Although in many cultures, there are references to cunning monsters and evil creatures who lure, outwit, tempt, seduce or even invade the minds of humans, the representation of predatory non-human and hybrid intelligences has not been sufficiently studied. the attitude to intelligence remains ambivalent. It is a concept that has only recently started to be decolonized. It was used to discriminate against groups and individuals. It has been standardized and “de-standardized” as power structures and cultural paradigms shifted. It is still a very problematic concept. 

'Doctor Virtualis' 20 - Critical Thinking and the Middle Ages

The next issue of DV intends to investigate, in full coherence with the history of the journal and the tradition to which it has always been linked, the relationship between the Middle Ages, understood as an object of enquiry, but also as the subject of significant philosophical paths, and critical thought.

Televisual Dissidence in an Era of Information Warfare: Separatism, Terrorism and the Screen Media in Africa

Editors: Dr. Floribert Patrick C. Endong, University of Dschang, Cameroon 

               Dr. Augustus Onchari Nyakundi, Chuka University, Kenya

Concept Notes

Special issue of Extrapolation (https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journal/extr)

 Call for Proposals: “Science Fictional Ecologies in Contemporary Art”

Due November 1, 2024

Please send abstracts and inquiries to both guest editors:

Guest Editors:

Emiliano Guaraldo, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland: emiliano.guaraldo@unisg.ch

Alison Sperling, Florida State University, USA: asperling@fsu.edu

Academia on Screen: The World of Higher Education in Film and TV Series Across Cultures (March 20 & 21, 2025)

This conference aims to explore the multifaceted portrayals of academia and academics in films and TV series, in both fictional and documentary modes, across diverse cultural contexts. These multimodal media not only capture societal perspectives and moods but also play a pivotal role in shaping public perceptions. They can serve as catalysts for reflection on academic practice and societal discourse, fostering a deeper understanding of cultural imprints and trends, highlighting differences and similarities across cultures, raising critical awareness, challenging stereotypes, and promoting inclusivity.

It has been two years since AI was introduced into daily life, and it has been applied in academia, pedagogy, classrooms, and beyond. As we discover both the potential benefits and harms of AI, we are also recovering from the initial panic, uncertainty, or excitement. We are beginning to recognize that it will lead to an "inevitable" integrated fusion of human and machine intelligence (Kurzweil), and we are entering a phase of adaptation. We have seen a range of AI use guides, policies, and reflections. However, compared to the initial reaction, we cannot ignore where we will or want to go with AI in the composition classroom. As AI continues to evolve, how do we recreate our classrooms in light of this new technology?

Special Issue: Bio-adaptations (Adaptation, Oxford University Press)

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Detective Fiction

In her 2020 article entitled “Communities of care,” Talia Schaffer reminds readers that even when participants “did not share a geographic space,” the communities of those “virtual groups…cobbled together in coronavirus time” were, to all of us, of invaluable importance and “realness,” nevertheless. Thus, this roundtable hopes to promote conversation(s) that showcase and contemplate ways of enduringly enriching both virtual and in-person academic communities, especially amongst graduate students; to continually encourage communications and collaborations between students with related research interests within the same, as well as different, institutional settings.

Possible topics for discussion might be related to:

"Generations and Generational Time in the United States During the Long Nineteenth Century"

Lille University, June 12-13, 2025

Old age and aging are biological as well as sociocultural constructs and processes; they cannot be completely separated, but rather they influence each other and get interrelated with the passing of time. As sociocultural constructs, old age, aging and their definition are not immovable concepts and, in fact, vary depending on the different historical, social and cultural contexts.   Likewise, the definition and organization of each of the population groups by age are not fixed. For example, for decades, 65+ has been agreed upon by the UN and the WHO, among others, as the beginning of old age; however, market studies propose 50+ and establish two groups: 50+ seniors and 75+ seniors.

Body Augmentation: Possibilities of Identities and Technology in/of Video Games

A MultiPlay Network Conference, October 28th, 2024

Abstracts due: 30 August 2024

As is tradition for MultiPlay, we have a special horror related conference for the end of October. This time we are focusing on the monstrous (and liberational!) possibilities of body augmentation through video games. We welcome abstracts from utopian and dystopian perspectives, on the real life hardware capabilities or upon representations of augmentation within games.

With the changing social realities alongside rapid innovation in science and technology, there is a sharp paradigm shift in academia in terms of research, especially in humanities. This shift can be considered a radical change in the core concepts. It is imperative to absorb the very meaning of paradigm shift. The term paradigm shift was coined by Thomas Kuhn in his 1962 book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, in the context of revolutions in natural science. What is remarkable about Khun’s thought process is that in his book, Kuhn propounded the idea that theories have a social character and approaches them as social constructions that contain historical traces of the time and place in which they were generated.