts on every facet of society. We have seen countless examples of kindness, bravery and sacrifice among those who have done their part to assist their communities in stopping the spread of Covid-19. At the same time, displays of selfishness, greed and hateful behaviour of individuals and groups have punctuated the story of the world’s battle with Covid-19 with reminders of how truly awful people can be to one another. As the sister project to the Art of Being Human, which examines humanity at its finest, the Art of Being Inhuman explores impulses that lead humans to act in ways that are inhuman, anti-social, or even downright evil.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Sustainability has emerged as a watchword for our collective preoccupation with ensuring that human needs are able to be met now and into the future — a future in which we may or may not have access to the things that we have relied upon to support our way of life. This is made more difficult by the inevitability of change. Devastation, mortality and sweeping societal transformations triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic have created a new environment in which prior understandings of sustainability must be re-evaluated and adapted to suit the unprecedented challenges presented by a coronavirus for which there is presently no cure. To what extent have our previous actions as a global community supported or undermined our ability to live sustainability in the time of COVID-19? Are the changes we have made in response to the coronavirus sustainable and if not, what should be done instead?  How can we come together and discover new ways of coexisting on this planet as a result of these events?

Read more and submit your abstract here.

From humble beginnings in the pages of early 20^th century pulp fiction magazines, the stories of H.P. Lovecraft continue to exert a powerful influence over the human imagination, leaving an indelible mark on various facets of society. The ideas, language, imagery and themes of Lovecraft’s so-called ‘weird fiction’ and horror fiction offer fascinating engagements with the workings of the human mind as it grapples with the known and unknown world. It is little wonder that Lovecraft’s work has inspired a proliferation of fiction, philosophy, art, politics, games, literary criticism, cocktails, music and more. But what is it about Lovecraft’s work that serves as a catalyst for such a diverse array of cultural products? How has the use of Lovecraftian ideas in these cultural products assisted in the evolution of, or deviation from the original body of work? What meanings are created by reviving Lovecraft’s work in a particular way, in a particular context, and in a particular period in time? How can Lovecraft’s work become a catalyst for expressing new ideas? Proliferations of Lovecraft provides a platform for multi-disciplinary engagement aimed at exploring these questions. The organising committee welcomes proposals on any subject that is linked to Lovecraft’s original works.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

The 21^st century poses major critical issues related to the problems generated by overpopulation, massive urbanisation, global warming, air and water pollution, water scarcity, soil degradation, deforestation, desertification, extinction of plant and animal species. Under the threat of the 6^th mass extinction prophesied by scientists and specialists, there is urgent need to address the circumstances that are dramatically affecting the course of life on our planet in a responsible and accountable manner. That these aims can be achieved was proven by the recent standstill occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. With most commercial and industrial activity put on halt suddenly, people have become increasingly aware of the unsophisticated world around them and realised the importance of the landscape and wildlife for their physical and mental comfort. The main objective of this interdisciplinary event is to bring together all those interested in examining the intersections between their professions, areas of expertise and/or interests and the distinct aspects of the environment understood from historical, social, economic, political, cultural, philosophical, ideological, ethical, moral, religious, etc. perspectives.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

In the aftermath of the devastation created by the Holocaust, two world wars within the span of 30 years, and waves of economic depression, the articulation of inalienable rights conferred upon members of the human family simply because they are human provided a blueprint for building a fair and just global community. The challenges posed by COVID-19 and the ascendency of right-wing, populist regimes in countries around the world are among the many developments in the 21st Century that have contributed to a situation in which the protection of human rights is particularly crucial. When crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, arise and when resource supplies are suddenly burdened, the existing inequalities within society and the precariousness of human rights, particularly for those who are most vulnerable, come into stark relief. It is therefore an appropriate time to take stock of the state of human rights and develop strategies for realising the ideals of the UDHR. The global interdisciplinary Human Rights conference provides a platform for engagement among professionals and volunteer grassroots champions working in the human rights space.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

Humankind has long been fascinated with accounts of crimes and criminals. The public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for gore, misery and retribution is undiminished today. True crime regularly tops poll as one of the most popular literary genres and it often focuses on the worst of humanity: murderers, necrophiles, cannibals, and the like. Against this backdrop, our True Crime conference will explore the popularity of true crime, past and present, considering how these stories expose deeper societal issues and tensions. We will examine the links between real crimes and crime fiction, how one feeds into the other with sometimes horrifying consequences; and examine the moral landscape of true crime, including its potential to re-traumatise survivors, victims’ families and witnesses.

Read more and submit your abstract here.

The idea of the child as innocent, as pure, the ‘little angel’ in need of protection from the harsh realities of life and the corrupting influences of the world around us has come to dominate our thinking, language, values, social policies and educational philosophies.  Yet we are also aware of the mischievous ‘little monsters’, the ‘little devils’ who run exasperated parents ragged. The toddlers who chase pigeons; kick cats; pull the wings off flies and the legs off spiders. Children of whom we become afraid; who abuse other children; who assault each other, strangers, parents, the elderly. Children who ‘roam’ and ‘own’ the streets, individually or ‘in packs’; who are put ‘into care’; who commit crimes; who smoke, drink, and take drugs. Feral children. Children who rape. Children who torture. Children who kill. Children who are ‘possessed’: demonic children, ‘evil’ children who do evil things.

Read more and submit your abstract here.