cfp.english.upenn.edu

PANIC AND MOURNING
1st GRADUATE CONFERENCE IN CULTURE STUDIES
October 28-29, 2010
Portuguese Catholic University
Lisbon, Portugal

Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2010

Panic and mourning are two distinct emotional constructs that often intersect and interplay in landscapes of conflict, violence, crisis, tragedy and catastrophe, both natural and man-made. Whereas panic tends to occur during the experience of the catastrophic events, mourning, on the other hand, relates to the aftermath of a violent disruption and to the way humans try to make sense of it retrospectively. Conversely, violent events can also leave a thread of panic in its aftermath, such as mourning can be disturbed or reinstated by a catastrophic occurrence.

This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to address questions at the interface of panic and mourning, both individually and jointly. We are particularly interested in investigating representations and performances of modalities and contexts of panic (fear, horror, terror, rage, anxiety, shock, threat) and mourning (pain, grief, loss, trauma, memory, melancholy, nostalgia, healing) in media, literary and cultural frameworks.

This conference wishes to bring together doctoral students, Post-doc and junior researchers from different areas and disciplines to share research interests and works-in-progress, learn and engage in fresh intellectual discussion with international key academics and build a community of young scholars.

Papers are welcome on the topics listed below, amongst others:
- The cultural construction of panic and mourning
- Representations of panic and mourning in literature and the arts
- Mediation and the mediatization of panic and mourning
- Panic and mourning as spectacle
- Tropes of panic and mourning between victimhood and agency
- Public and private rituals of panic and mourning
- Gendered discourses of panic and mourning
- The work of law in practices of mourning
- Transgenerational mourning and the heritage of collective loss
- Dimensions of panic: moral panic, technopanic, hyperpanic, media panic, voluptuous panic, global panic
- Power, governamentality, and the regulation of emotions

Confirmed keynote speakers:

- Ban Wang (Stanford University)
- Barry Richards (Media School, University of Bournemouth)
- Frederik Tygstrup (Copenhagen Doctoral School in Cultural Studies)
- António Sousa Ribeiro (Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra)
- Eduardo Cintra Torres (CECC / Institute for Social Sciences, University of Lisbon)

The conference language is English

Speakers should be prepared for a 15-minute presentation followed by questions.

Please send a 250-word abstract, as well as a brief biographical note (100 words) to panicandmourning@gmail.com by June 30, 2010. Proposals should list paper title, name, institutional affiliation, and contact details.

E-mails should be entitled: Panic and Mourning Abstract Submission

Successful applicants will be notified by July 15, 2010.

We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal. We suggest then to resend it.

We regret that travel and accommodation funding for conference participants is not available at this time.

Registration is due by July 30

Fees
Speakers – 30€
Participants - 45€
Late registrations (after July 30) – 50€
The registration fee includes lunches on the two conference days.

Payment

By bank transfer
NIB 003300000017013412105
IBAN PT50 0033 0000 0017 0134 1210 5
SWIFT BCOMPTPL

By cheque endorsed to:
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
and sent to:
Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Cultura
A/C Rosário Lopes
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Faculdade de Ciências Humanas
Palma de Cima
1649-023 Lisboa
Portugal

Please send the notification (in case of online-banking) or a copy of the bank transfer document to the e-mail panicandmourning at gmail.com

For CECC researchers there is no registration fee.

Organizing Committee
Cátia Ferreira
Daniela Agostinho
Elisa Antz
Elisabetta Colla
Tânia Ganito

For further information: www.panicandmourning.wordpress.com